Free Republic

AZUSA, Calif., 7:52 a.m. PDT September 3, 2002 - A wildfire in the San Gabriel Mountains that forced people to flee campgrounds over the Labor Day weekend has grown to 14,429 acres, officials said Tuesday. The blaze, which started Sunday afternoon about 30 miles northeast of Los Angeles, was 5 percent contained, said Linda Steinberg, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. It was expected that the wildfire would be fully contained by Sept. 10, Steinberg said.

In the last essay, titled "Paul Bunyan Meets Sierra Sue Happy and the Democrats," we learned that Paul Bunyan, as well as many other American folk heroes, were being deconstructed and then reconstructed into politically correct social icons by leftist groups like the Sierra Club aka Sierra Sue Happy. We found out that the Democratic Party has become the legislative arm of the radicalized environmental movement. We learned that 6 million acres of Western forests have burned to the ground, some of it to bedrock. This will ensure that some of those forests may take generations to grow back. That...

<p>"While visiting the west coast this week, I saw the destructive effects of one of the worst wildfire seasons in history," Bush said in his weekly radio address.</p> <p>"As we work to put out the fires and bring relief to their victims, we also have a responsibility to prevent the devastation that can be caused by future fires," he added.</p> <p>Bush said U.S. forest policy needed to focus on thinning out trees to reduce the incidence and damage from wildfires. He characterized the current U.S. forest policy as a, "hands-off approach" that was "devastating to our environment."</p>