Posted on 01/07/2011 2:59:54 PM PST by CounterCounterCulture
| During the despotic eras of Norman and Plantagenet England, the Crown declared one third of the land area of Southern England to be the royal forest, the exclusive preserve of the monarch, his forestry officials and his favored aristocrats. The people of Britain were forbidden access to and enjoyment of these forests under harsh penalties. This exclusionary system became so despised by the people that in 1215, five clauses of the Magna Carta were devoted to redress of grievances that are hauntingly similar to those that are now flooding my office. |
House Chamber, Washington, D.C. January 7, 2011.
M. Speaker:
Much of my district comprises forests managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Over the last two years, I have received a growing volume of complaints protesting the increasingly exclusionary and elitist policies of this agency.
These complaints charge the Forest Service, among other things, with:
• Imposing inflated fees that are forcing the abandonment of family cabins held for generations;
• Charging exorbitant new fees that are closing down long-established community events upon which many small and struggling mountain towns depend for tourism;
• Expelling long-standing grazing operations on specious grounds – causing damage both to the local economy and the federal government’s revenues; and
• Obstructing the sound management of our forests through a policy that can only be described as benign neglect, creating both severe fire dangers and massive unemployment.
Practiced in the marketplace, we would renounce these tactics as predatory and abusive. In the public service sector, they are intolerable.
Combined, these actions evince an ideologically driven hostility to the public’s enjoyment of the public’s land – and a clear intention to deny the public the responsible and sustainable use of that land.
Most recently, the Forest Service has placed severe restrictions on vehicle access to the Plumas National Forest, despite volumes of public protests. Supervisor Bill Connelly, Chairman of the Butte County Board of Supervisors writes that “The restriction applies to such activities as: collecting firewood, retrieving game, loading or unloading horses or other livestock, and camping.” He writes, “The National Forests are part of the local fabric. The roads within the National Forests are used by thousands of residents and visitors for transportation and recreation. These activities generate revenue for our rural communities, which are critical for their survival.”
This is not a small matter. The Forest Service now controls 193 million acres within our nation – a land area equivalent to the size of Texas.
During the despotic eras of Norman and Plantagenet England, the Crown declared one third of the land area of Southern England to be the royal forest, the exclusive preserve of the monarch, his forestry officials and his favored aristocrats. The people of Britain were forbidden access to and enjoyment of these forests under harsh penalties. This exclusionary system became so despised by the people that in 1215, five clauses of the Magna Carta were devoted to redress of grievances that are hauntingly similar to those that are now flooding my office.
Mr. Speaker, the attitude that now permeates the U.S. Forest Service from top to bottom is becoming far more reminiscent of the management of the royal forests during the autocracy of King John than of an agency that is supposed to encourage, welcome, facilitate and maximize the public’s use of the public’s land in a nation of free men and women.
After all, that was the vision for the Forest Service set forth by its legendary founder, Gifford Pinchot in 1905: "to provide the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people in the long run."
In May of 2009 and April of 2010, some of my California colleagues and I sent letters to the Forest Service expressing these concerns. I have also personally met with senior officials of that agency on several occasions in which I have referenced more than 500 specific complaints of Forest Service abuses received by my office.
All that I have received to date from these officials are smarmy assurances that they will address these concerns – assurances that their own actions have belied at every turn.
It is time for Congress to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the abuses by this increasingly unaccountable and elitist agency, to demand accountability for the damage it has done – and is doing – to our forests’ health, to the public’s trust, to the government’s revenues and to the nation’s economy – and to take whatever actions are necessary to restore an attitude of consumer-friendly public service which was Gifford Pinchot’s original vision and for which the U.S. Forest Service was once renowned and respected.
A most excellent exposition.
Ic þe þancas do (Thank you in olde English)
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/evolenglish.html
“In the end, we’ll have to sell off all the national forests, the national parks, and the state of Alaska to pay off the debt.”
I think that is the point. Then the great USA will be killed, with no way of getting back up. No energy, No real money, No country.
We’re dead, Jim.
PING!
McClintock ping list
Please freepmail me if you want on or off this list.
“We’re dead, Jim.”
Hardly. The federal government has no business owning property except for the few and necessary buildings it might need.
Land can be sold off with restrictions, such as only American companies and individuals may bid.
Better yet, give the land to the states, where it belongs, and they can sell it.
Selling mining and energy exploration rights is a huge money multiplier.
For every trillion you sell off in energy and minerals, trillions more in economic activity are generated.
If the Chi-Comms object to the land sale, land and resources which our criminals in Washington probably promised as collateral for the loans, let them sail over in their sampans and try to take it.
We can hang the traitors on the western beaches and let the crows pick out their dead eyeballs. It will be a warning for any invader that if you step foot on an American beach, you die.
Behind every blade of grass, there will be a rifleman, not to mention our nuclear armed subs.
Anchors away, boys, there’s a faraway land that needs to be turned into glass.
Since they've not allowed logging, and the area was heavily logged in the 40-50’s, they've basically created a fire trap. The area has been mined extensively since the 1890s so it's not like they are preserving pristine forest or anything..
Our cabin is located in a town site that has been privately held since it was claimed in the 1870's, so they can't push us off that way, but I am sure they wouldn't mind a rip-roaring forest fire that burned the town down.
My post is the very first at Youtube. All who feel the noose of Big Government should at least leave a post of their feelings there.
UNESCO World Heritage Centre - Official Site
This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972.
SW must be up to something mighty important to have missed this. Hell, I just assumed he posted it when I initially scanned the title.
If by chance there is a forest fire and you should be observed doing anything to impede the natural burn areas you can expect to charged with interference of the Fire Control Boss. That means no backfire burning, no dozer clearing work after the fire is started, etc.
The entire nation should have been outragend. Instead, the vast majority merely shrugged.
The entire nation should be outraged at the surrender of the southern part of Arizona to alien criminals.
The entire nation should be outraged at the runaway spending by the Federal Government.
The entire nation should be outraged at our open Borders.
It is the public apathy that is the most terrifying thing of all.
Et tu brute?
Et tu brute?
Yes, it does my heart good to see this and also to listen to the new chairman of the "Resources Committee" named "Doc" somethingorother on Hew Hewitt, today!
It sounded like he too, was "pickin up what I've been layin down" over the past 20 years!
Gratifying to hear ANY Congressperson preach the gospel according to the Waspman after seemingly squandering 5 of the best years of my life trying to turn back the tide of GANG-GREEN GovernMental EnvironMental Commonism that wishes to herd us all off our personal domains in the west!!!
None of 'em are ever up to any danged good!!!
I would add that we need to restore Multiple Use Reservoirs like the one that was two thirds complete at Auburn, CA that would have been ideal for the regulation of water levels in Folsom reservoir, one on the most heavily used state recreation ares that keeps running out of water, or must dump winter flows out to sea each winter. Talk about a monument to stupidity!!!
Et tu brute?
ROFL!
(nice to see ya!)
BTTT
“It is the public apathy that is the most terrifying thing of all.”
..... absolutely true words. Step number one is to re-capture the mass media. By and large, the public only gets excited about what they are told to get excited about.
Yes. But how?
The mass media is controlled and dominated by people who have something like a mass psychosis. Reality is beyond their comprehension and is repugnant to them. They are under the illusion that they are doing something benevolent, whereas it's the opposite.
They assume (if they think this deeply at all) that they are leading the public, whereas they are misleading the public.
The best thing they could do is inform the public truthfully and let the people themselves decided what to do about it, but truth for its own sake is foreign to their thinking.
Truth has become incomprehensive and repugnant to them.
Fortunately we have alternative sources of information--the internet, Rush, Fox News, etc.--but I don't see how we can wrest the mass media away from these dangerous people or to enlighten them about how wrong and dangerous they are and how dangerously they are misleading the public.
And all of this assumes basic benevolence. There are some in the mass media who intend to mislead the public for selfish and/or malevolent purposes.
You can expect no more sympathy toward ordinary people (that's you and I) and the public interest from the neo-aristocrats in Washington and their forestry officials than the English peasantry got from "the Crown" and its "favored aristocrats".
I've dealt with these people.
They delight in their predatory power over the peasantry!
They get a sadistic thrill from the grasp of power and lording it over other people!
Their supporters take vicarious delight in their predatory powers. They imagine themselves wielding such power!
Could there be anything more predatory, greedy, or sadistically delighting in power than Nancy Pelosi demanding a larger jet--cruising extended family and friends around in it--demanding a more lavish and expensive office suite--vacationing in Hawaii at $10,000-a-night?
You can expect no more sympathy toward ordinary people (that's you and I) and the public interest from the neo-aristocrats in Washington and their forestry officials than the English peasantry got from "the Crown" and its "favored aristocrats".
I've dealt with these people.
They delight in their predatory power over the peasantry!
They get a sadistic thrill from the grasp of power and lording it over other people!
Their supporters take vicarious delight in their predatory powers. They imagine themselves wielding such power!
Could there be anything more predatory, greedy, or sadistically delighting in power than Nancy Pelosi demanding a larger jet--cruising extended family and friends around in it--demanding a more lavish and expensive office suite--vacationing in Hawaii at $10,000-a-night?
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