01:16 More Bad Air Days This Weekend in the West Ongoing wildfires in the West have caused major air quality issue. Meteorologist Danielle Banks explains the 3 big reasons the region will see bad air this weekend.

At a Glance A state lawmaker have blamed a lack of logging for a massive wildfire burning in southern Utah.

The so-called Brian Head fire is now the largest active wildfire in the United States.

The blaze has burned more than 77 square miles, at least 1,500 people have been evacuated and 13 homes have burned. A Republican state lawmaker said federal mismanagement and "tree-hugger" environmentalists are responsible for a massive wildfire in southern Utah that has burned 13 homes and forced 1,500 people to evacuate.

Utah state Rep. Mike Noel said Tuesday he wants to use the fire near the ski town of Brian Head and a popular fishing lake to highlight the imbalance of power afforded environmental groups under previous presidents and to ease bureaucratic and legal blockades for logging companies. He believes the Trump administration will provide a more receptive audience for his plea.

Noel insisted logging could have cleaned up dead, bug-infested trees that have fueled the so-called Brian Head fire; a conservation group said his accusations are "shameful" and misleading and don't take into account climate change and drought.

Additionally, a U.S. Forest Service researcher said logging likely wouldn't have made a huge difference. The high-altitude blaze is sending embers from tree to tree over long distances, and that's normal for the ecosystem.

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Authorities say the Utah fire was started on June 17 by someone using a torch tool to burn weeds on private land.

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/ap_17178651982606_0.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/ap_17178651982606_0.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/ap_17178651982606_0.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > This Monday, June 26, 2017 photo provided by the Utah Governor's Office shows burnout areas near Panguitch Lake during a wildfire tour by Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox in southern Utah. (Justin Harding/Utah Governor's Office via AP) (Justin Harding/Utah Governor's Office via AP)

Noel contends it wouldn't have spread as fast if federal forest lands had been cleared of dead trees.

A video of his Monday rant against environmentalists generated social media buzz and sparked new debate about whether logging could help prevent Western wildfires. He joined several other state and county officials in speaking out.

"When we turn the Forest Service over to the bird and bunny lovers and the tree huggers and the rock lickers, we've turned our history over," Noel said. "We are going to lose our wildlife and we are going to lose our scenery, the very thing you people wanted to try to protect. It's just plain stupidity."

Mark Finney, a researcher at the U.S. Forest Service Fire Science Laboratory in Missoula, Montana, said getting rid of the dead trees in the Brian Head area probably would not have made much difference. The trees died years ago, making irrelevant a 2011 U.S. Forest Service study that found the needles of beetle-killed trees ignite three times faster and burn more intensely than healthy trees.

"If we're looking for someone to blame, there isn't anyone," Finney said. "Forests burn."

Steve Bloch, legal director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said Noel's assertion is an over-simplification of wildfires that are the result of fire suppression, climate change, drought and unpredictable winds.

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/ap_17174862141644-1.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/ap_17174862141644-1.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/ap_17174862141644-1.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > The Brian Head fire continues to grow Friday, June 23, 2017 in Brian Head, Utah. (Stuart Johnson/The Deseret News via AP) (Stuart Johnson/The Deseret News via AP)

"It's shameful that Rep. Noel has chosen to exploit the fire and mislead the public by saying that conservationists are to blame for this event," Bloch said.

Stiff winds and hot temperatures have made the Utah blaze the largest in the nation at 78 square miles. The estimated cost of fighting the blaze has reached $11 million.

Jason Curry of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, said logging or controlled burns in the state's forests would help get rid of timber that serves as easy fuel for the blazes. But he also acknowledged that drought and climate play a role.

U.S. Forest Service officials and Utah state officials didn't immediately have information about logging requests in the area.

Finney said logging companies generally can't make money in operations at high elevations because the trees don't grow back quickly enough and logistics are difficult.

Bloch said his group hasn't challenged logging in the area of the Utah fire in two decades. But Noel says the lawsuit in the early 1990s delayed a Forest Service plan to get rid of an emerging cluster of bark beetles before it spread.

Chad Hanson, co-founder the John Muir Project, co-authored a 2009 study that was one of the first to dispute the theory that bug-infested trees burn faster.

"That's just logging industry propaganda," Hanson said. "This is a direct outgrowth of the rhetoric of fear and hate coming out of the Trump administration. It has emboldened some very anti-environmental voices."

The blaze is one of several in the West. Crews in California were making gains against two new fires that spread quickly, and firefighters in Idaho battled five lightning-sparked wildfires burning in grass and brush.

Crews dealt with windy conditions as they battled a northern Arizona wildfire that has burned nearly 7 square miles.