Free Republic

<p>SAN BERNARDINO -- Southern California's record wildfires have not only scorched hundreds of homes, they have rekindled debate on whether the government could prevent such conflagrations by actively removing brush and other forest "fuels."</p> <p>Some Western politicians have seized on the blazes as reason for Congress to pass "Healthy Forests" legislation supported by the Bush administration, which would truncate environmental reviews to speed up the thinning of national forests.</p>

AS Hugh Hewitt notes on his website, Boxer's against Bush's "Healthy Forest" initiative, which would clear dead trees and other kindling from forest lands. I think a valid campaign ad should show the flames and devastation AND REMIND VOTERS THAT BARBARA BOXER IS IN THE RADICAL ENVIROS' CORNER. She represents THEM, not the people. AND HER POLICIES HAVE CAUSE UNTOLD LOSS OF PROPERTY - AND TRAGIC LOSS OF LIFE. Barbara Boxer can and should be defeated next November.

On September 22 of this year, Jack Blackwell, a regional forester of the Pacific Southwest Region of the US Forest Service, testified before the Committee on Resources of the House subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health. Barely a month later, his warnings about the conditions of the forested areas of southern California came true, destroying countless homes and taking lives in its path. He began by noting that the 672,000 acres of the San Bernadino National Forest had some 24 million people living within a two-hour drive and that it was going through "a significant cycle of drought-related, vegetation mortality"...

You know that environment-destroying "environmentalists" have gone too far with their deadly anti-human extremism when Sen. Dianne Feinstein is on President Bush's side. Feinstein, D-Calif., urged the Senate last night to pass Bush's Healthy Forests Restoration Act. Democrats, pandering for donations from "Club Sierra" and other wealthy groups of self-styled enviros who are so fanatically anti-logging they'd rather endanger entire forests and those who live nearby, have obstructed the measure. "With the drought, the devastation caused by the bark beetle and the dangerous buildup of dry tinder and undergrowth, I feared that California could face a devastating season of wildfires....

<p>Lawmakers from both parties are calling for fast action on President Bush´s forestry initiative, as wildfires that have killed at least 15 persons and destroyed more than 1,100 homes race through Southern California.</p> <p>Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, asked the Senate last night to start moving the Healthy Forests Restoration Act that has stalled over issues of debate time and amendments.</p>

<p>Lawmakers from both parties are calling for fast action on President Bush´s forestry initiative, as wildfires that have killed at least 15 persons and destroyed more than 1,100 homes race through Southern California.</p> <p>Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, asked the Senate last night to start moving the Healthy Forests Restoration Act that has stalled over issues of debate time and amendments.</p>

<p>Our nation faces a severe forest health crisis. Whether it is raging fires, ravaging insects, or mysterious, disease-carrying agents that threaten to wipe out entire species, not a single region of the country is being spared the devastating economic and environmental consequences of this monumental crisis.</p>

Fire jumps Hwy. 20; Santiam Pass may be shut for days Wind fans blazes; numerous camps, campsites evacuated By Barney Lerten, bend.com (barney@bend.com) Originally Posted August 19, 2003 at 4:57 pm Last Update August 20, 2003 at 10:29 am Reference Code: AR-11052 August 20 - One of two wind-fueled wildfires in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Area jumped Highway 20 near Santiam Pass overnight as both blazes grew quickly in size, only about a dozen miles apart. The White House was monitoring the situation, in case the blazes force a change in President Bush’s planned Thursday visit to Camp Sherman to...

<p>A WAR IS RAGING. It involves lands essential to our nation, and will dramatically affect future generations. No, I am not speaking of Iraq or Afghanistan. This war is right here: the Bush administration's radical, all-out attack on America's wilderness and public lands.</p>

<p>His face has been splashed on the covers of Time and Newsweek this month.</p> <p>And his cyberstumping - the use of the Internet to raise big bucks and organize supporters - has turned Howard Dean into a political phenomenon. The former Vermont governor whose iconoclastic ways remind some of Arizona Sen. John McCain stops by Tucson on Monday.</p>

COUNTDOWN (447 DAYS) TO VICTORY '04 --IN FOCUS -- HEALTHY FOREST INITIATIVE! President Bush will be discussing his "Healthy Forest" Environmental Initiative in Arizona and Colorado today. During the August recess, we are bringing you the In Focus from the White House website dealing with different issues. Our spotlight for today's thread is going to be on the Healthy Forest Initiative from the In Focus on the Environment! Please visit our other In Focus Reports from the White House to use when you are defending the policies of this Administration: COUNTDOWN (458 DAYS) TO VICTORY '04 -- Operation Iraqi...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryAugust 16, 2003 President Discusses Healthy Forests in Weekly Radio Address      Audio THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week, I traveled to Arizona and California to see some of America's forests and parks, and to talk about my commitment to good stewardship of these natural treasures. On Monday, I visited the Coronado National Forest in Arizona, where wildfires recently consumed thousands of acres of forest and destroyed hundreds of homes. Nearby, I also saw forests that remained largely intact, thanks to wise forest management policy. Fire professionals and forest and park rangers agree, by thinning...

SEELEY LAKE, Montana — When members of the Western Governors Association and federal officials toured a series of federal forest projects near this western Montana community in mid-June, they said they found ample justification to accelerate forest thinning to prevent wildfires. (Related story: Milder fire season may still turn hot) ... But if the governors had gone instead to the scene of Colorado's worst wildfire, the Hayman fire of 2002, they might have had a bit more skepticism about the beneficial effects of forest thinning. "Thinning," concludes Greg Aplet, a forest ecologist with The Wilderness Society, "can change fire behavior...

<p>SUMMERHAVEN, Ariz. (AP) — During a visit to a charred mountain-resort community yesterday, President Bush called on Congress to pass legislation to allow for prompt thinning of overgrown forests.</p> <p>"Forest-thinning projects make a significant difference about whether or not wildfires will destroy a lot of property," Mr. Bush said after touring charred areas of the Santa Catalina Mountains in southeastern Arizona. "We need to thin our forests in America."</p>

<p>SUMMERHAVEN, Ariz. (AP) &#8212; During a visit to a charred mountain-resort community yesterday, President Bush called on Congress to pass legislation to allow for prompt thinning of overgrown forests.</p> <p>"Forest-thinning projects make a significant difference about whether or not wildfires will destroy a lot of property," Mr. Bush said after touring charred areas of the Santa Catalina Mountains in southeastern Arizona. "We need to thin our forests in America."</p>

<p>He's come to the wrong place with the wrong plan.</p> <p>"We're all scratching our heads over why the president would attempt to use the 'Aspen' fire as a political stage for his Healthy Forests Initiative," said Brian Segee of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity.</p>

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - President Bush surveys a fire-ravaged community in Arizona on Monday as part of a push to get the Senate to approve steps aimed at preventing catastrophic wildfires. Bush's helicopter-and-hiking tour of the devastation left behind by the June fire in mountainous Summerhaven, Arizona, near Tucson, is also meant to illustrate what he says his proposals can help save. The preventive forest thinning Bush is trying to accelerate helped ensure the survival of $2 billion in telecommunications equipment, camps owned by churches and Boy Scout and Girl Scout groups and two mountain observatories, said James Connaughton, chairman...

<p>I'M RE-READING George Orwell's classic dystopian novel, "1984," so I may be a bit sensitive to official language that masks what's really going on. In the bleak world of "1984," as you may remember, the Ministry of Truth publishes lies, the Ministry of Love tortures people and the Ministry of Peace wages perpetual war.</p>

Senate Panel Juggles Wildfire, Forest Management By J.R. PeggWASHINGTON, DC, June 26, 2003 (ENS) - When the Senate Agriculture Committee kicked off discussions of the House forest thinning bill today, Arizona Senator John McCain urged his colleagues to work aggressively to forge agreement on how to address the growing threat of wildfire. There may be disagreement over provisions in the House bill, McCain said, but Congress can not afford to allow the debate to once again end in an impasse. "We face a major crisis," the Arizona Republican said, reminding the committee that a current fire in his state has...

<p>As many feared would happen, the fire season has started, and the Senate is still fiddling with the president's Healthy Forests Initiative. While the House passed the bill (HR 1904) over a month ago, the Senate Agriculture Committee is only holding a full hearing on it today.</p>