Liberty Matters News Service
July 2, 2002
Wildfires
have been raging across the western United States at an unprecedented
pace. Already, 50% more
acres have been destroyed this year than in previous years.
Arizona is experiencing its worst year in history, with 500,000
acres burned so far and 30,000 people evacuated from their homes, 423 of
which have been destroyed. Incredibly,
the monster blaze was deliberately started by Bureau of Indian Affairs
fire-fighter, Leonard Gregg, who allegedly told investigators he started
the blaze to earn money fighting the fire.
Colorado also had the 137,000-acre Hayman fire that was also
allegedly deliberately started by Forest Service employee, Terry Barton
forcing 8,800 people from their homes, of which 137 were consumed.
Finally, it’s being reported that the past 10 years of natural
resource neglect has led to the current situation. The Wall
Street Journal issued a scathing denunciation of federal
mismanagement of the public lands at the direction of radical
environmental groups. “Despite
the Sierra Club spin, catastrophic fires like Hayman are not inevitable,
or good. They stem from bad
forest management—which found a happy home in the Clinton
administration.” WSJ
reported that U.S. Forest chief Dale Bosworth, last week told Congress
the present sorry state would not have occurred had “proper
forest-management been implemented 10 years ago and if the agency
weren’t in the grip of ‘analysis paralysis’ from environmental
regulation and lawsuits.” Regardless
of the enviros’ arguments that the taxpayers subsidize logging in
national forests, the opposite is true.
Selective logging helped pay for forest service staff, forestry
stations, cleanup and roads. “Today,
with green groups blocking timber sales at every turn, the GAO says
taxpayers will have to spend $12 billion to cart off dead wood.”
The
Fire This Time
While
many people were running for their lives to escape the infernos raging
across much of the West, President Bush took time out to admonish folks
to get off their duffs and get out onto public lands for a little
healthy recreation. Mr.
Bush signed two executive orders under his Healthier US Initiative
recommending citizens to exercise daily, eat a balanced diet, undergo
regular health screenings, and choose healthy lifestyles.
He explained that “regular hiking through a park can add years
to a person’s life.” He
then lauded Interior Secretary Norton for doing her part to help the
folks enjoy federal lands by generously waiving entrance fees, June 22
and 23.
Feeling
the Heat
The
governors of western states, at a meeting in Phoenix, “launched a
broadside against environmentalists” for their constant lawsuits aimed
at obstructing proper forest management.
Arizona Governor Jane Hull blasted know-nothing Easterners,
saying; “the policies
that are coming from the East Coast, that are coming from the
environmentalists, that say we don’t need to log, we don’t need to
thin our forests are absolutely ridiculous.
Nobody on the East Coast knows how to manage these fires, and I,
for one, have had it.” Sandy
Bahr, Sierra Club spokeswomen, claims the governors are all wet and has
urged the U.S. Forest Service to stop subsidizing logging and instead
invest in fire prevention through thinning the forests near communities.
“There is no way to avoid fire in the forest,” said Bahr.
John Horning of Forest Guardians said;
“It’s predictable but also irresponsible to lay the blame of
100 years of fire suppression and logging and overgrazing at the feet of
the environmental community.” He
then criticized people who build homes in fire-prone areas saying:
“[T]here are some places where people just shouldn’t be building
homes.” But Forest
Guardians admit they would support forest thinning so long as it does
not benefit commercial loggers and is done with solar-powered chainsaws.
Have you noticed there has not been one word of concern expressed
from the media or environmentalists about the loss of habitat and life
of the forest creatures that these hypocritical groups claim to defend?
Many
Factors in Placing Blame …
Congressman Flake on Hunt ….
Babbitt
Says, Live With It
Former
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt told Today
Show host, Matt Lauer, on June 24th that people
threatened by wildfires better “learn to live with fire.”
Lauer regurgitated the environmentalists’ mantra that 100 years
of fire suppression has led to the current situation and that fire is
nature’s way of clearing out dry underbrush and asked Babbitt:
"How would you tell people in a local community or whose property
might be at risk, we’re going to let this burn out because it’s
nature’s way?” Babbitt
responded: “Well, what we’re telling people now is we’re going to
have to learn to live with these fires, they’re a natural part of the
system…..they’re big fires and we can’t possibly put ‘em out
until the weather changes. We’re
going to have to persuade people to build fire resistant homes…we’re
going to have to clear safety zones around these rural communities.”
Lauer responded with: “some Republicans are blaming the
environmentalists, saying if the environmentalists would allow more
logging and stop protesting so much logging then perhaps that would thin
the forests and we wouldn’t have these catastrophic fires. Babbitt’s
response: “Well, that’s
not the case. The problem
is the undergrowth and the small trees and the logging doesn’t help at
all. Logging takes the big trees and ironically enough, the big trees
aren’t the problem….The fact is, there is really nothing we can do
to fireproof the forest.” Babbitt
continued that there is a national fire plan under way that disburses
federal money to communities to create fire barriers and clear brush.
(Way to go, Bruce, timber companies used to pay for that themselves).
Faulty
Practices Logging Methods