Conservative sportsmen turn against Bush (Tongass National Forest)

USA Today / Yahoo News ^ | 1/28/04 | Nick Jans

[Seruzawa]

The drive's organizer, Greg Petrich, explains, "This isn't about the trees. What gets these clubs' attention is that the best hunting and fishing in America is threatened on land that belongs to them."

This is private land? Thr govt can order logging on private land? I didn't know that.

[Gunslingr3]

This is private land?

Precisely. Why, with a $477,000,000,000 budget deficit next year, doesn't the federal government start selling off this land?

[jimkress]

The whole premise of this article is flawed.

There is absolutely NO evidence that these protesters are 'Conservative'. They may be Republican but that does not mean they are Conservatives.

What you have here is a bunch of Republican Liberals fronting for their Liberal agenda with the Left trying to misrepresent these Liberals as 'Conservatives'.

How Orwellian!

[LexBaird]

What an absolute piece of crap editorial masquerading as a news story.

This groundswell of conservative opposition to the administration's environmental policies is not limited to the Tongass. Hunting and fishing conservation vs. resource development on public lands is a growing issue throughout traditional GOP enclaves in the American West. Along Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, for example, protests from sportsmen on natural gas exploration are ringing out. This area is revered by hunters and fishers for its world-class trout and large populations of big game.

I was raised on the Idaho side. What this no-roads rule is doing is closing off roads that have been there for years and planting trees in the middle of them to destroy them. It is ruining access by sportsmen, not helping them. What good is big game or fishing, if the nearest access is a day's hike away?

These Watermelon Greenies have also introduced Canadian wolves to this area that are devastating the native game.

[JennysCool]

Chris Wood, vice president for conservation at Trout Unlimited.

Err...this is hardly a "conservative" group. Far from it. The article's slant is exceedingly interesting.

[verity]

There are many fringe elements that exist out there.

[RonF]

Sure it does. Why is it so odd to think that conservatives would want to conserve?

[plain talk]

You've nailed it. This is like the "soccer mom" myth. They invent a bandwagon and hope some conservative sportsmen will hop on. Unfortunately for them, conservative sportsmen are a fairly independent lot.

[plain talk]

Also, my brother-in-law is an avid hunter, fisherman, etc and often goes to Alaska. He thinks these environmentalists are a bunch of weenies and supports drilling up there.

[B Knotts]

Never heard of a hunter that don't like to use roads to get to where he wants to hunt.

This article is a load of bull.

[joesnuffy]

More like the other way around imo

[Eska]

This is bunk. Either fake or more lower 48 lunacy from people that don't know much about the area or the people who live there.

Alaska's my home. I have been to Yakutat a few times, fished the Situk a few times, and know well the poverty dumped on the locals there by the scum clintons.

The Situk is probably the greatest wild steelhead run in America. I did the float a few times. In 18 miles saw over 1500-2000 fish. Only caught 4-5 fish each day but was stunned by the numbers of natural wild steelhead. They seemed alot smarter than the ones I caught back east too.

That entire area was logged 10-20 years back; if these people had been there; they would have seen the stumps along the road to the put in bridge on the Situk. That logging back then never hurt the steelhead and future logging won't either.

[jimkress]

Or, the author did not understand the difference between 'Conservationist' and 'Conservative' or deliberately decided to interchange them.

[RonF]

Using our natural resources and abusing our natural resources are two different things. Plus, as these sportsmen know well, there are other uses for a forest than cutting it down for lumber and paper. Just because a tree hasn't been converted to a consumer product doesn't mean that its value and that of the land it's on is only potential, not actual.

[Constantine XIII]

Unlimited trout? Where!?