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.
Okay Goron time for your annual thinning, quit your whining!
Okay, Tommy Da$$hole, Its Jan 2003, and you are no longer the majority leader! You have 30 seconds to get out that office before I "unlock" the walls!
Where is that Club Sierra Clymer who keeps stoping the removal of dead trees?
Incase you are not aware of this thread, please go there and spend a few minutes. You may want to bookmark it.
This is history in the making folks. We are finally going to have some legitimate discussions on how our forest should be managed. Not the criminally insane Green Jihadist whack views that result in the loss of millions acres of forest just this year so far.
The more we know, the better we can help turn this Green Jihadist disaster around before all of our forests, wilderness areas and other beautiful areas are burnt up like the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in SW Oregon. The Kalmiopsis Wilderness has been burning for over a month and has resulted in the Biscuit Fire Approaching 500,000 acres.
Here is the link to Mad Fly's great find: ( President Bush is expected to push for more intensive thinning of Western forests to reduce fire danger. And he will likely support legislation streamlining environmental rules that have slowed many Western logging projects. )
"Mr President, I have a wonderful gift for you from your fellow Americans and supporters from FreeRepublic.com. The author has some great wisdom on the very problem you are here for."
God Bless, and I hope you get to represent your Freeper Family/Friends and your people of Oregon with President Bush tomorrow.
This is the truth. I'm in Colorado, and the attitude of these people, the radical ones anyway, seems to be "Yeah, the forests are burning down, but so what? Thank God the evil loggers aren't gettng any of the trees".
These people, with environmental lawsuits that block logging and even firewood gathering, have let the forests get so dense with fuel that any fire becomes a total disaster. All of the 'endangered' habitat they are claiming to protect is gone in these fires. Go figure.
Yeah, but , of course, they don't mind living in houses built from wood, making their protest signs and literature from wood products called paper and cardboard, etc.
I absolutely don't understand how these people and their supporters can not see the hypocricy of their lives. I just don't get it.
* largest increases in military spending since Reagan (14+% in 2003 budget) * signed two military two pay raises; increased medical/housing benefits
campaign promise even the RATs couldn’t touch, especially in wartime. Not a difficult achievment
* threw out the Kyoto protocol
even Clinton wouldn’t approve that, Gore probably would have
* disposed of the ABM Treaty
Good achievment, again not a difficult job in wartime.
* pro-life, anti-abortion President
just talk for the base, nothing can be done about thatwithout a major change in the US culture. Long term project, well past the end of the second term.
* publicly called for a right to life amendment to US Constitution
redundant
* eliminated taxpayer funding of overseas abortions
not difficult, softball accomplishment.
* has openly and strongly supported Taiwan
lets all pray we won’t be tested on that issue. All other Presidents said they would protect them (or at least didn’t say they wouldn’t)
* designated N.Korea, Iran and Iraq, the Axis of Evil
rhetoric, we all know they are bad people. He said nothing about Saudi at the time and only ended the “fast track visa” program for Saudis a month ago. Middle Easterners are still pouring across the border and all we are doing is confiscating Medals of Honor from WWII vets.
* secured initial funding for a NMDS (SDI)
easy to do at wartime, a good thing though
* promoted increases for off shore oil drilling
except for Florida, they get a pass, no drilling there.
* strongly advocates drilling in ANWR
just talk, no arm twisting in the Senate. With the war, if can’t get it done now, he never will.
* pushed for building more nuclear power plants
just talk, he knows that will never fly at the present time
* advocates reducing US dependency on oil imports
again, hes just preaching to the choir about that, no arm twisting in the Senate
* repealed/froze many last minute Clinton EO`s
and let many stand, including the ridiculous arsenic in the water one. We are having a drought and its against the law to drink what water we do have.
* proposed partial privatization of Social Security
more talk, no action.
* offered faith-based alternatives to traditional welfare
more rhetoric. Everyone who was on welfare when he was elected is still on welfare and always will be. Hes just telling peiople what they want to hear for political gain.
* stopped gov't funding for further destruction of human embryo's
numerous exceptions. Just a bone to throw at the base
* nominated conservative judges to the federal bench
who will never get appointed because he won’t bump heads with the Senate
* recognized 2ND amendment/RKBA as individual right, fully constitutional
and signed the unconstitutional revocation of free speech known as CFR
* told Cuba/Castro trade embargo stays
and continues to import oil from terrorist nations
* turned Russia into a strategic partner of the USA
you must have missed Putins announce,ment that he intends to sell nuclear plants to Iraq.
* returned honor, dignity and trust to the Presidency
true
* And all while doing an outstanding/remarkable job, leading America in the war on terrorism
overseas-yes, on the homefront-no! Middle Easterners are still pouring across the border uninvestigated, Mineta (and W is his boss) won’t let them be checked at airports because he calls it racism, and creating a new huge quantity of incompetent federal employees who can't be fired.
Blackie, I would discuss this further, but I can tell from your inability to disagree without the use of name calling that I am probably holding you up from doing your homework or practicing your clarinet or something. Don't stay up too late on the net now, you may oversleep, miss the school bus and your mother will have to take you to school. You could even be grounded this weekend.
well, gosh. here's a kleenex. are you done?
now, we out here in the west who depend on the land for survival, as opposed to those who
live back in the all knowing blue zone,
revel in any news that might lead us to believe that the marxist attack on our
local sovereignty might be abated by any means.
you seem to have nothing to add here to help the situation.
are you really a disenchanted "conservative" or a disruptor? to me, it doesn't matter,
because your effect and result is the same - you have nothing to offer, so why not
find yourself a nice comfy bush bashing thread, and get the hell out of the way?
oh, and don't get me wrong, you have many valid points, but they are not helpful to us being incinerated out here... we're quite busy fighting the marxist assholes
burning us out. you have thoroughly told us about your disaffection with the president. now you are a distraction.
do you have anything useful to add to this dialog to help those being raped by the green weenies?
I merely stated the obvious fact that removing all of the trees from an ecosystem can reasonably be interpreted as "damaging" to same.
It is also reasonable to assume that clear cut areas will, if not restored, often be prone to things like erosion damage -- something that is demonstrably true.
You, apparently, feel that I am railing against logging or something.
Which was really my only point.
A re-reading of my posts would reveal that I'm not anti-logging -- I merely object to the facile "it does no damage" claims, which are untrue. Your discussion of "the toughness of nature" is simply a backhanded admission that the large, rapid changes caused by logging are damage.
The real point, on which we agree, is that logging is not the huge disaster the enviros make it out to be. As I noted above, a nice visit to Camp Sherman, OR will show how little long or medium term damage is really done by properly-conducted logging.
i have to hope you won't become discouraged by those here, who risk losing EVERYTHING.
please read this amazing account, here and accept my calming words, that your input is welcome...
it well may be disputed, but welcome.
the response to the enviromarxists is not to destroy the forests...
the proper response is to destroy the enviromarxists. i (merely an individual) appreciate your posts, and your, i think, heartfelt concern for the forests.
this is positive dialog.
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