Posted on 08/11/2003 9:50:22 AM PDT by PhiKapMom
President Bush will be discussing his "Healthy Forest" Environmental Initiative in Arizona and Colorado today. During the August recess, we are bringing you the In Focus from the White House website dealing with different issues. Our spotlight for today's thread is going to be on the Healthy Forest Initiative from the In Focus on the Environment!
Please visit our other In Focus Reports from the White House to use when you are defending the policies of this Administration:
COUNTDOWN (454 DAYS) TO VICTORY '04 -- IN FOCUS -- NATIONAL SECURITY
COUNTDOWN (452 DAYS) TO VICTORY '04 -- IN FOCUS -- Moderanizing and Improving Medicare
COUNTDOWN (450 DAYS) TO VICTORY '04 -- IN FOCUS -- The President's Economy Security Agenda
These Reports will give you a perspective of where the President stands on the various issues and allow you to defend the President from attacks that are coming from the Democrats and their friends in the media.
President Bush Promotes Healthy Forests in Arizona
August 11, 2003
Today's Presidential Action
Today, President Bush toured Inspiration Rock in the Coronado National Forest near Tucson, Arizona, to promote the need for healthy forests. The President viewed the effects of the 84,750 acre Aspen Fire that destroyed 333 residences and structures in the Summerhaven community. Using the President's Healthy Forests Initiative, the Bush Administration has taken steps to establish a more effective and timely process to protect communities, wildlife habitats, and municipal watersheds from catastrophic fires. Compared with 2001 levels, the President's FY 2003 budget more than doubled the funding for Arizona forest health projects, and about twice as many forested acres will be treated in Arizona this year.
Background on Today's Presidential Action
Almost one year ago, in the midst of one of the Nation's worst wildfire seasons, President Bush proposed the Healthy Forests Initiative to care for forests and rangelands, to reduce the risk to communities, and to protect threatened and endangered species. The fires in 2002 consumed roughly 7 million acres, caused the deaths of 23 firefighters, and destroyed 842 structures.
President Bush directed Federal agencies to develop administrative and legislative tools to restore forests and woodlands to more healthy, natural conditions and to assist in executing core components of the National Fire Plan. The Healthy Forests Initiative is providing public land managers the tools to undertake commonsense management of our forests and woodlands. The initiative focuses on reducing the risk of catastrophic fire by thinning dense undergrowth and brush in priority locations that are collaboratively selected by Federal, state, tribal, and local officials and communities. President Bush increased funding for thinning work nearly threefold--from $117 million in 2000 to $417 million in his FY 2004 budget request. The initiative also provides for more timely responses to disease and insect infestations that threaten to devastate forests.
Taking care of our public lands also protects neighboring private landowners from suffering the consequences of inaction. Although progress is being made, an estimated 190 million acres of Federal forests and rangelands in the United States, an area almost twice the size of California, continue to face an elevated risk of catastrophic fire due to unnatural, densely packed forest conditions and insect and disease damage. Today, wildfires are burning in many states, and 1.8 million acres have burned so far this year.
Last year, the Administration set a record in the amount of treatment work done. More than 2.25 million acres of overstocked forests were returned to a more healthy condition. This is a million acres more than were treated in FY 2000. By the end of FY 2003, even more acres of overstocked forests - 2.57 million acres - are projected to be treated.
Key Components of the President's Healthy Forests Initiative:
Legislative Action:
President Bush's Initiative for Wildfire Prevention and Stronger Communities
Last year catastrophic wildfires burned 7.2 million acres. These catastrophic wildfires burn hotter, move faster and destroy everything in their path -- communities, wildlife habitat, watersheds and entire ecosystems. It can take decades for these forests to recover.
For over a century, the federal government has done nothing to eliminate dense undergrowth and ladder fuels, and it has suppressed most of the natural fires that Mother Nature uses to clear out brush and undergrowth. As a result, about 190 million acres of our nation's forests are in bonfire conditions.
The President's Healthy Forests Initiative is returning our forests back to their natural condition. Several Administrative actions are underway, and the legislation on the table today will grant the federal government additional tools to address the problem of unnatural fuel buildup in our forests.
Healthy Forest Initiative Project Descriptions
Reducing the Threat of Catastrophic Wildfires and Improving Forest Health
Administrative Actions to Implement the President's Healthy Forests Initiative
Policy In Focus: Healthy Forests
Please keep calling talk radio and sending your letters to the editor of your local newspapers using these In Focus Reports as background! If you send a letter to the editor or call talk radio, please post letter and reaction to your comments on talk radio on here. The link below is a great resource to use to find media outlets across the Country!
Bush to Tout Environmental Policies
By WILL LESTER
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush is trying to rally support for his environmental policies and pump up his campaign funds, interrupting his monthlong vacation for a quick two-state trip.
Bush planned first to survey a fire-ravaged community in southern Arizona and press the Senate to approve administration initiatives aimed at preventing catastrophic wildfires. Critics said his program would undercut environmental laws and would not provide the money necessary to protect communities from wildfires.
From Arizona, Bush was to travel to Colorado to headline a $2,000-per-person fund-raiser - his 11th event for his 2004 re-election campaign this year. He already has raised about $40 million.
The president has scheduled three other trips in August with environmental themes - another on his "Healthy Forest Initiative" in Oregon, one on preserving national parks in California and one on salmon habitat in Washington state.
Environmentalists said Bush's wildfire policy falls short of what is needed. "The Bush-backed measure does not provide the funding needed to protect communities and instead uses the fear of fire to gut bedrock environmental laws and tip the scales of justice in our courts," the Wilderness Society said in a statement.
Bush's program focuses solely on federal law, the Wilderness Society said, when studies show that 85 percent of the land surrounding communities threatened by wildfire is private, state or tribal.
Democrats held a 2-1 advantage over Bush when people were asked in a recent poll who they trust to do a better job on the issue.
But James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, dismissed any suggestion the environmental focus is for political reasons.
"It's August," he said in a telephone interview Sunday. "The time is right. That's when people are focused on these issues."
Bush's helicopter-and-hiking tour of the devastation left behind by the early summer fire in mountainous Summerhaven, Ariz., near Tucson, is meant to illustrate what he says his proposals can help save.
Some critics say Summerhaven is a curious place for Bush to pitch his initiative. It was lack of money, not bureaucratic hurdles, that prevented critical thinning in the area, they say.
Connaughton said the Bush policies will protect forests.
"When you don't do ecological restoration, you get moonscapes with matchsticks," he said. "When you do the work right, you get thriving, natural forest that's got a nice, wide canopy."
Bush proposed his protection program last year, and has implemented portions of it through new government regulations. They no longer require environmental studies before trees are logged or burned to prevent forest fires. The rules also limit appeals of such projects.
The House passed a bill that calls for aggressive logging on up to 20 million acres of federal land at high risk of fire. It would eliminate some environmental reviews and limit appeals on overgrown woodlands so forest projects could be completed within months.
Environmental groups say the rules will make it easier for logging companies to cut down trees in national forests and will limit the public's input in forest management decisions.
The Aspen fire that charred Summerhaven burned 84,750 acres and destroyed more than 330 homes, cabins and other buildings earlier this summer.
Another blaze at Summerhaven in June 2002 was among the wildfires across the country last year that scorched nearly 7 million acres, killed 23 firefighters, destroyed hundreds of homes and cost taxpayers more than $1.5 billion.
Aspen fire victims have mixed feelings about Bush's visit.
"I don't know if his plan is the right solution, but it's certainly a step in the right direction," said Donald Barton, who lost his summer home in the fire.
Edward Carlson, whose cabin burned, said the president should have come sooner. "He wasn't around when the forest fire was raging," he said. "This is a campaign stop."
Bush narrowly won Arizona in 2000, and wants to keep its 10 electoral votes in his column.
Bush Promotes Forest-Thinning Initiative
By SCOTT LINDLAW
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush surveys a fire-ravaged community in Arizona on Monday as part of a push to get the Senate to approve steps aimed at preventing catastrophic wildfires.
Bush's helicopter-and-hiking tour of the devastation left behind by fire in mountainous Summerhaven, Arizona, near Tucson, is also meant to illustrate what he says his proposals can help save.
The preventive forest thinning Bush is trying to accelerate helped ensure the survival of $2 billion in telecommunications equipment, camps owned by churches and Boy Scout and Girl Scout groups and two mountain observatories, said James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
"When you don't do (thinning), you get moonscapes with matchsticks," Connaughton said in a telephone interview Sunday. "When you do the work right, you get thriving, natural forest that's got a nice, wide canopy."
Bush proposed his "Healthy Forests" initiative last year, and has implemented portions of it through new government rules.
They no longer require environmental studies before trees are logged or burned to prevent forest fires. The rules also limit appeals of such projects.
The House passed a bill that calls for aggressive logging on up to 20 million acres of federal land at high risk of fire. It would eliminate some environmental reviews and limit appeals on overgrown woodlands so forest projects could be completed within months.
The Aspen fire that charred Summerhaven burned 84,750 acres and destroyed more than 330 homes, cabins and other buildings last month.
Another fire at Summerhaven in June 2002 was among the wildfires across the country last year that scorched nearly 7 million acres, killed 23 firefighters, destroyed hundreds of homes and cost taxpayers more than $1.5 billion.
The Forest Service and Interior Department estimate 190 million acres are at risk for catastrophic fire - an area nearly the size of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana combined.
Environmental groups say the Healthy Forests plan will make it easier for logging companies to cut down trees in national forests and will limit the public's input in forest management decisions.
The previous rules required environmental studies for nearly every logging project.
Now, logging projects affecting 1,000 acres or less will not need such studies if the acres are deemed at-risk for fire. Controlled burns, where fire is used to burn excess trees under certain circumstances, could be done without environmental studies for projects up to 4,500 acres.
Neither of these "categorically excluded" projects would be subject to administrative appeals, but they could be challenged in court.
Some critics also said Summerhaven was a curious place for Bush to pitch his initiative. It was lack of money, not bureaucratic hurdles, that prevented critical thinning in the area, they say. Moreover, the legal obstacles to thinning that Bush wants to remove have been almost nonexistent on Forest Service lands in the area, experts say.
Bush is to tour by helicopter the observatories and camps that survived the fire, as well as the vacation hamlet of Summerhaven. Then he plans to land and drive back up the mountain to Inspiration Rock, a spot near last year's fire and another one this summer that forced the evacuation of Summerhaven.
Aspen fire victims still tallying their losses and mired in the rebuilding process have mixed feelings about Bush's visit.
"It's a nice gesture, but it doesn't affect the significance of the fire or the recovery efforts," said Donald Barton, who owned a summer home in the mountaintop community of Summerhaven for 30 years but lost it in the Aspen fire.
"I don't know if his plan is the right solution, but it's certainly a step in the right direction," Barton said.
Edward Carlson, whose cabin burned in the fire, said Bush should have come sooner. "He wasn't around when the forest fire was raging," he said. "This is a campaign stop."
Bush narrowly won Arizona in 2000, and wants to keep its 10 electoral votes in his column. He travels to Colorado later Monday to headline a fund raiser for his re-election.
Lieberman Slams Bush on Environment
By KATHARINE WEBSTER
Associated Press Writer
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- Sen. Joe Lieberman called George W. Bush "the worst president for the environment in America's history."
Speaking to a small group of supporters and environmentalists on a deck outside the New Hampshire Conservation Center Sunday, the Democratic presidential hopeful accused Bush of Orwellian double-speak on the environment.
Bush's "Clear Skies" initiative would increase air pollution and his "Healthy Forests" initiative allows more logging in national forests, Lieberman charged.
"So it's 'War is peace,'" Lieberman said, quoting one of the political slogans in George Orwell's novel "1984."
Lieberman, who ran as Al Gore's vice presidential candidate in 2000, touted his history of environmental activism, focusing on his latest effort: a bill to curb global warming that he is co-sponsoring with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
The McCain-Lieberman amendment to the energy bill would require that by 2010, U.S. industry cut back the amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere to what it was in 2000, reversing a trend of annual increases. To reduce costs, industry could use a market-based emissions trading system.
Julie Teer, spokeswoman for the New Hampshire Republican Party, said Lieberman's legislation "is a tax, a tax on energy. His plan is going to hurt our competitiveness ... workers and stockholders."
She said Bush "has put together a strong bipartisan environmental policy, and this president has gone further than any administration, including Bill Clinton's."
Lieberman said Bush's decision early in his administration to reject the Kyoto Protocol on global warming was not only an environmental mistake, but hurt international relations.
"It complicates everything we've done with the rest of the world" since then because America, which emits more greenhouse gasses than any other nation, turned its back on international efforts to address the problem, Lieberman said.
While the McCain-Lieberman amendment is not as stringent as the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol, it would "put us back on the side of responsibility with the rest of the world," he said.
Lieberman and McCain have acknowledged it will be difficult, if not impossible, to pass the amendment. Many in Congress oppose restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions, saying they would be devastating to industry and are not justified by current science on global warming.
Lieberman and McCain argue the restrictions would hurt the U.S. economy far less than continued increases in global warming, and would stimulate technological innovation.
Lieberman said Sunday the amendment has the support of some Republican senators besides McCain, but declined to identify them, saying he did not know whether they were willing to oppose the Bush administration publicly yet.
Lieberman said he believes that among voters, the environment is a nonpartisan issue, but that the Bush administration is responding to an ideological agenda promoted by a small segment of the Republican Party.
The Next Hundred Years: Forging a Strong Environmental Policy to Take Our Natural Resources Back
July 31, 2003
Speech in San Francisco, CA
One hundred years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Grand Canyon for the first time. And he asked the people of Arizona to make sure that it stayed unspoiled. "Leave it as it is," President Roosevelt said. "Keep it for your children and your children's children and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American should see."
It may seem odd to you that a Democratic presidential candidate would quote so approvingly something said by a Republican president. But there's a reason. When President Roosevelt made that speech, he was exhibiting something that we haven't seen in this country for a long, long time. And that is a Republican president providing leadership on the environment.
Because of President Roosevelt's leadership, when we visit the Grand Canyon, our children can see pretty much the same view he did. But what legacy is the Bush-Cheney-Norton Administration leaving for the next hundred years? (NOTE: Guess Dean doesn't know that Norton left -- PKM)
Alaska's Tongass National Forest is the largest rain forest in our nation. When our children's children visit in 100 years, what will they see? Last month, the Bush Administration said it wants to open the Tongass to more logging. If they have their way, roads will slice through what's left of the pristine forest. Loggers and their heavy machinery will cut down its old-growth trees. Natural habitats will be destroyed. That's not leadership. We can do better.
In Utah, the Administration rolled when a long-dormant lawsuit was resurrected. The "settlement" the Administration agreed to limits government's ability to protect the country's remaining wilderness. That's not leadership. We can do better.
In Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, the Administration overturned a rule proposed after years of discussion with scientists and the public - a rule phasing out snowmobiles in those two parks. (There are other parks where snowmobiling is not a problem.) The Bush Administration made a deal with the snowmobile industry and blocked the rule. That's not leadership. We can do better.
Throughout the Administration, former industry representatives are now - quote - "regulating" their old bosses and friends. Before joining the Administration, J. Stephen Griles raked in the dough as a lobbyist for the oil and mining industries. Today, he is Deputy Secretary of the Interior Department, the number-two official responsible for regulating mining and other economic uses of public land. And although Griles said he would recuse himself when matters affecting his former clients came up, he remained involved despite this promise, meeting repeatedly with clients of his old lobbying firm and promoting their interests. This is a classic case of conflict of interest and breach of trust - and the Deputy Secretary should resign. I want to know why President Bush has failed to hold Secretary Norton accountable for the improper actions of her deputy. That's not leadership. We absolutely can do better.
And when an agency does manage to do its job, the Administration simply refuses to accept the work. Last month, under White House pressure, the Environmental Protection Agency deleted from its Draft Report on the Environment a section on the scientific consensus about global warming. That's outrageous. But of course we know it's not the first time something like this has happened. Whether it's uranium from Niger or global warming, the Bush-Cheney Administration is not one to let mere facts stand in the way of its agenda.
One hundred years ago, Theodore Roosevelt saw conservation as not only central to the national social, economic and political health, but as a reflection of basic American values. In the century since he lived in the White House, America has forged a bipartisan consensus on the importance of conservation and the responsibility each of us has to pass along a safe, healthy environment to future generations.
Today, we have a Republican president who seeks to destroy this consensus and reverse decades of responsible environmental policy. We have a president who seems to regard public resources as gifts to be handed out to special interests. Allowing Big Industry to release more pollutants into the air we breathe, President Bush calls it the "Clear Skies" program. Allowing Big Timber to denude our forests, the Bush-Cheney Administration calls it the "Healthy Forests" initiative.
This Orwellian doublespeak might be amusing if it weren't so dangerous. But it is dangerous - because environmental policy today is about far more than saving a natural habitat.
Environmental issues are national security issues. While the Administration does nothing to curb oil consumption, where does our oil money end up? It flows through governments in the Middle East to terrorist organizations who teach their children to hate the United States. Indeed, those 28 pages redacted from the September 11th report - those 28 blank pages - speak volumes about where our oil money goes.
Environmental issues are
health issues. As a doctor, I know that failure to act on the environment has devastating health consequences. As President, I will urge Congress to strengthen the laws reducing pollutants in our land, water and air. I'll help our legislators to think of these environmental commitments as I do - as part of our broad vision for health care reform.
Environmental issues are economic issues. The right-wing radicals want us to believe that we must choose between having a healthy environment or a healthy economy. I believe that a healthy environment will support a healthy economy.
(NOTE: In case you missed it from Dean's speech:
The right-wing radicals want us to believe that we must choose between having a healthy environment or a healthy economy)
Just consider this a smart-*ssed bump.
Yes!! Hopefully this common sense proposal will prevail.
Lieberman-Dean for the Environment
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
McInnis: Time to act on forest thinning
How a forest stopped a fire in its tracks
Interest groups heavily appeal Forest Bills
House approves Bush plan to speed up logging to stem wildfires
In addition to the Healthy Forest Initiative, the administration is also making internal policy changes to the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management small timber sale policy. Specifically, the administration is providing the legal justification for exempting small projects from excessive environmental review. This complies with a court order from several years ago that invalidated the "categorical exemption" status that the agencies had been using to streamline the environmental review process. The court invalidated the agencies rationale and asked for more extensive documentation that these projects did not pose a significant adverse effect to the environment. Thankfully, the Bush administration has given the court what it asked for, and it appears that this exemption will be reinstated. Here are the links to this policy change:
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