Free Republic

Narrow Minded ZealotsThe Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is home to some 350,000 people who live and work in the 23 counties that comprise the ecosystem. A very small but vocal and well funded group of this population (the Eco-Tally-Ban) is not happy we are utilizing our area's abundant natural resources to make our living and want us to stop. Ranching, farming, logging, forest recreation, residential construction and tourist facilitation is the target of these green activists that have deemed us trespassers in the land of the animal and tree. Human nature provides a mental mechanism (guilt) that sometimes retroactively provides a...

Intended Consequences: Natural Process v. Environmental Arrogance By Sean FinneganPublished 08. 19. 02 at 18:58 Sierra Time Sean Finnegan, who reported regularly from Klamath Falls for The Sierra Times, will be providing exclusive coverage of the Sawgrass Rebellion - the convoy headed toward Florida. As expected, The Sierra Times will provide regular coverage of this event. Finnegan begins his series on the battles in the Western States.DISPATCHES:· In the early morning of October 18, 1998, fire destroyed five buildings and four ski lifts in Vail, Colorado. Two days later an underground terrorist group known as the Earth Liberation Front...

Black line protects subdivision from Biscuit Oregon Live/The Oregonian, 08/19/02 WENDY LAWTON and WENDY OWEN Residents in a 25-home subdivision near Agness got some relief Sunday as crews finished a burnout to protect them from the Biscuit fire raging three-quarters of a mile away. A black line, an area devoid of fuel, now protects the Oak Flat subdivision, but the line needs to be tested by the main fire to ensure it's secure. "They've got a good buffer," said Dick Fleishman, fire information officer. However, hot temperatures and high winds can blow embers across the line and spark spot fires,...

Bush to Tour Fire Lines 08/16/2002 By AP Staff President Bush will visit areas devastated by the Squires fire in Ruch next Thursday during a visit to Oregon that also will include a fund-raising dinner for Republican Senator Gordon Smith, the White House announced Friday. Bush, who is taking a "working vacation" at his ranch in Waco, Texas, also plans stops in California, according to a schedule released by the president's office. The president will deliver a speech on the importance of thinning forests to curb future wildfires, and has invited governors from Western states to join him during the...

Agness residents receive evacuation warning By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press 8/7/02 2:01 AM GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- The Curry County sheriff on Tuesday warned residents of more than 220 homes around the white-water rafting community of Agness to be ready to evacuate in case the Florence Fire moves closer. Firefighters and deputies began going house to house through the settlements of Agness, Illahe, and Oak Flat, located at the confluence of the Rogue and Illinois rivers within three to six miles of the northern flank of the Florence Fire. "If we come talk to you a second time,...

Bush to push for thinning The Associated Press, 8/21/02 4:21 AM MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) -- President Bush will address forest health issues when he visits Medford on Thursday, most likely pushing for more intensive thinning of Western forests to reduce fire danger. When they reach Medford, the president and U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith will receive a briefing on Oregon wildfires, according to Joe Sheffo, Smith's press secretary. Bush and Smith will then be taken on a tour of the area burned by the Squire fire southeast of Ruch. The fire scorched nearly 3,000 acres of public and private land after...

Bush's message to Oregon: His forest plan equals jobs 08/23/02, TOM DETZEL "Times are tough, but let me tell you something -- so is America," he added. Bush issued a stinging critique of the forest policies that led to this year's record fire season -- policies expected to cost taxpayers more than $1.5 billion for fire suppression. Nationwide, nearly 6 million acres, an area the size of New Hampshire, have burned. He said red tape, regulations and "endless litigation" have become the tools for delaying worthwhile thinning projects. His plan would allow emergency thinning in the highest-risk areas while speeding...

JOSEPH PERKINS New thinking on managing nation's forests? Joseph Perkins SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE August 23, 2002 President Bush was in the Pacific Northwest yesterday where he unveiled a new forest management plan that aims to prevent the kind of catastrophic wildfires that have charred nearly 6 million acres this year. That have destroyed more than 2,000 homes and buildings, sent tens of thousands of people fleeing for refuge and taken the lives of 20 brave firefighters. That have laid waste to hundreds of millions of trees, destroyed wildlife habitat, and damaged forest soils and watersheds for decades to come. Even...

Fires burning across Oregon The Associated Press8/23/02 10:22 AM Major wildfires were burning on about 565,362 acres in Oregon on Friday. About 8,944 firefighters were fighting five major fires around the state. The Northwest Interagency Communication Center is tracking five major fires in Oregon. Top priorities for fire officials Monday were the Biscuit fire, covering 492,342 acres, the 7,400-acre Apple fire and the 62,200-acre Tiller Complex. BISCUIT FIRE (formerly called Florence Fire; name changed on 8/11/02) Started: Florence fire started 26 miles west of Grant Pass, 07/13/02; Sour Biscuit started 17 miles southwest of Cave Junction. Size: 492,342 acres. Containment:...

<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>

Along with death and taxes, the U.N.'s America-bashing is one of the few things in life you can count on. The only variables in this global version of the Whack-A-Mole game are the time, place, and manner of the whacks. This week the venue moves to Johannesburg, South Africa, the site of the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development. The forum aims to focus on the deteriorating state of the environment in poor countries. News accounts remind us that 100 presidents and prime ministers from around the world will attend-but not George W. Bush!(gasp!) The New York Times' "news...

There's a Joseph Conrad kind of symbolism in the location of the United Nations-sponsored World Summit on Sustainable Development. A collection of central planners has convened in Johannesburg, South Africa, to further centralize control over private property and streamline the distribution of wealth from freer, more prosperous nations to despotic, underdeveloped ones. The intellectual and ethical impetus for this renewed assault on freedom and prosperity is the repugnant Marxist theory of environmentalism. Conservation is the central planners' Trojan Horse for a globally coordinated assault on individual rights. These "watermelons" – green on the outside, red on the inside – adroitly...

Last Update:8:30 a.m. (MDT); August 27, 2002   Six fires reported for yesterday.  Three fires reported by the State of Arizona, two fires on Santa Fe NF, and one fire on Fort Apache Reservation.  One new large fire (i.e. fires >100 acres), LAKES FIRE on Santa Fe NF.   ARIZONAPACK RAT FIRE, located along the Mogollon Rim, 15 miles north of Payson, AZ, is now over 1,210 acres.  Burning in mixed conifer and chaparral on Coconino and Tonto National Forest's, the fire became very active yesterday with increased torching, spotting, and upslope runs.  A number of spot fires were found across...

Florida growth regulators notified Collier County on Monday that they had signed off on landmark changes to the county's rural growth plan, but opponents are vowing a legal challenge. County commissioners approved new growth rules this summer in response to a 1999 order from Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet that required the county to work with its citizens to come up with better environmental protections for its rural land. The rules apply to some 93,000 acres on the edge of Golden Gate Estates known as the rural fringe. Other changes, still under state review, would apply to almost 200,000...