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 ...
I've heard of a similar situation in NM, and there were also archeologists to make sure the dozers didn't damage any Indian sites.
Don't know where you heard that. I used to have a sister-in-law in that area, and there are many little "free" newspapers, quite left-wing. Somebody's picking them up and reading them. My experience is possibly not typical.
Whoever allowed this should be charged with arson. I can’t believe these stupid idiots would not allow dead wood to be removed. What in Hells Bells was their reason?
Probably endagered termites or something like that....
The enviro-nazis will respond that you shouldn’t have built a home there in the first place, and they will try to block rebuilding. To them, everyone needs to be living in some godawful urban highrise.
It surprised me too.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Hmmmm. The liberals are being diluted in Truckee. I must pass this one along....
I wonder if the environmental experts agree that the total lose of a forest is a bad thing.
I pick the free Lefty papers to spend their money and see what businesses I need to avoid. Then I put them in the garbage to take up landfill space.
I don't know for sure, but I'd be willing to hazard a guess that they don't. Total losses are just nature's way of making omelets, right?
I like your style.
Actually, what they kept was an unnatural forest.
Fires are a natural part of a forest environment. This has always been true, but it has become more so thanks to the Indians. They used fire in many areas to clear land or suppress the growth of unwanted plants. They have been engaged in this re-engineering of the environment for thousands of years now. The plant species that grow there now have been bred to survive periodic fires. However, for the past century, we've been fighting what generations of Indians engineered into the forest. We put out fires as quickly as we can. The result is an overabundance of dead trees and dry undergrowth; "fuel" as firefighters call it. What the enviralists are trying to preserve as "natural" isn't natural at all and is only about 100 years old.
From the end of the article. A little more blame might belong to the homeowners.
(Snip)
Sgt. Don Atkinson of the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department said heavy growth in the area, especially manzanita plants, contributed to the danger.
He said fire officials request that underbrush be cleared at least 30 feet from residences.
“Sometimes people do it and sometimes people don’t,” he said. “There’s a lot of residences where manzanita grows right up to the house, and that’s unfortunate. It’s very flammable and it’s got oils and stuff in it that really tend to drive a fire.”
(snip)
“It’s important to relay the message that homeowners can cut a tree down without a permit,” she said.
“If they want to cut down trees, all they have to do is call their fire districts,” she said.
Lauri Kemper of the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board said most people in the basin are reluctant to clear out trees.
“I’ve lived here for 22 years and folks like their trees,” she said. “They like it for the habitat and the beauty they create.”
Most so-called “EnvironMENTALists” are nothing but class-warriors using the cloak of environmentalism to push their class hatred. So you can bet they are happy to see rich people’s houses burn down.
“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.”
This is what happens when you allow an unelected, unaccountable gang of bureaucrats write law, enforce the law and judge the law.
The Russians called these regional councils soviet socialists.
This might wake up a few folks to realize they are living under a dictatorship, where their natural right to be represented via the ballot box has been nullified.
Rain taxes? Can you explaine that to me? Do you get taxed if it rains, or do you get taxed if it doesn’t rain?
The majority of “Environmentalists” are terrorists, and should be dealt with accordingly.
Environmentalists are taking a real hit up here and its' looooong over due...
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