Bush waging a war on parks, forests: An all-out attack on America's wilderness

Boston Glob ^ | 8.17.2003 | T.A. Barron

[rface]

A WAR IS RAGING. It involves lands essential to our nation, and will dramatically affect future generations. No, I am not speaking of Iraq or Afghanistan. This war is right here: the Bush administration's radical, all-out attack on America's wilderness and public lands.

[rface]

T.A. Barron contributes a good ammount of money to DNC and other Democratics - but he also has given $$ to a couple Repubs, including Frist.....

His Bio reads like a typical liberal enviro-wacko. He gets his piece of the wild, then makes sure it is difficult for anyone else to do the same...

[LisaFab]

Right, and if he was here in the Northeast Thursday, he would have been whining about the blackout--the only reason more Dems weren't yelping here is that they can all afford their own generators.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

The United States government owns far too much land. It cannot afford to manage what it owns. Most federal land should be sold to help reduce the national debt.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

ping

[jocko12]

Envro-wackos at it again!!!!

[magellan]

"snowmobile industry"?

"Big Oil", now "Big Snowmobiles". We all know how powerful the snowmobile lobby is in D.C. What on earth is this guy smoking?

Snowmobiles are the only way to get around Yellowstone in the winter. My best friend and his wife went snowmobiling in Yellowstone and they said it was a fantastic experience.

This is typical elitist Sierra Club crap. Ordinary people should not be allowed to experience Yellowstone in the winter, or the Yosemite valley or Grand Canyon anytime. Only environmetalists should be allowed such privileges. Likewise, ordinary people should be banned from owning SUVs, but environmentalists should be allowed to own SUVs so they can travel into the wilderness because only they know how to appreciate it.

And don't get me started on the "logging". These Orwellian doublespeak envirnomentalists call clearing underbrush logging.

For a good report on what a farce the Sierra Club is, see the Sacramento Bee's series "Environment, Inc." at:

http://www.sacbee.com/static/archive/news/projects/environment/

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

President Bush should do with the national parks the same as clinton,do as needed by executive order.

[freekitty]

My question is what and who is the Third Sector?

[Movemout]

"Our national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, and other public lands total 623 million acres -- 14 times the size of all six New England states, or almost six times the size of California."

This guy is frothing at the mouth. Somebody get the smelling salts.

Why is this much land under federal control in the first place? The feds control too much land and the spotted owl be damned. The snail darter be damned. Farmers who can't farm because of endangered fauna, people who can't farm because of supposedly endangered salmon, restrictions on privately owned land because of enviro-weenies; Thanks Bush for giving these idiots a wake up call.

[AF68]

Barron forgot to mention the "Big ATV", "Big Firearms", "Big Archery", "Big Treestand", "Big Hunting Boot" and the "Big Camping" industries are all out to destroy the pristine wilderness, too, with the help of the President. It's amazing that President Bush has time to wage the War on Terrorism and still have enough energy to wage war on the wilderness, clean water, the poor, the elderly, the sick, the infirm and the little chillens.

[philman_36]

Take a gander at this!

[philman_36]

They constitute a natural engine that cleans our drinking water, purifies the air, produces medicines, provides resources, and enhances our quality of life in countless other ways.
Seems to me that those "resources" are not being utilized at all.
Resources like the coal in the Grand Staircase-Escalante range and the oil in ANWR are just a couple of examples.
I take that back...the timber resources are fire fodder, but at least they're being used for something.

[Eska]

Spent the majority of my weekends running snowmachines in America's biggest national preserve last winter. The repubs are also anti small business in the park system. Actually they are still trying to run the original homesteader/lodge owners off the land that they built 60 years before it was even a national park.

The big picture is always money. The drive nowadays is to run the original owners off their land so the feds can sell the rights to the huge outside tourist interests that bring thousands of boat people to Alaska.

One 3rd generation lodge owner I know, has seen his strips at remote cabins closed, all hunting stopped, all trail access terminated,constant fed park harassment/fines and the list just goes on. Once they make him unprofitable he has little choice but to close or sell out; and thats what the feds want.

Sad fact is then snowmachining stops because the local snowmachine clubs are the ones that prevent the feds from completely closing trails, or should I say ignore trail closures, brush traditional trail systems, and tear down obstructions to trails built by the feds. Pretty hard to get 100 snowmachiners to drive 100 miles then spend entire weekend breaking trails once the lodge/bar closes. The permits for poker runs have always been ignored but once the lodge closes so does access; the feds understand this.

I think the days of chasing hundreds of caribou & wolves on the trip back into glaciers are coming to a close. Homesteading in the federal parks should be reinstituted. Small business is the heart of our growth and family homesteaders / miners have always been the ones that built the land up here. The feds want everyone off the land period.

I don't buy that the repubs are any different than dems when it comes to managing our nat park system.

[sergeantdave]

Stanley Rothman and Robert Lichter in their book titled “Environmental Cancer: A Political Disease” discovered that environmental activists are a narrow elite: 76 percent are male, 97 percent are white and a third have incomes over $100,000.

Sixty-three percent describe themselves as liberals compared to 18 percent of the general public. Only six percent are Republicans.

To the question, “I'd fight for my country, right or wrong," 57 percent of all Americans answered yes while 91 percent of environmentalists said “Hell no, we won’t go.”

Another 70 to 80% supported abortion all the time and racist quotas.

In an understatement, the authors concluded: “The perspective and background of this movement's leadership are considerably removed from those of the majority.”

[Right_in_Virginia]

"Fueled by zealous anti-environmentalism and corporate special interests, they have launched what amounts to a sustained and systematic attack on America's public lands."

And, the administration is doing this...how?

I must have missed it in the article.

[Petronski]

Hyperbole, to the millionth billionth power.

[StriperSniper]

systematic attack on America's public lands."

And, the administration is doing this...how?

By spending billions: Bush urges spending billions to upgrade national parks

[pickemuphere]

I agree with 90% of the amendments Bush has made to NP policy, but the snowmobile issue is just wrong. Those things are the nastiest, loudest, most obnoxious machines I've ever had the displeasure of encountering. Yellowstone must be a place of hellish cacophony in the winter.

Snowmobiles are the only way to get around Yellowstone in the winter.

So who says you have a "right" to get around Yellowstone at any cost?

[Carry_Okie]

The Third Sector consists of the tax-exempt, The Nature Conservancy being the prime example.

[Carry_Okie]

So who says you have a "right" to get around Yellowstone at any cost?

"Cost" to whom?