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Volume 41, Issue 1
August 25, 2003
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August 25, 2003
Healthy forests plan sick
Carly Schorman
News Editor
During President Bush’s time in office, I have come to the conclusion
that he has a masterful skill of identifying a problem and then using
this problem to push solutions that do not equal remedies but opportunities.
Who benefits from these opportunities? I’m not sure. But this time
it is definitely not the environment.
The Bush Administration’s Healthy Forests initiative seeks to reduce
the risk of fires by thinning out areas that are hazardous.
Any proposal that seeks to protect our forests but receives applause from
the logging industry must seem too good to be true.
That’s because it is.
In actuality, the Healthy Forests initiative is just an ironic name give
to the latest plan to skew the public’s view of the President’s
proposal and hide its true intent.
President Clinton sought balance between the loggers and environmentalists
on the issue of forest thinning to protect old forests while insuring
the survival of the timber industry.
Bush, however, hopes to let the logging industry set up shop on public
land under the pretense of environmentalism.
Are the environmentalists overlooking the growing concern of forest fires
to keep the loggers away from the trees the former are hugging?
Those on the frontlines don’t seem to think so. A number of firefighters,
both active and retired, wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Department
of Agriculture and to the Secretary of the Department of the Interior
to plead for re-examination of the President’s proposal.
“We oppose all attempts to politically justify further environmental
degradation in the name of firefighter safety. As current and former firefighters,
we do not wish to see the reputation of firefighters sullied by association
with policies that condone irresponsible, unethical, or illegal behavior
on the part of private companies or government agencies.”
The letter clearly shows the stance of those Bush is claiming to “protect”
with his plans for our forest.
In fact, the letter continues by stating that not only are their best
interests being ignored, but so are those of rural communities and the
country as a whole.
Allowing logging of large trees to cover the cost of brush or “slash”
removal is not a fair trade. Opening up nearly 200 million acres of public
lands to the timber industry will not bring about an end to forest fires,
or even a notably lower risk of fires.
“Often, once timber sales are completed, it takes years for the
logging debris to be treated; moreover, logged units are rarely maintained
to control the prolific growth of flammable small trees, brush and invasive
weeds.”
The Sierra Club agrees too, saying, “(The Healthy Forests initiative)
looks more like a logging plan—one that aims to gut the National
Environmental Protection Act in the process.”
The Forest Service issued a report confirming that “environmentalists
target old growth timber sales, while encouraging thinning and burning
of small trees,” contrary to claims laid by the administration to
push the American people to side against environmental organizations who
oppose the new proposal.
The Healthy Forests plan will not prevent fires.
It will, however, increase logging in areas which might actually worsen
the threat of fires and restrict the public on their right to decide what
is best for our forests by limiting the public’s right to decide
what is best for the environment and by also restricting the use of the
legal system to challenge questionable fuel reduction plans. A battle
is being waged over our forests.
One side - the Bush Administration and the logging industry - seeks to
open up public land to loggers in the name of safety and nothing more.
The other side - firefighters, environmentalists, forest experts, and
concerned citizens - uses letters in place of stones to fight the only
threat to the forests bigger than fire… the President’s plan
to protect them.
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