Free Republic

I went to our yearly HOA meeting last night. Some consultant with GBM Associates in Bryant, AR said that he is proposing a "Neighborhood mitigation bank" where we buy "credits" for letting the Corps of Engineers (COE) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) get deeded our "wetlands", which are really 2 creeks, and dry tributaries. The consultant was honest. He said, no federal law dictates it, just a 1983 guidance. NO promises of making money, no guarantees that COE/EPA will do anything. Fines are possibe, like if my kid catches crawfish, or throws rocks in the lake/stream. Anyways, my wife and...

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...

Friday, August 9, 2002 Groups Protest N.M. Drilling By Tania Soussan Journal Staff Writer     Provisions of a House energy bill now before congressional negotiators would allow unprecedented oil and gas drilling in sensitive areas of New Mexico, conservationists said this week.     A coalition of 17 groups — including the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, the San Juan Citizen's Alliance and Forest Guardians — released a report detailing the potential impacts of the bill.     They called on Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and others to kill several provisions in the energy bill passed by...

Calling All Convoy Freepers'Sawgrass Rebellion' launched "Private land owners are being forced off their land by a variety of coersive land-use policies, being imposed under the banner of Everglades Restoration," endangered species protection, open space, Heritage areas, and a host of other programs, all designed to displace people, or severely restrict the use of private property." Henry Lamb,  Executive vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization."We predict that approximately 25,000 people will be forced to leave their homes." Don E. Lester, The 15,000 Coalition Naples, Florida "WE'VE HAD ENOUGH!!" "We are taking back America and our rights as free...

Government biologists admitted faking a study monitoring the presence of Canada lynx in southern Washington state. (ABCNEWS.com) Missing Lynx Are Animals More Important Than People? CommentaryBy John Stossel Aug. 2 — "We need water! We need water!" That's the refrain from farmers up in Klamath Falls, Ore. Their fields have dried up, and some farmers have even lost their farms — all because of a fish known as the short-nosed sucker. There's a lake full of water in Klamath Falls, but last year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ordered the irrigation gates from the lake closed — meaning...

Flames force evacuations in The Dalles By ANDREW KRAMER The Associated Press 7/27/02 3:27 AM THE DALLES, Ore. (AP) -- A contingent of 125 Oregon National Guard troops headed for the Columbia River Gorge Saturday to help fight a 6,000-acre wildfire threatening 270 homes. The Sheldon Ridge fire spewed smoke over The Dalles and burned to within a few feet of some homes perched on the hillsides, some with dramatic views of the river and Mount Hood. Firefighters parked their red and yellow engines in driveways with lights flashing and prepared to fight house to house if the fire picked...

It's not all Smokey Bear's fault 07/23/02 The nation is eagerly throwing thousands of firefighters and more than $10 million a day against forest fires burning over nearly 4 million acres of the West. If only it made that kind of effort at fire prevention. For years, the country has stalled around and bickered over the forest thinning and other work needed to prevent these kinds of devastating fires. And there's a chance again this summer that firefighting costs will consume money set aside for fire prevention. If that happens, Montana Gov. Judy Martz warns, the nation will "continue to...

Flames force evacuations in The Dalles (East of Portland, Oregon) By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press SPRAGUE RIVER, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon's wildfire season took a turn to the north late Thursday when the Sheldon Ridge Fire grew to 3,000 acres and forced 200 homes near The Dalles to be evacuated. The fire was reportedly a few miles southwest of the city and threatening expensive homes in the nearby hills. City firefighters from Portland were sent to the area by mandate of the Conflagration Act, which allows the governor to ask for assistance of local firefighters when wildfire resources get...

Lightning Ignites New Fires in Central Oregon 07/24/2002 By AP and KGW Staff Nearly 1,000 lightning strikes hit central Oregon yesterday afternoon and last night igniting several new fires across the state. Firefighters are now chasing the new wildfires, including one that has prompted the voluntary evacuation of campgrounds on Suttle and Blue lakes northwest of Sisters. Heavy lift helicopters are set to begin attacking the Cache Mountain fire this morning, said David Widmark, spokesman for the Northwest Interagency Coodination Center in Portland. Smoke billows skyward and spreads east near Summer Lake, Ore., Tuesday. (AP Photo) The Cache Mountain fire...

National Guard troops mop up Winter Fire to free experienced crews By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press PAISLEY, Ore. (AP) -- Their cots lined up 12 inches apart, and olive drab tents tautly pitched in a grassy field, National Guard troops tossed footballs, listened to rock and roll and called home on cell phones as they waited to join the battle against forest fires burning across Oregon. Fresh from training after being called up by Gov. John Kitzhaber, 250 members of the 82nd Armored Cavalry out of Redmond were scheduled to begin mopping up hot spots and smoking stumps in...

National Guard troops to join firefighters By BRAD CAIN The Associated Press 7/22/02 7:37 PM PAISLEY, Ore. (AP) -- Touching down from a helicopter tour of fires across Oregon, Gov. John Kitzhaber urged Congress to boost its commitment to preventing future blazes in the nation's forests. "This is as much a war as the war we are fighting in Afghanistan,' Kitzhaber said at Paisley High School, which houses 814 firefighters hoping to contain the 31,500-acre Winter Fire in the Summer Lake Basin of south central Oregon. "Congress has got to put in a permanent appropriation to keep resources coming" for...