Bush Will Tour Fire Line [Oregon]

KGW.com ^ | 8-16-02 | KGW/AP

[Salvation]

Bush to Tour Fire Lines

08/16/2002

By AP Staff

President Bush will visit areas devastated by the Squires fire in Ruch next Thursday during a visit to Oregon that also will include a fund-raising dinner for Republican Senator Gordon Smith, the White House announced Friday.

Bush, who is taking a "working vacation" at his ranch in Waco, Texas, also plans stops in California, according to a schedule released by the president's office.

The president will deliver a speech on the importance of thinning forests to curb future wildfires, and has invited governors from Western states to join him during the visit, said a congressional source, who spoke on condition he would not be further identified.

Smith and Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., will join Bush during his stop near Medford. Both lawmakers have been strong advocates of managing forests. Many environmentalists have challenged Republican calls for thinning forests as efforts to undermine restrictions on logging.

From Medford, Bush will travel to Portland for a round-table discussion with community leaders from around the state, and a $1,000 per person reception for Smith, the congressional source said.

Bush made another visit to Portland in early January that was seen as an effort to bolster the reelection bid of Smith, who faces a challenge from Democratic Secretary of State Bill Bradbury. The president has not planned any further visits to Oregon, said the source.

Smith has raised $5.1 million in campaign funds for the November election and has no debt, according to campaign finance reports released last week.

From Portland, Bush was to fly to Stockton, Calif., according to the White House schedule.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[justshe]

I 'heard' an interesting little tidbit.....but cannot verify. It would be interesting to find out. I heard that Ron Wyden had 'negotiated' the language for Oregon in the GOP sponsored bill that applies the Daschle exemption to all forests, nation-wide. The problem is........the deal negotiated by Wyden was for ONLY EAST SIDE FORESTS to be included in the forest thinning exemption.

Now.......gee.......DUH..........where are the majority of fires in Oregon?????

If true.....this is a total sell-out of the intent of the Daschle exemption!

[Grampa Dave]

Another reason to vote for more conservative senators this November.

Then, the new conservative senate can start to appoint the 100's of conservative judges whose appointments have been blocked by Leaky Leahy and the Da$$hole.

Next, the people of Oregon have to start impeachment actions against the Green Card Carrying Judges who vote for the Green bad science and other agendas. Until you Oregonians force Green Jihadist Judges to recuse themselves from cases where the Green Agenda is being decided on, they will continue to abuse the people of Oregon.

[Grampa Dave]

Register has addressed the problem re Leaky Leahy not allowing the senate to vote for conservative judges:

[Grampa Dave]

This is not good news from Oregon Live/AP"


By JOHN ENDERS
The Associated Press
8/17/02 12:04 PM


GOLD BEACH, Ore. (AP) -- A 1,000-acre spot fire ignited overnight on the western edge of the massive Biscuit fire and firefighters Saturday were rushing to contain it.

Fire officials pinned their hopes of containing the 419,000-acre blaze on a cooling trend expected over the weekend. They were nevertheless concerned that the new spot fire might spread toward homes in two coastal river drainages.

"It could go into Chetco or it could go into Pistol River. That's a real key piece to get bottled up," said Dick Fleishman, fire information office in Gold Beach.

Residents along the upper Chetco River and upper Pistol River were put on alert earlier in the week in case they had to evacuate.

Higher humidities and temperatures in the 70s predicted for Saturday were expected to help firefighters conduct burnouts and reinforce fire lines around the fire.

The Biscuit Fire, started by lightning more than a month ago, was 33 percent contained. Firefighters hoped to build 112 miles of additional fire line to box it in.

The portion of the fire that is burning across the border in California, formerly known as the Sour Biscuit Fire, was declared 100 percent contained Thursday night.

The blaze is the biggest in a century in Oregon and the largest fire burning in the United States. It covered 655 square miles Saturday -- about five times the size of the Portland metro area, said David Widmark, spokesman at the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center in Portland.

Fire crews set fires along a four-mile stretch of forest Friday as part of a 25,000-acre burn aimed at consuming ground-level fuels, brush and smaller trees while saving mature trees.

The step is an attempt to stop the fire's progress north toward the Rogue River and populated areas.

An estimated 6,599 firefighters were assigned to fight the blaze. Burnouts earlier in the week along the northwest edge of the fire were successful and similar operations were to continue each night during the weekend, said Tom Lavagnino, fire spokesman.

Firefighters use burnouts to rob the fire of fuel and slow its advance. They are most often conducted at night, when cooler and less windy conditions prevail.

An evacuation notice for 17,000 residents in the Illinois Valley was lifted Friday, but the Curry County sheriff on Thursday ordered evacuation of about 60 residents in 30 homes near Agness.

Only a handful of residents chose to leave their homes in the Oak Flats and Spud Road areas, however. Many rural Oregon residents build their own homes by hand over many years, and are reluctant to abandon them.

If residents did leave, they would not be allowed back in, officials said.

Pre-evacuation notices were still in effect Saturday for residents of the communities of Agness, Illahe, Wilderness Retreat and the upper Pistol River drainage.

Meanwhile, three firefighters were injured Friday on two separate fires.

Firefighters Ryan Rose and Joseph Smith, both of Washington, suffered minor injuries when their fire engine crashed about one mile from Cavitt Creek en route to the Tiller Fire Complex near Roseburg.

Dan Ferrin, 40, a timber faller, was injured on the East Antelope fire near Ashland when a limb fell and struck him. He was airlifted to Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford where he was listed in fair condition. His hometown was not immediately available.

Other fires burning around Oregon include:

-- the Tiller Fire Complex, which had burned 52,500 acres and was 42 percent contained.

-- the Monument-Malheur Complex, which had burned 44,062 acres and was 97 percent contained.

-- the Hemlock and Mount Marion fires, each burning between 100 and 200 acres.

-- the Apple fire, 21 miles east of Glide, started Friday and had burned 1,500 acres by Saturday morning. The cause is under investigation. Three campgrounds were closed, as were the Umpqua Trail and portions of the North Umpqua River.


------

The new maps form the Florist Circus are really slow coming out. Most of the maps are the 14th of August based on 12/13 th data.

So far the history of this fire with the Florist Circus PR Clowns has been to ignore the bad news until it can't be ignored any longer without endangering a lot of people.

If the Pistol River area between Gold Beach and Brookings is now in danger, this is a new area.

[wanderin]

If you hear anything further, please let us know. If a verifiable source surfaces, that would help. thanks

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Right at the fire scene. Now that's a photo-op! And one that should be made for the sake of the US.

[AuntB]

"stop near Medford".........I wonder where....he's going to have to land at the Medford Airport, I would think. I plan on being WHEREVER he is. We need to send pertinent articles, like the helicopter pilot in mass to Smith and Walden and the white house before then!

[B Knotts]

B Knotts, do you have another site with the picture of Tre the Scumbag? The site is gone that you posted his first picture from. Isn't that sweet and nice!

Hmmm...that was from the elections division...well, luckily I saved a copy just in case, and I copied it over to one of my servers. Here ya go:

[dixiechick2000]

Environmentalists "Enron" their Numbers

Seems like Enron and WorldCom aren't the only organizations having trouble getting their numbers straight.

A recent General Accounting Office (GAO) report was cause for celebration in the environmental community when the report claimed that of all the hazardous fuels reductions projects for the Forest Service in 2001, fewer than one percent were appealed by environmental activists.

With wildfires burning up the West, the report took the heat off of these groups, who were being blamed for the flames by western governors.

The New York Times editorialized about misplaced blame. Too soon. The Wall Street Journal quickly editorialized back, this time with the real numbers. Seems someone in the GAO played a little loose with the accounting numbers. According to the Wall Street Journal, "It turns out nearly half (48%) of all the Service's plans for getting rid of the hazardous fuels were appealed by outside groups. In the Northern region...every single one of its projects for fiscal year 2001-2002--53 in total--was appealed...The Forest Service also names those that launch the most appeals. Surprise, surprise, they include the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Wildnerness Society and others--the very same folks who held up the (obviously) incorrect GAO report and claimed it was true."

Representatives of these were quick to write letters and crow about the false report in national and local newspapers. Here, in Oregon, Jeanette Russell of the National Forest Protection Alliance in Missoula, Montana published a letter in the Oregonian trying to deflect the blame aimed at environmental groups by elected officials.

Russell wrote in her June letter, "The facts tell different story: Last year, the General Accounting Office was asked by Idaho's pro-logging Sen. Larry Craig to investigate fuel-reduction projects.

"Sen. Craig and others crying 'analysis paralysis' were hoping the investigation could be used to support their efforts to weaken out nation's environmental laws. But the GAO reported that of the 1,671 fuel-reduction projects on national forest lands during FY 2001, not one had been litigated. Only 1 percent had been appealed.

"The environmental community supports a common-sense approach that will help protect homes from forest fires. A home's survival rate is increased 85-95 percent if the homeowner has installed a nonflammable roof and cleared flammable material within 30 feet of the home.

"If elected officials are serious about protecting communities from wildfires, they should stop using environmentalists as scapegoats and heed the advice of the Forest Service's own fire researchers: Wildfire protection begins at home, not with more logging and roadbuilding."

Russell should get her facts straight before spouting off about the whys and hows of wildfire protection. Wildfires have now consumed more that 3.5 million acres of land, including hundreds of homes, many with the very non-flammable roofs and cleared materials that Russell claims should have protected them. No doubt those whose homes and lands were saved from the fires are grateful for the manpower and equipment that saved them--and the roads that got them there.

Will there be a day of reckoning, a call for accountability for those who "Enroned" the facts about forest management and wildfire protection? Will environmental groups who have fudged the facts and made false claims about effective forest science be held responsible for their resulting damage? Or is it only publicly-held companies, not publicly-funded companies, that are responsible for accurate business practices?

This is from the current issue of BrainstormNW magazine. It's not on their website yet so I had to type it out myself. Any typos are mine. I just wanted you to see this before I leave on my trip. Gramps, can you ping a few folks to this post?

[AuntB]

Wow. Your description sounds just like home. It's going to be easier to list the stuff that is NOT burning pretty soon. Stay safe, justshe.

[AuntB]

I saw the speech on the tube. He seemed determined about a "sensible forest policy".

[B Knotts]

And here's my "enhanced" version. :-)

[AuntB]

As soon as anyone finds out the schedule, please let me know. I plan on being "there". I'll ping if I find out any more. I'll call Greg Walden's office on Monday, they should know if we don't find out before.

[Crazymonarch]

Air comes in rises up the mountains,mixes with the forests respiration and produces rain that heads inland,yes they're deliberately lit but the plan could be to impose a monster drought...something beyond the minds of your average greenpeace activist,theres more to this than meets the eye.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the quick photos and the wanted posted of Tre Scum Bag.

Isn't it amazing that no media story about him had a picture of him since he was avoiding arrest. If that had been any Freeper wanted for thinking bad thoughts about envirals, our pictures would have covered the first seven pages of any left wing newspaper.

Also, it is amazing that the web site you at first posted, is now gone or down.

Thanks again. Please sprinkle all of these threads with his pictures until he is caught and behind bars.

[Grampa Dave]

(Link to latest Brainstorm and these 4 eco terrorists being charged for terrorism)

[AuntB]

Thanks, dixie, good info!

[B Knotts]

Isn't it amazing that no media story about him had a picture of him since he was avoiding arrest. If that had been any Freeper wanted for thinking bad thoughts about envirals, our pictures would have covered the first seven pages of any left wing newspaper.

You're certainly right about that. And it's the metro area newspapers that set the media agenda for news on radio, TV, etc.

The more I think about it, the more I think conservatives should band together and simply buy the Oregonian, Chronicle, L.A. Times, etc. Don't start competing newspapers, buy the existing left-wing rags, and fire the editorial boards. I bet we could do that, and it would cost about as much as all the money we dump into a handful of races over a couple of elections.

And it would turn the political climate in the affected cities on its head.

[Grampa Dave]

Eco Kamikazis Wanted, the latest Brainstorm oped re what the Eco Kamikazis are doing to the people of Oregon. (Link to Brainstorm's Eco Kamikazis Wanted!)

[WaterDragon]

I'm sorry to hear that, but not surprised. There are many "smaller" fires around the state that don't get much media attention. I'm hoping the 'authorities' don't wait for the blazes to grow before deciding they're 'important enough' to throw resources at.

Strangely, the environmentalists aren't worried about the trees when they're burning to black stumps. They only protect the trees from capitalism -- providing jobs and products for human beings.

Calling themselves 'environmentalists' is a euphemism for 'extreme left-wingers', in other words, frankly, Communists.