Posted on 10/15/2010 6:03:42 AM PDT by earlJam
Government would clear Manistee National Forest land to help butterfly survive
WZZM 13 ONLINE
OTTO TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WZZM) -- The U.S. Forest Service is seeking public input on a proposal to clear a portion of the Manistee National Forest to give a butterfly a greater chance of survival.
The plan would also call for closing motorized access to portions of the forest.
Leaders in Otto Township in Oceana County were to hold a community meeting Thursday night to discuss the proposal with neighbors.
"Otto Township alone is made up of over 50% Manistee National Forest and state land," says township supervisor Rhonda Jibson.
The U.S. Forest Service wants to improve habitat for the endangered Karner Blue butterfly.
"This is an area where we have documented occurrence of the Karner Blue butterfly," says Chris Frederick, an environmental planner for the U.S. Forest Service.
In order to improve the habitat, 2,900 acres of the national forest would be cleared, burned and possibly spot-treated with chemicals to create the grassy areas the butterfly needs to survive.
"It would improve the habitat where we know where they are at and to provide corridors for them to expand their range," says Frederick.
But Jibson says the clearing of the forest would ruin one of her township's biggest assets.
"Hunters, fisherman, horseback riders, moto-cross, all terrain vehicles -- all kicked out, so to speak," she says.
Long-time users of the national forest not only disagree with the habitat restoration plan, they oppose the closing of forest service roads that would go along with the plan. Myrle Phillips says he needs the roads to get to his favorite hunting and fishing spots.
"I have two bad knees, and I cannot walk any distance without them swelling up," says Phillips. "If I have to walk to the river, I'm not going to be able to go fishing."
Frederick says motorized access to much of the land will be available on country roads, but the patchwork of authorized and illegal two-tracks would be closed.
"There are still going to be county roads in that area," Frederick says. "This would just close forest-system roads."
The U.S. Forest Service is seeking public comment on the proposal through October 25. Reported by Jon Mills in Oceana County
I lived in Evart for a while and used to go salmon fishing near Baldwin.
Another eco sucess story was the removal of the little dam at Hershey Mich. The alliance for the great lakes credit themselves with allowing the trout to return. They just don’t mention that the trout were there with or without the dam. (Our great lakes Czar, Cameron Davis heads the alliance for the great lakes)
That is the intent. Lupine prefers open, sunny fast draining soil. To have larger patches of Lupine, you have to open the canopy. Larger patches of Lupine mean better reproduction rates of the Karner.
They really need to look to Right-of-way “corrodor” habitat improvement. Under ground pipelines and overhead transmission lines are great open areas to work on. That’s why I say the CMS Energy should get involved.
I never understood why a rabid environmentalist leftist, who presumably is dedicated to Darwins view of evolution, would ever object to the extinction of a species who cannot adapt to changes brought about by another species. If this butterfly cannot adapt ... then by modern scientific argument it should become extinct.
I think this really shows that environmentalism isnt really about saving the planet, its about bringing our country under subjection.
Because these bullies still need the veneer of the cover of law, for now.
WHAT!!!??? and destroy all those trees? Insanity for butterfly.
Just brilliant. They will destroy habitat for how many other species while trying to “save the butterfly”. I didn’t even know butterflies were endangered.
Smells like a money making scam to me.
Why are we worried about the extinction of a butterfly?
What happened when the last species went extinct?
We need to drop the ESA for a more reasonable definitions at the genus or family level.
This land will not be sold off. It will only be cleared and destroyed.”””
Don’t bet on that. Everything like this is long term!
Harry Reid is an expert at getting land SWAPS—Federal land for ‘private land’. The Private land is appraised waaay higher than it’s actual value & the swap then occurs.
How do you think all those golf courses in S Nevada got built over the past 20 years?????
Do they need to strip clear all 2,900 acres? A quick topographical study would indicate certain sands and drainage areas that would support Lupine. Heck, there is probably a study already on the county books.
Guess it really isn’t that big of a parcel, 2 1/4 miles squared. But still.
Around here, the radical lefties that run the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore wanted to make the entire park virtually human free. No hiking, no human activity except in a couple of highly restricted areas while the rangers played at getting rid of any plant or tree that wasn't here before the white man settled.
The same kind of nuttiness now wants to clear cut for a butterfly..............
Go figure.
Didn’t they just clear out a herd of turtles for a solar power plant with biologists running amok in an attempt to catch those speedy reptilians?
Why can’t they get those same biologists together to catch all those endangered butterflies?
But what about the rare “six feet east of the pine tree next to the big rock” microbe that exists there, and nowhere else in the universe? I’m sure that if we got enough biologists to run enough DNA tests we could find at least a couple of thousand life forms that exist nowhere else, which will be forever destroyed by the effort to save the butterfly.
Oh, the Hugh Manistee!
Otto Township About the only way you can get to most places in this forest is over logging roads. That US Forest guy is smoking dope when he says that County Roads can still be used to get to parts of the forest.
I've always thought that a disabled person would have a VERY GOOD chance of suing a government plan like this under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Forest Service loves to just shut access to logging roads. Maybe the ADA is the way to go to force them to stop.
The forest service has run roughshod the last few years closing everything in sight.
Part of the Huron/Manistee national forest was proclaimed “wilderness” by Clinton on the way out the door... it didn't meet the legal requirements to be so designated. So there was push back on that which caused that to be overturned. So what did the forest service do? They decided to designate some of those areas as “non-motorized usage” areas. There was a public hearing on it - 95% of the people wanted it left open - but they closed it anyways.
Why is there so much state/federal land in Michigan? 3 million acres state forest and 3 million acres federal forest? Because after it was originally logged much of that land reverted to the government for taxes because it wasn't good enough for farming.
The land was laced with logging roads and logging railbeds (the Shaw locomotive was invented here... can handle tight turns, wooded rails, steep grades and heavy loads. Made year round logging possible).
The forest service has been busily closing those access ways for 30 years... originally based on individual foresters green agenda, later based upon ‘road density guidelines’ developed on national forests out west.
This spring two ‘law enforcement’ agents of the forest service came though and ordered more closures... on a busy tourist weekend (mushrooming)... and actually bulldozed roads closed with people up in the woods being blocked in.
I my opinion the forest service (I've deliberately NOT capitalized their name) are one of those governmental agencies that needs to be reined in... as they seem to be out of control.
Governmental land by definition is “PUBLIC” land - so allow the public to use it as long as they don't damage it long term. A single hard rain causes more erosion damage than all the ORV ever could. And don't even get me started on the damage done by loggers - but that's OK because they only do it every 15-20 years! Logging needs to be done, fact is it needs to be logged more often, but it should also be cleaned up afterward. And all those closed access roads? They open them up again for the loggers to use, then close them right back down.....
When I was at Whitefish point a few years back they had the place all roped off with warnings and threats about disturbiing the piping plovers.
During the same trip I picked up a pamphlet at Pictured Rocks that was about “The future of our national parks”. The greenie groups want to eliminate all the private traffic from the parks and everyone can take shuttles. I told a park ranger that it would be a great way of making sure I never came back.
I love our national and state parks, wilderness areas and refuges but we have enough. The state game area near me made the place off limits for horseback riding a few years ago.
I'm certain a lot of the rangers joined the park system to become green nazis...........
Yep. A few more shovel ready...er....chainsaw ready government jobs.
Fascist Service is more like it.
Too big for their britches.
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