U.S. to Protect Florida Coral Reefs

Austin-American Statesman ^ | 11/13/02 | JOHN HEILPRIN

[anniegetyourgun]

This didn't get much play yesterday because the lib/dem media don't want the administration to get any credit.

Truth is, THIS is exactly the kind of thing that displays the grand history of the R party. It's where we get the word 'conservative' - one who knows and understands CONSERVATION.

CONSERVATIONISM must replace ENVIRONMENTALISM....just as ANIMAL WELFARE must replace ANIMAL RIGHTS....and so on.

[Sam Cree]

Hope they're going to still let the "little people" go out and fish there.

[Catspaw]

According to the story, unless your boat is 164 feet or longer, you won't have any trouble going fishing in these waters.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Exactly - it was the thing shippers, divers, government and fishermen could agree with - sensible and limited. The onlyn people who might be mad would be libertarians, and they're irrelevant.

[TheBattman]

Bush administration officials announced Wednesday the creation of the new protective zone in the Florida Keys, which is part of the world's third largest barrier reef ecosystem

NO way! Can't be - GW is no friend of the environment - at least according to the green weenie enviro wacko tree huggers.

[anniegetyourgun]

Hey, we still visit national parks, and many hunt there! The important thing is to keep the lib/dems from messing that up with their stupid and dangerous policies of environmentalism. It's also important for R's to remember their roots because it represents sound management policy and stewardship. Such positions need to be trumpeted as juxtaposition to the so-called green movement of the left. Sadly, many Americans think that R's have no policy. That's because the R party hasn't done a good job of expressing themselves on this matter. We should be fearless on this issue and not trumped by the left-wing whackos.

[Sam Cree]

"That's because the R party hasn't done a good job of expressing themselves on this matter. We should be fearless on this issue and not trumped by the left-wing whackos."

That's very true, they haven't. We've let the Left pre empt us on "environmentalism," they use it as a tool to institute socialism, we have allowed them to corrupt the very meaning of the word, just as we let them corrupt the meaning of the word "liberal."

[anniegetyourgun]

Ping!

[Mr_Peter]

"The only people who might be mad would be libertarians, and they're irrelevant."

Absolutely right on...but they sure make a lot of noise here.

[Sam Cree]

"Hey, we still visit national parks, and many hunt there!"

Yeah, I still go in the Everglades and Biscayne National Parks in my boats and fish there, as do many from this area.

Most of us think the Park Rangers have an "attitude." These rangers act like the parks are just for themselves, and that the general public is in there merely at the government's discretion and pleasure. No matter how polite I am when I get pulled over by a ranger (and they pull you over alot, no matter who you are), they always make me feel like they think I am a peasant, trespassing in the "King's Forest."

Though I've long appreciated that the parks have saved these beautiful areas from development, I'm starting to have serious mixed feelings.

And the park administrators do occasionally talk of closing large areas to fishing, though I believe they do this under pressure from "environmentalists."

[oyez]

Why not sink Key West and make a big reef out of that?

[anniegetyourgun]

Remember, we have lots of enviro infiltrators in the system - especially after 8 years of Clinton. You must also remember, most rangers are young and have been educated in American government schools where they dutifully memorized 'reduce, recycle, and re-use" instead of their times tables.

[anniegetyourgun]

Just keep reminding yourself, that's all it is....noise.

[BigWaveBetty]

You are correct!

Just look at this story about forest management from yahoo, you'd think the Bush Admin. has dirty old men in smoky back rooms rubbing their hands together in anticipation of felling every tree in America.

Conservation Groups Fear Republican Congress

Here's the Administrations proposal:

Fact Sheet: The Healthy Forests Initiative

Today's Presidential Action

President Bush traveled to Oregon today to announce his new Healthy Forests Initiative. The Bush Administration will:

Significantly step up efforts to prevent the damage caused by catastrophic wildfires by reducing unnecessary regulatory obstacles that hinder active forest management;

Work with Congress to pass legislation that addresses the unhealthy forest crisis by expediting procedures for forest thinning and restoration projects; and

Fulfill the promise of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan to ensure the sustainable forest management and appropriate timber production.

Background on Today's Presidential Action

The 2002 fire season is already one of the worst in modern history. More than 5.9 million acres have burned this year -- an area the size of New Hampshire and twice the annual average. This year's fires have driven tens of thousands of people from their homes, destroyed more than 2,000 homes and structures, and caused the deaths of 20 firefighters. These fires have also killed hundreds of millions of trees, devastated habitat, and severely damaged forest soils and watersheds for decades to come.

America's public lands have undergone radical changes during the last century due to the suppression of fires and a lack of active forest and rangeland management. In healthy forests, low-intensity fires help rejuvenate habitat by clearing out underbrush and small trees, leaving an open forest with strong, fire-resistant, mature trees. Today, the forests and rangelands of the West have become unnaturally dense, and ecosystems have suffered.

When coupled with seasonal droughts, these unhealthy forests are vulnerable to unnaturally severe wildfires. They are overloaded with the fuels for fires -- underbrush and small trees. A large, catastrophic fire can release the energy equivalent of an atomic bomb and destroy, rather than renew, our forests.

Currently, 190 million acres of public land and surrounding communities are at increased risk of extreme fires. In May, the federal government reached agreement with 17 western governors, tribal, and local officials on a comprehensive 10-year Fire Plan implementation strategy to reduce the threat of severe fires and promote healthy forests. This strategy calls for active forest management, through thinning and prescribed burns, to reduce the unnatural buildup of fuels.

Current firefighting techniques are often successful, but land managers must do more to prevent these catastrophic fires. The federal government has provided record levels of support for firefighting, but efforts to tackle the root cause of these fires through active forest management are too often hindered by unnecessary procedural delays and litigation.

For example, in Oregon, federal officials identified the Squires Peak area as a high fire risk in 1996, and began planning a project to thin crowded trees and dense underbrush on 24,000 acres. After six years of analysis and documentation, administrative appeals and two lawsuits, work was allowed to begin on 430 acres of the original 24,000-acre project. When lightning ignited the Squires Peak fire on July 13, 2002, with only a fraction of the area thinned, the fire quickly spread to 2,800 acres. The thinned area was unharmed by the fire. In unthinned areas, the fire killed most trees, sterilized soils and destroyed the habitat of threatened spotted owls. The fire cost $2 million to suppress, and $1 million will be needed to rehabilitate the devastated area.

The 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, which was designed to produce a healthy and sustainable forest economy while providing needed habitat protection, has failed to live up to its promise due to costly delays and unnecessary litigation. The Bush Administration will work with all interested parties, including Congress, to resolve the legal and procedural problems that have undermined the promise of the Northwest Forest Plan.

For more information on the President's initiatives, please visit www.whitehouse.gov

AGYG, have you seen any stories claiming that republicans want to kill all the coral reefs they can?

[anniegetyourgun]

Unbelievable...but yet, not.

"There is no doubt a cocky White House and their gloating allies in Congress are going to use their inflated muscle to try to open up public forests to industrial strength logging," said Brian Vincent, California organizer for American Lands. "Their mid-term gains could mean political Armageddon for national forests."

This is the kind of claptrap that we must fight openly and fiercely. Gad, I wish we could resurrect TR for this part of the battle. But alas, he's in a far better place and therefore wouldn't want the job!

[Sam Cree]

we have lots of enviro infiltrators in the system

I think so to. Democrats, in other words, I guess.

[mountaineer]

CONSERVATIONISM must replace ENVIRONMENTALISM....just as ANIMAL WELFARE must replace ANIMAL RIGHTS

Couldn't agree more. Thanks for posting this - you're right, we weren't going to hear about it on the nightly news.

[editor-surveyor]

I see nothing harmful, or onerous in this designation, as it now stands, but Dumoc-Rats may later turn it into something that it was never intended to be. (Foot in door principle)

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[anniegetyourgun]

Vigilance!