The recent wildfires in New Mexico and Colorado are a painful illustration of the costs of federal land management. America's National Parks and National Forests are in disarray; millions of acres are just one spark away from complete conflagration. Thus, the latest political economy forum book, Robert Nelson's A Burning Issue: A Case for Abolishing the U.S. Forest Service could not be more timely. For the forest's sake, let's hope that such an approach becomes politically viable before the next fiery maelstrom ignites.

Jonathan H. Adler, Competitive Enterprise Institute, The Washington Times

Robert Nelson has provided an ecclectic and very readable integration of recent commentary on the sad state of federal resource management. He explores the political and ethical terraine of the quest for solutions, encouraging an informed debate about community-based management.

Sally K. Fairfax, University of California, Berkeley

Nelson provides a devastating case against both the Forest Service and against policymakers' glib proposals for how to improve the agency's record. The book is a valuable guide to the defects of public land management.

Regulation

This book should be required reading for all students of government, not only those concerned with foreign service policy, because it provides an excellent source in any attempt to understand the consequences of allowing a governmental agency to become so buffeted by competing pressure groups that it loses direction and becomes an even more costly entity.

Ronald N. Johnson, Montana State University, The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy

Nelson presents a convincing case that the Forest Service should not be allowed to continue performing these jobs as it has in the past. The strength of A Burning Issue is its concise presentation of the diverse philosophical, practical, and scientific problems present in forest management, and this alone should interest readers from a variety of disciplines.

Constitutional Political Economy

In this interesting and well-written book, Robert Nelson has made a compelling case that the Forest Service has lost its legitimacy. With an end of timber harvesting now becoming the main goal of the agency, actions to suppress fire become less relevant and the huge costs of planning appear fruitless. As an organization, Nelson argues, the Forest Service has outlived its reason for existence.

Roger A. Sedjo, Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future