Posted on 06/26/2007 9:50:48 AM PDT by BurbankKarl
The mood of the crowd jammed into the meeting room was angry.
Many had lost their homes to the forest fire that swept through the Sierra Nevada just south of Lake Tahoe.
They said they were angry at bureaucrats and environmentalists who made cutting of trees and clearing of land difficult. There was always too much red tape, they said, and now it was too late.
In all, a crowd of nearly 2,000 people descended on the South Tahoe Middle School auditorium Monday night, wanting to be heard in the face of their losses.
And if there was an object of scorn in the crowd, it was the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, a powerful bi-state environmental land use agency charged with managing the resources of the basin.
When a speaker mentioned the agency, the crowd responded with a chorus of boos. "What a joke!" yelled one man.
The wrangling began in earnest over the assignment of blame, including arguments over whether federal and state forest managers had made their tree clearing rules too strict in the face of pressure by environmentalists.
A common sentiment Monday was expressed by Jerry Martin, a bartender at the Horizon Casino Resort, whose house was still standing, although eight others around it had burned to the ground. He said U.S. Forest Service rules regulating the harvesting of dead trees were too stringent for those living next to government land.
"I hate to get political, but environmentalists wouldn't let us cut down the dead trees," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Nice timing for a meeting.
They kept the forest natural with the natural result.
I hope they advance their views on this issue. Too bad some had to lose their homes to make it happen, though.
Gee. Perhaps they shouldn’t have voted for envirowhackos when they had a chance not to.
Reap = sow.
“I hate to get political...,” what an idiot. As if the enviros didn’t use politics to prevent these folks from cutting down the dead trees, which would have saved some of their homes. Here are bunch of homeowners who have been totally screwed by tree huggers, huggers of dead trees, at that, and the homeowners are reluctant to “get political.”
Left the dead wood standing?...brilliant move!
The whole Tahoe basin is filled with dead trees. I can’t remember the percentage but it’s something like three live ones to one dead one. It’s disgraceful. The antithesis of “forest management.”
This is all about control......not the environment. A healthy forest is one that is free of dead wood and is selectively thinned of healthy trees on a regular basis. Evirowhackos have ignored these proven husbandry tactics... and the result is devastating.
Tree huggers who don't live in the neighborhood. That's why some call socialists "Revolutionaries with a return ticket".
A billboard is in order.
These quasi-government agencies are really kind of scary. They can make decisions for you and your property, but have no legal responsibility for the harm those decisions can cause. I wonder if the people at the agency were even elected, or just appointed.
This clearing of dead trees which the environmentalists always stand against....has been proven over and over....not to be a negative to the woodlands of America. Most tree experts agree that it doesn’t really harm anything and makes sense from the idea of preventing easy brushfires.
I was listening to Dr. Bill Wattenberg on KGO sunday night. He was talking about environmentalists standings next to the dozers telling the contractors the legal way to cut fire lines as the flames approach.
Maybe I should download his commentary, edit it a little and post it. It was great!
Yes, that was the point I was trying to make. Sorry I didn’t make it understandable.
Just wait until these folks apply for permits to rebuild, think there’s anger now. All kinds of surprises lay in wait...artificially high setbacks, wetland restrictions, new construction runoff controls and rain taxes, impact fees, etc.
This wasn’t the first time forests burned down here in California because of the enviro-nut jobs.
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