Kerry/Edwards forest initiative sounds great!

[DaveSZ]

It reminds me of FDR's civilian conservation corps!

http://www.johnkerry.com/issues/environment/forests.html


John Kerry and John Edwards Will Create Jobs in Restoration and Fire Prevention

Forest Restoration Corps. John Kerry and John Edwards will transfer $100 million from government subsidies to the timber industry and invest it in a new Forest Restoration Corps (FRC). The FRC will create jobs and invest in the long-term health of our forests - and the communities that depend upon them - by restoring forests, streams and rangelands that have been hard hit by fire or that have suffered from long-term mismanagement. By restoring these resources, community water supplies will be protected, hazardous mudslides will be avoided, and our forest resources will be preserved.



John Kerry and John Edwards will protect our nation's remaining wild forests and support broad conservation efforts


George Bush has taken advantage of public support for "healthy forests" to enable timber companies to log in remote and pristine areas of our public lands. This betrayal of the public trust will not take place on John Kerry's watch. A Kerry-Edwards administration will ensure that special, remote areas of our National Forests that include old growth and other unique resources are protected and off-limits to logging.

John Kerry and John Edwards will also support efforts such as the Forest Legacy program, which encourage private landowners to conserve forest resources. A Kerry-Edwards administration will support balanced forest management proposals that reflect strong science and consensus-based decision making, modeled on the fire plan developed by the Western Governors Association.

[DaveSZ]

1. http://www.cccalumni.org/

http://www.cccalumni.org/

Welcome to the Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni web site. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public works program that put over three million young men and adults to work during the Great Depression of the 1930's and 1940's in the United States.


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"I propose to create a Civilian Conservation Corps to be used in simple work… more important, however, than the material gains will be the moral and spiritual value of such work."

Franklin D. Roosevelt March 9, 1933

[DaveSZ]

2. A Brief History of the Civilian Conservation Corps

http://www.cccalumni.org/history1.html

Roosevelt's Tree Army

A Brief History of the Civilian Conservation Corps


CCC enrollees throughout the country were credited with renewing the nation's decimated forests by planting an estimated three billion trees from 1933 to 1942.


The 1932 Presidential election was more a cry for help from a desperate people near panic as it was an election in a "landslide" vote, the nation turned to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democratic party searching for an end to the rampant unemployment and economic chaos that gripped the country. They weren't disappointed. Accepting the Presidential nomination on July 1, 1932, New York Governor Roosevelt planned a fight against soil erosion and declining timber resources, utilizing the unemployed of large urban areas.

Professional foresters and interested layman raised these aims. In what would later be called "The Hundred Days," President Roosevelt revitalized the faith of the nation with several measures, one of which was the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) Act, more commonly known as the Civilian Conservation Corps. With this action, he brought together two wasted resources, the young men and the land, in an effort to save both.

The President wasted no time: He called the 73rd Congress into Emergency Session on March 9, 1933, to hear and authorize his program. He proposed to recruit thousands of unemployed young men, enroll them in a peacetime army, and send them into battle against destruction and erosion of our natural resources. Before it was over, over three million young men engaged in a massive salvage operation, the most popular experiment of the New Deal.
The strongest reaction to the proposed CCC program was from organized labor. Its leaders feared a loss of jobs that could be filled with union members. They also looked with alarm at the involvement of the Army believing it might lead to regimentation of labor.

Senate Bill 5.598 was introduced in March 27, was through both houses of Congress on the President's desk to be signed on March 31, 1933.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

3. As someone who lives in the forest, I think this is just what we need.

I was disappointed this didn't get more attention.

[K-W]

4. Kerry continues to be great on the enviroment

and that alone is a good enough reason for me to vote for him happily.

[soupkitchen]

5. Trees or Bush

[DaveSZ]

6. Same here

I disagree with him on some issues of course, but his record and proposals on the environment are amazing!