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.
I totally agree and don't stop harping about it
That is a good question ... Where is all there money coming from??
No kidding, Mo1. But that is NOT the point!!!! You cannot LOG. Evil evil evil.
I was reading a local story about the fire here where I live, the Apple fire. They had a public information meeting for the residents of the area. You know what some jerk brought up? ARE the firefighters using bulldozers...and if so, WHERE? There were a couple hundred people at this event...and the fire management team had to spend MUCH time assuring this jerk that they were only using bulldozers on slopes of less that 35%....and ONLY on ridgelines. The management team then had to assure the jerk that cultural and archeologist specialists were on the fire management team and they were scouting out areas in advance, testing them, and flagging those areas where BULLDOZERS COULD BE SAFELY USED!!! Where significant cultural or archeological damage would be minimized.
GOOD GRIEF!!!
The two go hand in hand. Once they destroy commerce, they can easily defeat any puny unfunded efforts against them.
Read their rhetoric. It is a foregone conclusion that all logging is now illegal--immoral--insane.
No question about it. Their policies are scorched earth, no compromise, total descruction of any way of life contrary to their agenda.
Some of these century old trees have a better chance surviving in the hands of loggers then in the hands of these environmentalists.
The big Biscuit fire that is still blazing just west of Medford in SW Oregon is a prime example of that.
In the middle of July, this year, lightening struck several trees in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, the heart of the Biscuit fire.
Thanks to the worship of Fire by the mentally ill Fire Ecologists of these mentally ill creeps. Since these fires were good fires and in a Wilderness area, the Floristry Circus could not go into the Wilderness to fight the fire.
So the Floristry Circus Clowns and their mentally ill comrades the Green Jihadists stood around these fires chanting, "Fire is good! Fire is Great!"
Then as I predicted this fire at that time named the Florence Fire broke lose and created hell on earth for the people living in two counties around the fire.
Now over a month later most if not all of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness has been burnt up, the total acreage burnt in the wilderness will total just under 180,000 acres. Then another 300,000 acres around the wilderness has burnt up.
The now named Biscuit Fire approaches 500,000 acres burnt up. That is the largest fire in Oregon for at least a century.
The fire in the roadless former wilderness area will burn until the fall/winter rains come.
So in your infinite wisdom, you have pointed out that trees are safer in the hands of good loggers than being controlled by the mentally ill, fire is good Green Jihadists.
Just a question as I don't know the answer..........
Stay Safe !
And EVEN WORSE, I understand that he Racially Profiled those trees, and only took out the Cedars. This is intolerable Speciesism.
If you are going to cut, you must cut without discrimination.
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