Free Republic

Battle lines are drawn over Arizona's forests By David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau Published 2:15 am PDT Monday, September 13, 2004 KAIBAB NATIONAL FOREST, Ariz. - The north rim of the Grand Canyon is ground zero in the battle between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry for the future care and handling of national forests. Here, in a hunting preserve created by President Teddy Roose velt nearly a century ago, the Bush administration is cutting old-growth trees to improve wildlife habitat and, under Bush's Healthy Forests Act, plans to cut down even more to lessen the threat of catastrophic...

Why the West Is Burning A five-year drought has parched soils, lowered reservoirs and weakened forests. And if the past is any guide, the dry spell could go on for decades By J. MADELEINE NASH/SAGE Monday, Aug. 16, 2004 In California the wildfire season generally ramps up slowly, and the largest fires usually don't arrive until fall. But this year is different, says Riverside County fire captain Rick Vogt, surveying the aftermath of a blaze that swept through the rural community of Sage, 80 miles from San Diego, with unseasonal intensity late last month, blackening more than 3,500 acres. Fire...

Among the last actions taken by Bill Clinton before leaving office was to outlaw road construction in virgin national forests. Most affected were Alaska and 11 Western states with 97 percent of the 58.5 million acres of affected roadless tracts. The rule was hailed by conservation groups and decried by some Western states. The Bush administration is proposing to replace Mr. Clinton's rule with a policy that gives states a greater voice in the management of national forests, thereby adding flexibility. James L. Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environment Quality, said "one-size-fits-all was creating some real issues...

In Europe's most valuable forests apocalyse already started The NASA satelite photos from one year ago confirmed that the fires that burned more than 5000 sq km of Europe's most valuable forests (in Portugal, 40% eucalyptus with exploration cycles as short as 8 years, 50% pinus pinaster with cycles of 15 to 22 years) were economically the most devastating ever in the world.Much of What was left has now been burning for several weeks. To start getting a larger picture, click on the links below, that you will fund at the mid of the translated page : Related articles: PORTUGAL...

(SH) - It was an act of executive bravado when, in the final month of his administration, President Bill Clinton adopted a regulation outlawing road-building or commercial development on millions of acres of national forest land. The result? Confusion, lawsuits and a court ruling that the regulation is invalid. The problem was that the Clinton team had tried to accomplish by last-minute fiat a statutory responsibility left up to Congress - the designation of some nationally owned land as wilderness, meaning that roads or development of any kind is verboten. Now comes the Bush administration - with environmentalists and outdoor...

BOISE, Idaho - The Bush administration Monday proposed lifting a national rule that closed remote areas of national forests to logging, instead saying states should decide whether to keep a ban on road-building in those areas. Environmentalists immediately criticized the change as the biggest timber industry giveaway in history. Under the proposal, governors would have to petition the federal government to block road-building in remote areas of national forests. Allowing roads to be built would open the areas to logging. The rule replaces one adopted by the Clinton administration and still under challenge in federal court. It covers about 58...

WASHINGTON, DC—U.S. Senator Jon Kyl issued the following statement: “Arizona’s economy added more than 8,400 new jobs last month and our unemployment rate has dropped below the national average to 5.1 percent. The facts show Arizona’s economy is strong and growing stronger, but John Kerry is traveling the nation on his pessimism and misery tour and talking about the Great Depression. Kerry voted against the President’s historic tax relief that is helping fuel Arizona’s economic recovery and his cynical rhetoric talking down our economy isn’t going to create any new jobs. “When President Bush signed the Healthy Forests legislation to...

"John Kerry's pessimism and misery tour ignores the reality that the President's pro-growth policies have helped create 1.4 million jobs over the past nine months." -Danny Diaz, Bush-Cheney '04 Spokesman 1. JOHN KERRY IS NO FRIEND OF THE MIDDLE CLASSKerry Sponsored And Voted For A Motion To Kill Marriage Penalty Relief For Couples Earning Less Than $50,000 Per Year. In 1995, Kerry voted for a resolution that said middle class tax cuts were not wise. "The sense of the Senate amendment, killed on a motion by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), said, "reducing the deficit should be one of the...

Since December when President Bush signed a new forestry law, the government has won 17 straight court cases favoring timber cutting over challenges by environmentalists. Bush pushed for the law that sponsors named the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, saying it would reduce wildfires in national forests by thinning trees while also limiting appeals and environmental reviews of proposed timber sales. Environmentalists say the new law has undercut important protection for old-growth trees and remote, roadless areas. In a memo obtained by The Associated Press, the Agriculture Department's general counsel, Nancy Bryson, touted the Forest Service's success in winning all 14...

WASHINGTON - Ten years after it was adopted to cool a conflict over logging of old-growth trees, the Northwest Forest Plan still provokes hot debate. The Clinton administration signed the landmark plan on April 13, 1994, to settle lawsuits brought by environmentalists and bring a level of peace in a battling region. The plan sharply reduced logging on 24 million acres of federal land in Washington, Oregon and northern California to protect the northern spotted owl, salmon and other threatened species. At the same time, it promised a sustainable supply of timber — including some from older, more commercially valuable...

Wyden asks to split plans for logging Biscuit fire The senator tries to speed salvage in areas facing little opposition and to give Oregon loggers and mills first shot at the work 04/03/04 MICHAEL MILSTEIN Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is pressing the Bush administration to split its logging plans in the Biscuit fire zone so anticipated battles over cutting in sensitive areas do not hold up the harvest. If the zone is broken up, he said, parts with little opposition might proceed if other elements face lengthy appeals and lawsuits from activist groups. Wyden also wants the administration to give...

Congressmen Seek to Probe Logging PR Deal By DON THOMPSON Associated Press Writer April 2, 2004, 11:43 PM EST SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Two congressmen want an investigation of whether the U.S. Forest Service illegally hired a public relations firm to promote a plan to cut wildfire danger by increasing logging in Sierra Nevada forests. Democratic Reps. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, on the House Resources Committee, and Jay Inslee of Washington, on the forests subcommittee, noted the contract echoes a similar pact canceled five years ago involving the same Forest Service officials. The $90,000 contract also appears to violate a...

Feinstein and Leslie Join Forces to Push Forest Thinning Project Efforts to thin forests near Lake Tahoe are getting a boost from two California lawmakers, who are asking the federal government to expedite funds for the fire-prevention project. Democratic U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and state Assemblyman Tim Leslie, R-Auburn, point to the danger of a Southern California-style wildfire in the Tahoe Basin. The thinning project is intended to clear dense undergrowth that makes the forests particularly vulnerable to fire. Leslie is asking the federal government to make Lake Tahoe one of the first places in the country to receive...

A sequel to the fires that devastated parts of British Columbia last summer is likely unless action is taken, a report into the disaster warned Friday. The report — prepared by a task force headed by former Manitoba premier Gary Filmon — argues that the window is short to implement reforms, and that the government should act while the memory of the destruction is still clear in British Columbians' minds. "The devastation of firestorm 2003 is fresh in the public's mind and the costs and consequences of various choices are well understood," the report says. Abnormally hot, dry weather in...

Your readers may be confused by your Jan. 5 editorial, "Timber giveaway." The Bush administration takes protection of this nation's forests seriously. The Tongass National Forest in Alaska is home to centuries-old trees, bears, eagles, wolves and five different kinds of wild salmon. And, after nearly 100 years of multi-use management of these forests for fisheries, timber, minerals, recreation and subsistence activity, they are healthy, vibrant forests with no listed threatened or endangered species. The state of Alaska challenged the roadless rule in court, claiming it violated a number of laws, including a national law that applies specifically to Alaska....

<p>The new blueprint will cut fire risk, officials say, but foes claim it is driven by logging interests.</p> <p>The U.S. Forest Service rolled out revisions Thursday to its plan for managing 11 million acres of Sierra Nevada woodlands, saying the changes will reduce wildfire danger and protect old-growth forests.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO - The U.S. Forest Service said Thursday it plans to spend $50 million annually to thin Sierra Nevada forests, tripling the amount of logging that would have been allowed under a Clinton-era plan.</p> <p>Regional Forester Jack Blackwell said the revised plan is needed to prevent devastating wildfires like those that swept Southern California last fall, though opponents dismissed the comparison.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO - The U.S. Forest Service plans to market a forest-thinning plan in the Sierra Nevada range as necessary to prevent devastating wildfires like those that swept Southern California last fall.</p> <p>Regional Forester Jack Blackwell was to announce Thursday the final version of a controversial revision of a Clinton administration plan for managing 11.5 million acres spanning 11 national forests.</p>

Friday, January 16, 2004 Judge Halts Logging in Spotted Owl Habitat By Adam RankinJournal Northern Bureau    Environmentalists are declaring a legal victory, at least for now, in a battle to protect the habitat of federally protected Mexican spotted owls from a Jemez Mountain logging project aimed at salvaging about 950 acres of burned national forest.     Late Wednesday, Albuquerque federal district Judge Christina Armijo ruled that part of the timber salvage project should be put on hold until a second hearing Jan. 30.     The project, known as the Lakes and BMG timber salvage, was designed "to recover the timber...

Pending changes to the federal plan on logging in the Northwest's national forests are expected to draw lawsuits It's a new year and new battles are on the horizon between environmentalists and the Bush administration over federal forests in the Pacific Northwest -- but the theme is continuing conflict. Central to the clash are changes the Bush administration is making this year in the Northwest Forest Plan, the document hammered out under President Clinton in 1994 to end the standoff over logging federal old-growth forests. Government officials are expected this month and next to finalize rule changes that will make...