Posted on 08/22/2002 7:34:55 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
AUGUST 22, 09:40 ET Bush Unveils Plan to Fight Wildfires
By JENNIFER LOVEN Associated Press Writer
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — Embarking on a three-day Western swing expected to haul in at least $5 million for Republican politicians, President Bush is taking a stand on one of the region's thorniest issues by proposing that more logging in national forests would help prevent devastating wildfires.
Bush was traveling Thursday from his Texas ranch to southwestern Oregon, near the California state line, for a briefing on local fires that have ravaged the area and an aerial view of the damage. The president was then being ferried to the still-smoldering Squires fire, where some forest areas have been entirely stripped of vegetation and crews are working to install erosion-prevention equipment.
Afterward at a nearby fairgrounds, Bush was formally announcing a plan to make it easier for timber companies to get approval to cut wood in fire-prone national forests — surrounded by several Western governors who have been pushing for just such changes.
Though his proposals, first outlined Wednesday, prompted howls from environmentalists, the Bush administration said changes are necessary to clear forests of a decades-long buildup of highly flammable materials.
``For the good of our economy, we need commonsense forest policy,'' Bush said during a stop at Mount Rushmore last week. ``We can and we must manage our forests. We must keep them disease-free. We must have reasonable forest policies so as to prevent fires, not encourage them.''
Bush was rounding out his appearances in Oregon — a state he barely lost to Democrat Al Gore in the 2000 election — with a fund-raising roundtable and dinner in Portland. The $600,000-to-$900,000 take was to be evenly split between the state GOP and Republican Sen. Gordon Smith, one of the Democrats' top targets, who was spending much of the day at Bush's side.
On Friday, Bush heads to California to headline three events expected to give Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon's campaign a much-needed $3 million boost.
While in California, Bush was to speak before a group of Hispanic community advocates and announce new proposals for narrowing the achievement gap in education between minorities and whites, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
The president was returning to his ranch Saturday night, after more dollar-gathering events in New Mexico for GOP candidates for governor and Congress.
This year's wildfires across the West have renewed the perennial debate between conservationists who oppose cutting in the nation's woods and logging interests who argue that underbrush and deadwood increase the risk of fire. Wildfires have burned nearly 6 million acres this summer from Alaska to New Mexico — twice as much as in an average summer. Federal spending to combat wildfires could reach $1.5 billion this year.
Bush's plan would streamline the government's process for reviewing the environmental effects of proposed logging projects; change the standards by which those proposals are approved; and allow government agencies to negotiate contracts giving timber companies and other entities the right to sell the wood products they harvest in exchange for removing them from the forest.
Another key aspect of the proposal would make it harder for environmental groups and others to appeal logging plans.
The administration said some of the proposed changes could be made within the executive branch, while others would require congressional approval. Several Western lawmakers already are drawing up legislation to speed cutting of overgrown forests.
``Needless red tape and lawsuits delay effective implementation of forest health projects,'' said a White House fact sheet on the initiative. ``This year's crisis compels more timely decisions, greater efficiency, and better results to reduce catastrophic wildfire threats to communities and the environment.''
A senior administration official allowed that large, commercially desirable trees with high fire risks — either in dense stands or already dead — could be felled as part of what the official called Bush's ``more active management'' of forest growth.
But environmentalists said the plan could gut safeguards that have protected forests for decades and allow timber companies to not only thin forests of brush, but cut trees — including some more than a century old.
``We're very concerned they will use the fires to further an agenda they've had for a long time — and that is to change key environmental laws'' that serve to protect the forests from logging, said Linda Lance, a Wilderness Society vice president.
We will have our own reporterette in Medford, when President Bush visits and gives his historic talk to take back control of our forests from the Watermelon Green Jihadists in Oregon and other western states.
Hopefully, she will be able to report to us and have pictures later on in the day.
Oh, PLEASE don't do that!!! Why, why...why that would be cruel and unusual punishment!!! Those poor, innocent, elderly trees! That's AGEISM!!
Cut trees..timber companies? This reveals the intelligence behind the green jihadists.
His new forest management plan is the beginning of the end of the insane criminal control they have had over our forest. They know it and will go ballistic.
Good description of the coming storm of green BS. FOX news has been all over this story since yesterday's Brit Hume and on.
Mornin' as usual to you Dave, keep me informed via the reporterette.
There are over 700,000+ "nonprofits" in America. Many are in business to push their own political agenda, like this outfit, and/or to enrich their handlers.
We need to reform the nonprofit corporation laws in America. Only allow charitable organization that actually help people to be exempt form paying income taxes and to suck at the taxpayers tit. Outfits like this one and PETA, ADL, JW, etc. are ripping off the American taxpayer that has no choice but to subsidize the "work" of people like this because they pay no taxes, get reduced postage, etc.
I've been harping on this :nonprofit" issue for years. And I'm not gonna stop!
Like a Light Sabre in the hands of a Jedi Master.
It is past time to thin and manage our forests. It is past time to remove the power of life and death from the Watermelon Green Jihadists who have controlled our forests since Clintoon/Goron!
Those national forests are ours, not a bunch of Criminal Green Jihadists posing as enviralists!
I am refering to the Eugene Register Guard.
This state has suffered from the envior whackos, and, their concern over old growth trees and the spotted owl. Maybe things will begin to change here.
Bush Unveils Plan to Fight WildfiresMeanwhile, the jihad continues.
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