Posted on 10/16/2002 5:12:57 PM PDT by EBUCK
****Press Release****
Fighting Irresponsible Radical Environmentalism (FIRE!) has installed a new billboard 1/2 mile north of exit 35, I-5, visible from the Northbound lanes, between Central Point and Gold Hill.
It reads:
Thank You EnvironMENTALists for Making the 2002 Fire Season All It Could Be! ****Image Attached****
Eric Buckner and numerous members of the popular conservative Internet forum, FreeRepublic.com, funded the billboard. Their purpose was to express outrage at the severity of recent Oregon wildfires due to the irresponsible and ignorant behavior of environmental activists.
Buckner explains, "It's time we brought the burden of accountability to environmentalists and their parent groups for the failure of their policies. Environmentalists, and the apologist politicians they control, bear full responsibility for the severity of the West's wildfire situation. Anytime someone is not held accountable for the results of their actions, disaster is the result."
The group believes that fire may be a part of the natural order, but not after 80 years of fire suppression, and NOT in the presence of noxious weeds. Environmentalists, in their hatred of the timber industry, have destroyed the capability to prevent such disasters.
“Tens of thousands are out of work, millions of acres are scorched and who's to blame? Environmentalists and their insane "hands-off" policies. The West has been building up to this for decades. All this time, environmentalists have barred every attempt to avert disaster. They were warned and they didn’t believe it. They appealed every ruling that went against them. They protested every battle they lost until they got their way. Well, they got their way and look where it got us. Look at the 'former' Kalmiopsis Wilderness (otherwise known as the Biscuit Fire). Look at the death and suffering of wildlife. It was totally unnecessary.”
“We have hundreds of thousands of acres, denuded as effectively as any clear-cut. After the fire, weeds are the first to recover, and spread with minimal competition from native plants. Come winter, rivers and streams will be choked with eroded mud. If it burns again in a few years, the damage may be irreversible.
“The real irony is that in their insane and misguided attempts to protect the forests, waterways, and fauna, environmentalists have sealed the fate of those very same forests, waterways, and fauna by disallowing human intervention. This isn’t about whether we care about nature. This is about who is going to fix it, how will it be paid for, how to verify and assure accountability that the job will be done right.
“We believe that private industry can do that job better than politicians, lawyers, and urban activists without a clue. Private Property rights, recreational/commercial land usage and water rights are a big issue with us. We plan to continue on the same path in the future. Perhaps doing similar things in states like Arizona, New Mexico, California and South Dakota.”
Contact: Eric Buckner. E-Mail : EBUCK@KEEPANDBEARARMS.COM
prisoner6
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