Posted on 08/21/2002 6:20:28 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
Bush to push for thinning
The Associated Press, 8/21/02 4:21 AM
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) -- President Bush will address forest health issues when he visits Medford on Thursday, most likely pushing for more intensive thinning of Western forests to reduce fire danger.
When they reach Medford, the president and U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith will receive a briefing on Oregon wildfires, according to Joe Sheffo, Smith's press secretary.
Bush and Smith will then be taken on a tour of the area burned by the Squire fire southeast of Ruch. The fire scorched nearly 3,000 acres of public and private land after it was sparked by lightning July 13.
The president's visit comes as Western lawmakers draw up legislation to speed cutting of overgrown forests. Administration officials have blamed tangles of environmental rules for slowing logging on federal lands and want cutting accelerated to meet targets set by the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan.
Environmental groups, long critical of the president for appointing friends of timber and other industries to top posts, said the president is simply using Western wildfires to justify increased logging.
"This administration was pushing logging before these fires, it's pushing logging because of these fires, and it'll be pushing logging after these fires," said Nathaniel Lawrence of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The White House on Tuesday invited Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber to join the president in Southern Oregon on Thursday, when Bush will ride in a helicopter over the huge Biscuit Fire and visit a smaller fire closer to Medford.
Kitzhaber has led an effort by the Western Governors' Association to address wildfire threats across the West.
The Bush administration has signed onto the governors' plan of stepped-up thinning, and Bush will promote that Thursday. But the administration has so far not committed to the funding the governors want and in some cases has suggested firefighting costs have escalated out of control.
Governors from Idaho, Arizona and Montana also have been invited to join the president in Medford.
The president will also have politics on my mind.
"This is very significant for us," state Republican Party Chairman Perry Atkinson said. "We know that Oregon is one of the targeted states in the next election cycle."
If Atkinson had any doubts, he was jokingly reminded of that in the days just before Bush's inauguration.
"When I met with the president, he leaned over and said, 'Just 6,776 votes, are you going to make it up to me next time?' " Atkinson said, referring to the number of votes that Bush lost Oregon by in the 2000 election.
"I told him we would do our best."
The current Oval Office occupant will not be the first President Bush to have visited the Rogue Valley.
His father made a presidential visit to Medford in mid-September, 1992. Before that, the last presidential visit came when President Gerald Ford arrived in 1976.
Rutherford B. Hayes was the only other sitting president to visit the Rogue Valley, arriving in September of 1880.
OH, *nearly 80 percent of the increase in funding for his so-called "farm bill" is earmarked FOR THE US FORESTRY DEPARTMENT, A DIVISION OF THE USDA.
...Which is why, unlike the rabid Bush bashers, I knew this was coming, and started talking in earnest to all of the foresters, contractors and mills that I'm familiar with, and know are into timber management, to get ready and help the president because this was not going to be easy.
Not to be a burr here but I think we'd all be better served if Bush had left it up to US to take care of our forests. Giving the Flouristry Dept. more money will only serve to cause more harm in the long run.
EBUCK
Well you have nothing to worry about there, W has Gale Norton in charge of that. Shes keeping the enviro-wackos in check, just ask the people in Klamath.
As for W, I can bitch about him all I want too, I donated my hard earned money to get him there. The product hasn't been what was advertised.
That's not precisely true: logging -- especially large area clear-cutting -- does interrupt the natural workings of the ecosystem. If the logging area is left alone, there are often erosion and other problems, and it's not certain that the forest would regenerate.
I think what you're really suggesting is that the ecosystem can be restored or, as I've personally observed, it can be logged in such a way that the ecosystem is not really changed (e.g., selective logging).
It is silly to believe that the logging industry would want to cut down millions of acres of trees and have no thought for the future by NOT re-planting.
You have more faith in human nature than I do. I can easily see an Enron-type logging company looking at the cost of re-planting and restoration, and deciding to go keep the profits instead. It's not like they'll be alive to re-log the area. That's why I'm not troubled by the idea of reasonable regulations on restoration.
Pleanty of evidence here in the NW to support that scenario. But in todays climate most logging companies are pretty strict about re-planting etc.. The potential fallout, loss of future contracts, fines are enough to keep them inline if their future harvests aren't.
EBUCK
Or at the very least, if we use this this vile hate-speech billboard calling the pope the anti-Christ in our arguments to the environazis who are sure to protest....we might not have our billboard in the end....but neither will the antiCatholicnazis have their anti-Catholic billbord. Mainly 'cause the environazis'll probably sue.
I mean, the argument of those psychos is "we don't hate Catholics, we hate the "political structure" of the Catholic church. That's like the Islamonazis saying we like Christians...we only kill them because we don't like their politics."
In case they don't sue...since that great photo of the elk hiding in the water from the fire was released into the public domain....maybe we can get permission to use that on the billboard, with the slogan sort of like a summary of our message.
Hmmmm......that's inspiring.....
America......LET'S LOG!!
EBUCK
indeed !
and none of that sissy ass catch and release logging
Official figures put fire loss in Alaska this summer at 2,126,000 Acres.
The monsoon has begun here in southcentral with lots of much needed rain. The fire season is winding down.
I am sorely disappointed! When I first saw this headline in the forum I thought Dubya has changed his mind on Illegal CRIMINAL Aliens.
The specialsts cost too much money, so the logic goes....they can also get bad fires out much more quickly, so they government doesn't have to PAY them as long. Also, it goes without saying that more homes and habitat are then saved. I doubt the current policy will change, but I have been arguing to bring some of the specialists back. I doubt that'll happen, but there might be some middle ground.
I understand where you're coming from though when it comes to private land.
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