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.
Yeah, maybe for a week or two, then forget about it just like he did drilling for oil in ANWR.
Where I live on the Umpqua Nat'l Forest (Apple fire), the 'old growth' designation of 120 years essentially takes the majority of this forest off the 'thinning' map....even IF west-side forests were included.
SUMMARY OF THE FOREST RESTORATION AND PROTECTION ACT OF 2002
ON THE WESTSIDE during the first 90 days following enactment:
The FS establishes, with the BLM, F&W, NMFS and the Department of Justice, the Northwest Forest Plan Legal Settlement Team (Team) to negotiate a Universal Settlement on all existing Northwest Forest Plan area lawsuits: Concurrently: the Team immediately negotiates a moratorium on any new timber sales while the Universal Settlement is being negotiated and while the Surveys (below) are being completed AND negotiates a settlement on the Rothstein decisions (PCFFA II and III) that protects fish habitat and releases timber for harvesting.
The FS and BLM complete an Old Growth Survey to identify the 120 year plus old growth stands for protection;
The FS and BLM complete an Active Management Survey to identify where ecologically sound active management can occur immediately in the Late Successional Reserves (up to 80 years) and in the Matrix (up to 120 years).
IF the Team can resolve the Rothstein decisions, then during the next 120 days they continue negotiations on the Universal Settlement, informed by the Surveys. The Universal Settlement must include the following commitments: (1) no old growth stands (120 plus) will be harvested; (2) priority timber harvest projects are given to LSR thinning and Matrix areas to promote development of diverse age stands; (3) the plaintiffs must agree NOT to the sue on the priority timber harvest projects; (4) Survey and Manage and other Northwest Forest Plan procedures are replaced by whatever the negotiations determine are the new procedures necessary to meet ESA requirements; (5) in the case of the loss of old growth due to natural occurrences, the area affected shall be managed only to promote the redevelopment of old growth.
For the future:(1) If there are new lawsuits on the Settlement sanctioned projects, then the FS and BLM carry an evidentiary presumption in their favor in court; (2) The Forest Service shall create in the Northwest Forest Plan area watershed and stream restoration programs which will be authorized at $20 million over five years.
ON THE EASTSIDE (OR,WA, ID) during the first 60 days after enactment:
The Forest Service shall identify projects on the Eastside as follows: NEPA-ready; ecologically beneficial hazardous fuels reduction; active management; thinning from below; Fire Risk Class III and II; using only temporary roads; blowdown or burns.
The Forest Service forms a Collaborative Review Board (15 members) to review the projects for expedited implementation. The CRB contains representatives from the environmental community, timber industry, community based forestry, Forest Service, and State foresters from each state.
During the next 15 business days (total 75 days after enactment) the CRB reviews projects for suitability for expedited implementation. To move forward on an expedited basis a project will have a 2/3 vote. During the next 15 business days (total 90 days after enactment) the public has an opportunity to review and comment on the projects expedited.
No later than 90 days after the bill is enacted, the FS shall implement the CRB approved hazardous fuels reduction projects. Anyone can challenge these projects in court, but not administratively, if they commented during the 15 day comment period; The plaintiff must prove, on the merits, that their plan for the forest is more ecologically sound than the project they are opposing. the FS carries a court presumption in their favor if the project has been reviewed by the CRB;
For the Future: The Forest Service may create Eastside Stakeholder Monitoring Groups (seven members) that discusses each project before it occurs to develop consensus on the condition the project shall leave the land and how the project shall be implemented. Projects that have an Eastside Stakeholder Monitoring Group will carry the same appeals processes as for the CRB projects.
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My Comments: There are some significant changes between this bill and the 'Daschle Exemption Amendment' that was signed. One HUGE difference is that THESE fire thinning projects must be NEPA ready. Daschle exempted his forests from NEPA regulations. And then of course, as I read this, all other states are not addressed at all.
The Wyden/Craig bill I posted above is only conceptual at this point, I believe. So I think NOW is the time to make our views known to President Bush and to Senator Gordon Smith this week! And push YOUR Senators and Reps to negotiate a FAIR/SANE bill, ala the Daschle amendment. This hodgepodge bill, as I read it, requires a 'Mother-May-I' from the environmentalists to go forward.
Good. Because we don't give a warm cut 'o spit for the tree huggers anyway! I hope they hug a tree and get their nuts bit by a squirrel!
Regardless what the President wants, nothing will be done in the Da$$hole controlled senate. If enough of his Rat Pack envirals are voted out of office, then in January 2003, things can start to change. He will start the process by using this as issue to start the discussion. The enviral nazis have blocked any sane discussions for decades and in particuliar during the Clintoonian Legacy years.
GOOD!! Right's gotta crush these Enviro-Whackos in hand-to-hand political combat, exposing their purely Socialist Agenda in the process!!
FReegards, Gramps...MUD
They're fisting the tree!!!
You are 100% correct about nothing being done in the daschle Senate. All we can do is take this information and spread it to everyone we know in our efforts to Take Back the Senate and Keep the House.
A Republican Congress with President Bush is the "ONLY" hope we have of getting sane laws passed on the environment! Only with new laws on the books that recognize that forests have to be maintained and managed can we start preventing the widespread forest fires we see today in the West.
Best hope for Sane Environmental Programs --
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