We’re from the government, and we’re here … oh, you know

"Ecology" attempts to study life forms not in isolation but as part of interrelated systems. The government management of Yellowstone Park is a good example. Well, actually, a bad example.

When the park was set aside, well-meaning officials set about "managing" its wildlife. Tourists liked to see elk and bear, so the "managers" killed predators to increase the elk herd, and fed the popular bears. Funny postcards sold at the park showed tourists and bears sharing the same picnic table.

The elk population boomed beyond food supplies. The hungry elk stripped the trees, removing habitat for other creatures. Meantime, tourists who thought of wild bears as supersized puppies in need of a snack started to have some problems.

Other well-meaning interventions have gone similarly astray.

Forest fires -- whether caused by lightning or by man -- once swept sections of the arid West every few years. Such fires burn through quickly, and generally do not kill healthy, mature trees. They do, however, remove dried brush before enough can build up to feed hotter, more devastating fires. They also limit populations of the tiny but destructive bark beetle.

In its wisdom, the Forest Service has been fighting manfully for decades to "help prevent forest fires." All forest fires.

One result is that, when less frequent fire do go out of control, they find many years worth of accumulated fuel to feed their devastation. Another result is that the Forest Service has just announced the summer shotdown of 21 campgrounds in Colorado and Wyoming.

Why? Unmolested by forest fires, bark beetles are ravaging trees in 3,600 square miles of forest in the two states. Vast numbers of trees are dead, and officials are worried they could fall on campers.

Actually, there are two elements of the natural ecosystem which are missing from these wooded areas. The first is fire. The second is the logger.

Skilled loggers could thin out dead and dying trees, putting them to productive use. But that would be anathema to the forest managers, who imagine a "pristine" ecosystem without its dominant predator.

The Forest Service will now spend an estimated $900,000 removing an estimated 9,000 trees from around the camp sites and picnic areas at the Hog Park campground in the Medicine Bow National Forest in southern Wyoming, alone.

The Forest Service will then plant new trees, though it's likely the campgrounds will "look pretty bare for awhile," admits Steve Best, the Forest Service's ranger for the district.

Federal forest management -- bad premises, bad results.