Fire has become a large part of my life. I work for a forest and fire science non-profit organization. I enjoy backpacking through snag forest habitats. I spend much of my time thinking about how wildfire shapes forests, shrublands, and other wildlife habitat—and how we can better coexist with it.

For decades, public-land management in the Western U.S. has been dictated by the multiple-use framework, a well-intentioned but ultimately unsuccessful model that has left our wild ecosystems industrialized and biodiversity in steep decline. Proponents of the recently launched “Ground Shift” initiative and its cadre of “new” thinkers suggest that these systems are merely “showing their age” and are worth amending. But the on-the-ground reality is much worse than they acknowledge.

One of the featured thought leaders of the Ground Shift initiative is Lynn Scarlett, who vaulted to prominence as the president of the Reason Foundation. This is a libertarian think tank, closely affiliated with the Heritage Foundation and funded by such anti-environmental actors as the Farm Bureau, the Koch Brothers, numerous big oil corporations, and best known for publishing Reason Magazine.

Mark Rey is one of the central figures in the Ground Shift initiative. His career in the timber industry and in federal policy helps explain why we are deeply skeptical of where this effort is headed.

While many of us agree that we’re really in need of new solutions to the worsening climate and biodiversity crises, it feels like the players at Ground Shift are just recycling their bad ideas from the last couple of decades.