Posted on 07/12/2006 10:07:57 PM PDT by george76
Fuel-reduction logging and controlled-burn Forest Service projects on at least 1.2 million public acres would be exempt from the public comment and appeals process under a provision included in a spending bill that a key Senate committee recently approved.
Forest Service officials say the measure would reduce the cost and time for high-priority projects...
The measure would allow the Forest Service to exempt from the comment and appeals process controlled-burn projects of up to 4,500 acres and fuel-reduction logging projects of up to 1,000 acres...
The congressional action comes as the matter remains under litigation, with arguments made in a federal appeals court last month.
The full Senate still must pass the measure, which was not included in the House version of the spending bill.
Frederick Norbury, associate deputy chief for the national forests, noted the measure would effectively reinstate regulations put in place in 2003 before the court challenge.
“We thought in 2003 it was the right thing to do and we still think it’s the right thing to do,”...
He said the activities tend to be minor ones and that the Forest Service through its internal processes must still consult with the public to determine what issues might arise and who might be affected.
“We think the public still has ample opportunity to get involved in these minor projects, even if the appeal regulation were put back the way it was in 2003,” Norbury said.
He also noted that even projects not subject to appeal are still subject to litigation.
“Everyone always has recourse to the courts,” he said.
But Earthjustice, the Sierra Club...came out against the proposal...
(Excerpt) Read more at helenair.com ...
U.S. District Judge James Singleton is part of the problem.
The clever Sierra Club lawyers find weak, emotional Judges to delay any decision long enough for most of the economic value of a beetle killed, wind blown down tree to be turned into smoke.
This is not your father's Sierra Club. Some of its leadership positions are held by activists with radical ties and even violent criminals. The Club has done well preserving a "mainstream" image, despite its increasingly radical bent.
The Club’s new extremist priorities are best illustrated in the person of animal-rights extremist Paul Watson, elected to the Sierra Club's board of directors in 2003.
Watson founded the ultra-radical Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) in 1977 after being booted from Greenpeace (which he also co-founded) for espousing violence in the name of the environment.
Watson and his Sea Shepherd pirates sail the high seas, terrorizing the fishing industry by sinking ships and endangering lives.
"I got the impression that instead of going out to shoot birds, I should go out and shoot the kids who shoot birds," says Watson ...
http://www.activistcash.com/organization_overview.cfm
Suing for Profit
The Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology notes that one of Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope's "major accomplishments" is his co-authorship of California's infamous Proposition 65.
Prop 65 has a "bounty hunter" provision to encourage frivolous lawsuits by trial lawyers looking to cash in on any product containing a listed "carcinogen" and lacking a warning label.
Prop 65 "violators" can be fined up to $2,500 per day, per violation, and plaintiffs can collect up to 25 percent of the total take.
Between 2000 and 2002, one California group called As You Sow (AYS) reaped more than $1.5 million playing the Prop 65 lawsuit game.
Sierra Club president Larry Fahn is also AYS's executive director.
A self-described "leading enforcer of Proposition 65," As You Sow functions as a litigation machine, conjuring up lawsuit after lawsuit.
Forestry Service mismanagement as the result of politically- and environmentally-correct procedures have largely been responsible for more devastating forest fires in protected national forests.
It is a sad commentary that those in the federal government still fail to learn the lessons of their mismanagement and to ignore the enviro-nazis. Fortunately (to a degree) nature is still smarter than all of these people and takes care of its own environmental issues, political correctness notwithstanding.
I know a lot of folks who join Sierra Club thinking they are helping wildlife.
Sierra doesn't spend any money helping wildlife -- they tie up the wildlife managers' hands with frivolous litigation aimed at ending all consumptive use of national forests. The USFS spends way too much time defending itself from these lawsuits, time taken away from managing wildlife and the forest.
Controlled burning and some logging is actually beneficial to a lot of wildlife, including some endangered and threatened species. I'd bet my last dollar controlled burns are a lot less deadly for wildlife than an out of control wildfire.
And yes, the Sierra was hijacked long ago by the radical and criminal Paul Watsons. Meanwhile, gullible folks who think they are helping the environment or wildlife continue to pay huge salaries for the Paul Watsons and other radicals -- MONEY THAT COULD BE USED TO RESTORE/MAINTAIN healthy wildlife populations.
I always tell these folks, when I talk to them, if they want to help wildlife, buy a hunting license. That money has been PROVEN to be responsible for wildlife restoration and the maintainance of healthy populations.
If people really want to help, they need to help groups like the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Ducks Unlimited and Pheasants Forever who actually work on habitat and helping the environment.
Fields of grass are important to elk, deer...thus some reasonable clear cutting can make good science.
Also eagles, hawks...like the fields for catching their lunch.
Like the ACLU lawyers, the Sierra Club lawyers make big money by suing the forest service and others...
Massive fires not only pollute the air, but also the ash kills fish and other marine life. The high heat from the big fires kills the organic soil...
The Paul Watsons are happy.
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