What is the impact of Lehner's use of the word "tools" in paragraph 3?

It minimizes the emotional reaction people often
have to prescribed burns.
B. It indicates that using prescribed bes
firefighting similar to other trades.
C. It emphasizes that prescribed burns should be
used only under specific conditions.
D. It suggests that prescribed burns have costs
similar to other implements used by firefighters.
Guest Column: Fight Fire with Fire
by Paula Lehner, Director, Riverton Land Management Council
Riverton Daily News
June 9
1 Here's an alarming number: $2 billion, the amount the U. S. Forest Service spends
each year on wildfire suppression. No one is claiming that we should stop fighting
these fires, but there is a scientifically proven way to limit their spread: by setting
controlled, or prescribed, burns. These smaller fires, which clear accumulated dead or
diseased plant life from forests and other areas, are far less hazardous than the
uncontrolled wildfires that are increasing in frequency. By regularly burning up
decaying vegetation, smaller fires eliminate that potential fuel for much larger fires.
Less
plant-matter fuel on the ground helps slow the progress of unwanted fires before they
ever start.
2 In addition to causing fuel buildup, wildfire suppression has other negative
consequences. For example, wildfires can purge insect infestations. In nature, small
fires normally thin the population of insects in an area, but in the absence of those
fires there is little to stop insect populations from increasing to unnaturally high
levels. Further, many plants developed their life cycles in response to periodic natural
fires from lightning strikes and other sources; these plants need fire if they are to
remain healthy. Burning, as opposed to wildfire suppression, also helps create ash,
which returns nutrients to the soil and can help new seeds germinate.
3 Certainly, there will always be fires that we have to fight. People and their homes
have to be protected. But the fact that more and more homes are being built near
wilderness areas, many right here in Riverton, means that the burden on land
management agencies and their brave firefighters is increasing.