Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Bush opens 300,000 acres of Alaskan national forest to logging
StarTribune.com ^ | Dec. 24 2003 | John Heilprin, Associated Press

Posted on 12/23/2003 6:34:58 PM PST by carlo3b

Bush opens 300,000 acres of Alaskan national forest to logging

John Heilprin, Associated Press
 
Published December 24, 2003 TLOG24
 
WASHINGTON -- Reversing a Clinton-era policy, the Bush administration on Tuesday opened 300,000 more acres of Alaska's Tongass National Forest, the nation's largest, to possible logging or other development.

The administration will allow 3 percent of the forest's 9.3 million acres that were put off-limits to road-building by former President Clinton, to have roads built on them and perhaps opened to use by the timber industry. The Tongass comprises 16.8 million acres.

``The people of Alaska benefit,'' said spokesman Bill Bradshaw of the U.S. Forest Service, part of the Agriculture Department. ``What's behind this is the legal challenge by the state. The main point is that it brought a resolution to the Alaska challenge.''

The ruling builds on the Bush administration's decision in June to settle a lawsuit filed by Alaska that challenged the road-building ban. As part of the settlement, the administration agreed to exempt the Tongass and Chugach national forests from its planned revisions to the roadless rule.

Mark Rey, the Agriculture Department's undersecretary in charge of forest policy, said that as a practical matter, 95 percent of the roadless areas in the two national forests would remain off-limits to development.

That's because the administration, while reversing the ban on road-building in Alaska's forests that Clinton adopted just before he left office in 2001, is reverting to an earlier Clinton plan in 1997 that set special management rules for Alaskan forests.

``The bottom line is we've affirmed the 1997 Clinton Tongass plan, which affirms protection for 95 percent of the roadless (area) on the Tongass ... based on the best science available,'' Rey said.

John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA, accused the Bush administration of ``gutting the last pristine temperate rain forest'' in the United States. Tiernan Sittenfeld of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, an advocacy organization, called it ``yet another holiday gift to the timber industry.''

But Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the decision ``paves the way for a resumption of some wood harvest for the Tongass, enough to support the surviving timber industry in southeast Alaska.''

Agriculture Department officials, with approval from the White House Office of Management and Budget, decided to exempt the acreage from the so-called roadless rule, an often-challenged Clinton-era policy.

Imposed in January 2001, the rule had sought to block development of 58.5 million acres, or nearly one-third of the national forests.

The rule was struck down in July by a federal district judge in Wyoming and currently is before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Forest Service officials said their decision ``maintains the balance for roadless area protection'' while providing opportunities for sustainable economic development.

``People in 32 communities within the Tongass National Forest depend on the forest for subsistence and social and economic health,'' officials said in a statement. ``Most communities lack road and utility connections to other communities.''

In August, Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski said the roadless rule, which effectively has locked away portions of the Tongass and the 5.3 million-acre Chugach national forests from major timber development, was ``unlawful and unwise.''

The Republican governor, a former senator, demanded that the Forest Service exempt Alaska from the roadless rule on grounds it violates the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the Wilderness Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act.

Former Democrat Gov. Tony Knowles also had filed a federal lawsuit in 2001 challenging the rule. A federal judge in Idaho blocked the roadless ban in May 2001, saying it needed to be amended, but that ruling was overturned last year by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Environmentalists said they were alarmed by the decision, and that it would mean the loss of protection for all 9.3 million acres of inventoried roadless areas.

``Our public lands are under attack,'' said Cindy Shogan of the Alaska Wilderness League. ``The Bush administration won't be happy until the timber industry has reduced the heart of America's rain forest to stumps.''


 

(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Political Humor/Cartoons; Politics/Elections; US: Alaska
KEYWORDS: bush; environment; envirowackos; logging; trees
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 161-164 next last
 
This should really make the Enviro-nuts Christmas really Merry!!   LOLOLOL
1 posted on 12/23/2003 6:34:59 PM PST by carlo3b
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: carlo3b
What, do you think toilet paper simply grows on trees or something?
2 posted on 12/23/2003 6:36:07 PM PST by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty," not the "Statue of Security.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: FreedomCalls
LOL!!!!
3 posted on 12/23/2003 6:36:47 PM PST by ConservativeMan55 (You know how those liberals are. Two's Company but three is a fundraiser.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: carlo3b; AAABEST; Ace2U; Alamo-Girl; Alas; alfons; amom; AndreaZingg; Anonymous2; ...
Rights, farms, environment ping.

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

4 posted on 12/23/2003 6:37:02 PM PST by farmfriend ( Isaiah 55:10,11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: carlo3b
YEAH!!
5 posted on 12/23/2003 6:38:00 PM PST by Ann Archy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: carlo3b
Thats +1 for Bush's domestic agenda.
6 posted on 12/23/2003 6:38:18 PM PST by gitmo (Who is John Galt?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: carlo3b
To put this in perspective, Alaska is about 365,000,000 acres, and right now Bush is only opening up this to build roads.
7 posted on 12/23/2003 6:38:58 PM PST by Always Right
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: carlo3b
Okay, so what's the carb content of fresh cut lumber? And do you have any good recipies? Getting tired of steak and lettuce here.
8 posted on 12/23/2003 6:39:52 PM PST by Larry Lucido
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: carlo3b
This should really make the Enviro-nuts Christmas really Merry!! LOLOLOL

I received a plea for money from the Sierra Club this summer using the logging of this forest as their scare tactic. They had it as the last of a certain type of rain forest. It read like a Bush hate letter. Of course I sent them a lot of money to help save this forest and fight Bush's policies.

9 posted on 12/23/2003 6:40:10 PM PST by farmfriend ( Isaiah 55:10,11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: carlo3b
300,000 acres = 468.75 sq mi = 13 townships.

This is insignificant on the Alaskan scale.

10 posted on 12/23/2003 6:41:14 PM PST by RightWhale (Close your tag lines)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: carlo3b
Yeah, wadda ya goin to make your house outta? Meat?
11 posted on 12/23/2003 6:42:01 PM PST by steveo (Saying nothing impotant since 1998)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Always Right
right now Bush is only opening up this to build roads..

Yeah, roads to the other 364,997,000 acres.. :)

12 posted on 12/23/2003 6:42:04 PM PST by carlo3b (http://www.CookingWithCarlo.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: carlo3b
When reading newspaper articles, the best places to look for the author's bias are the first and last paragraphs.

The first paragraph here is written from the enviroweenie perspective, not even hinting at jobs created or economic growth.

And the last paragraph is a dead giveaway, quoting someone from the Alaska Wilderness League.
13 posted on 12/23/2003 6:43:45 PM PST by Metternich
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: carlo3b
What a Merry Christmas indeed! Just thinking about the enviro nuts going postal make my heart merry.
14 posted on 12/23/2003 6:44:50 PM PST by AmericaUnited
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: carlo3b
I live in the woods. Ok, three small acres. Would someone please help me get rid of these dead and aging trees that can be useful to someone else? What would it be with millions of acres?
15 posted on 12/23/2003 6:45:30 PM PST by AGreatPer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RightWhale
468.75 sq mi

or 1,881,792,000,000 sq. inches....

16 posted on 12/23/2003 6:46:29 PM PST by Always Right
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Larry Lucido
We can use those wood chips to fire up the grill to cook the big thick Mad Cow Steaks.. yummmmmmmm 0 carbs.. This recipe will just drive you nuts!! ..:)
17 posted on 12/23/2003 6:46:47 PM PST by carlo3b (http://www.CookingWithCarlo.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: carlo3b
Hopefully, this trend moves south from AK, to the Southwest. Screw the enviro-nutballs. They love watching millions of acres BURN to the ground, but don't you DARE CUT those trees down. Because, that might serve a USEFUL PURPOSE, and they can't COMPREHEND THAT.
18 posted on 12/23/2003 6:46:57 PM PST by FlyVet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steveo
wadda ya goin to make your house outta? Meat?

.. a... er.. Yeah!

19 posted on 12/23/2003 6:48:40 PM PST by carlo3b (http://www.CookingWithCarlo.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: AmericaUnited
"Just thinking about the enviro nuts going postal make my heart merry."

Worth a repeat.

i have a major problem because I am getting older of getting rid of the not useful trees. I wish I had help.

Do those idiots think a tree lives forever? Probably. There from New York City.

20 posted on 12/23/2003 6:48:59 PM PST by AGreatPer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 161-164 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson