Administration Confirming Plans to Open More Forests to Logging

[Panono]

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration will propose a new plan to open up national forests to more logging, confirming a draft plan published two weeks ago, The Associated Press learned.

Under the plan, to be announced by Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Monday, governors would have to petition the federal government to block road-building in remote areas of national forests, replacing a national rule against such projects adopted by the Clinton administration.

The Bush administration for nearly two years has been weighing changes to the so-called roadless rule, which blocks road construction in nearly one-third of national forests as a way to prevent logging and other commercial activity.

Officials call the new roadless policy a commonsense plan that protects backcountry woods while advancing a partnership with the nations governors, particularly in the West.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBGE937KWD.html

[yardwork]

1. Assholes.

[yardwork]

2. Oh, and welcome to DU! Thank you for these excellent links!

[JohnnyRingo]

3. Guess who has to pay to build these "mantainance" roads...

...into OUR national forests.
Why don't we just cut the trees down for the timber companies, too.

[DaveSZ]

4. We need Kerry to win for the environment

:(

* is also drilling in our national parks as well.

[kungfugrip]

5. I was up in Washington for a wedding

near the Oregon border and, my God, was it beautiful up there. EXCEPT for the vast areas of clear cutting. It was shameful. These small towns rely on that to maintain its economy, but it was like seeing a beautiful woman with the long flowing locks and bald patches from where the stylist slipped.

[natrat]

11. its kind of like

seeing someone who has been beaten and chunks of her flesh and scalp are hanging off. Really horrible. I just did a dirt bike ride into the Sierra Natl forest on a trail that touches on the south part of Yosemite. It was one of the coolest places on the planet. The idea of clear cutting an area like that is not too far from rape imo.

[dusty64]

6. Smash and grab

corporate welfare. Steal what you can before they may be removed from power.

[SHRED]

7. Criminal land rapers and thieves

To hell with them.

See my signature links for a forest products alternative crop.

[rfkrocks]

8. Is it healthy forests or clean forests?

Bush really just can't help undoing anything good the government did. That Teddy Roosevelt was some "liberal" environmentalist. Now that we turn back the new deal, I guess Bush thinks its time to repeal the child labor laws too.

[Blue Gardener]

9. I really do hate these people

I know my Mom taught me you shouldn't hate people, but they are destroying the country I love. I can't find anything NOT to hate about them.

[Berserker]

10. I can't imagine

what 4 more years of this type of shit will do to our country. What will he destroy next?

[sistersofmercy]

12. It never ceases to amaze me how absolutely conniving this

maladministration is at making announcements and setting policy for political distraction. This tactic is what I call, "Let's play scramble." They sit around figuring out ways to rattle the chains of certain segments of the Democratic party. Dialogue must go something like this (picture Rove with bush* and Uncle Dick sitting about discussing strategy) Rove, "Ok, GW* today you're going to snub the NAACP because, um...hmmmm, let me see...hehehehe, they called you names." Room is filled with smirking and snickering. Rove again, "Tommorrow, you'll make some sort of announcement about the gay marriage issue." Room is filled with more smirking and snickering. Lastly Rove proclaims, "and the day after that...wait let me check my notes, oh yeah, upset the treehuggers...you'll announce plans to expand logging into more national forests." At this point, the three have a good belly-laugh. Cheney grunts before heading to his undisclosed location somewhere in Montana.
Thing is these jerks will actually do it.

[Gregorian]

13. Well, we want houses!

And there aren't any more trees where I live. I watched the last of them fall in the last two years. I'm pissed off as hell about it. So what are we (we, as in us, not them) going to do about it? You have kids? They're going to need a house. More people- more houses. Period. And if not trees, then what?
Bush sucks, but it isn't his fault that we are asking for trees. Just that we have asked for so many, that now we simply need to find them in other places. Like beautiful national forests. So, now you will get to see what I see, in my backyard- DIRT, where trees used to reside.
I could go on. I have an entire diatribe. It's not insignificant. But who cares? In fact, I will probably need wood, in my future. So, we includes me. This sucks.

Edit- I would like to point out one facet of my absent diatribe, includes the roadless logging. The very absence of trees is more damaging than the roads. Don't let them fool you.

Here's just a snip from my diatribe- In 1968 our rivers were so teeming with fish, that it appeared that we could walk across the rivers. We now have NO fish. I called Fish and Game last week and discussed this with their biologists. It is due to logging. I got a half hour of discussion from a biologist, when three words would have sufficed. It was logging. And not unlike politics, they spend lots of time and money..... fuck it. Who cares. The people are here, and the trees will fall. Get used to it, or stop breeding.

[blindpig]

14. "common sense"

code words for balls to the wall exploitation at near zero cost.

[donsu]

15. have you noticed all the new wood/paper throw-away products

since the coup d'etat?

throw-away: toilet cleaning swabs
little pullout papers to clean up counters
the list goes on and on
everything double packaged in paper/wood


and the biggest crime against the environment is paper throw-away diapers. what a scam, what a con against life.