In this case, Stupid is Washington’s “Barely Governor” Christine Gregiore, who has joined into a lawsuit with Oregon, California and New Mexico to sue the federal government because the Bush Administration wants the opportunity to open national forest lands to mining and logging.
Once again, Miss Chriss is pandering to the national environmentalist lobby while putting her state is the #2 spot.
Jobs and revenue dollars are just two things that mining and logging opportunities provide, and it’s not like Washington couldn’t use a few more of those. But it appears that Gregiore would rather be ‘The Environmental Governor’ than ‘The Jobs Governor’ with this statement,
“Joining this lawsuit is our last effort to defend Washington’s quality of life and our economy,”
That anyone’s ‘quality of life’ is going to be hampered by a private company punching a hole in the ground or select cutting timber is just such an ignorant idea that I cannot even put my head around it. As for our economy, thinning a forest will have zero to no effect on tourism to our national forests and the same goes for mining.
The whole key to this issue, and the actual reason the enviros are going nuts about this, dates back to the Clinton Administration when they helped push through and then signed the ‘No New Roads’ rules for federal wilderness lands.
Basically, the ‘No New Roads’ rules said that: 1. No new roads could be built, 2. Some roads had to be closed in order that ‘Mother Nature’ could “Reclaim” them, and 3. If a road deteriorated say, in a washout, no repairs were to be done to that section of the road, making the rest of the road “Reclaimable”.
Their entire mindest was to have the forests to go back to their wild state, out of the reach of the average citizen, all the while claiming that this was good for the average citizen.
The cutting of timer and mining requires one very important thing to make them work, and that thing is roads. You can’t select cut timber if you can’t haul it out and there is no use putting a hole in the ground if you can’t haul out what you’re digging for.
But there is a real life problem with this ‘No New Roads’ program and it was discovered during the 2002 California wildfire season.
1. If you have no roads, you either have extreme difficulty or you simply cannot transport firefighters to where they need to be to effectively fight the fire.
2. If you have one road in and out, you can get the firefighters in, but if the winds change, which is very common during deep forest blazes, you may not be able to get them out.
In the later example, you have just commited those firefighters to a death sentence because some dippy hippy wants to enjoy the pretty scenery without having to worry about the Jones’ coming around the corner in their SUV on summer vacation.
While I too would like to enjoy unspoilt wilderness without having to deal with my fellow citizens and their chillun mucking about the place, I know that if that is my preference, I am going to have to buy my own land that I can tell people to get the hell off of. They’re called “public lands” for a reason.
But the enviros want all the public lands (along with the money that comes with them) without any of the nasty little people who might happen along.
And this is the line of BS that Gregoire not only fell for, but now sees as fit to spread about. Just another reason she doesn’t deserve her position.
It’s a control issue, AK. This is the way that socialists sneak their form of control into a system that was built for freedom, not government lockouts. This is how the socialists ignore the Constitution, which says public lands are for all, and the laws of managing those lands, which require “multiple use” as the highest form of use and management.
It’s all about control. Ignore the environmental blather, that’s just therfe for looks. Scratch any environmentalist and he or she has a second skin under that green hide. That skin grows with the nourishment of Karl Marx.
Re-activate the homestead act.
If a pansy-sniffer want his wilderness that badly, he can claim 20 acres and go sit on it.
That will pretty much deal with the public lands issue. No public lands, no issue.
Yes, RD, I know all about the watermelon people. I just figure I should let everyone else know too.
As for the HomeStead Act: (Homer Simpson Style) “Mmmmmm. No public Lands”.
If the “public lands” are not being used for actual public use, then they should be sold off to private citizens.
Keep in mind that the National Forests were established to provide the United States with a renewable source of timber. The eco-freaks have prevented them from being used as they are supposed to be used, therefore the ownership of such lands should revert back to the private citizens.
Hell, I wrote a whole huge essay on the subject a few years ago. I may have to repost it.
The firefighters that died trapped at the end of the road at 30-Mile, (above Winthrop), should never have been there simply because it was a dead-end road of a boxed canyon. The firefighters, (from Yakima area), were unfamiliar with the location and were sent their by other’s who were unfamiliar with the location. No excuse for it and someone, (the FS would never release the names involved), should likely have faced prison time over it.
The road was actually designed to go through to Republic, and only needs about a mile worth of roadwork to be completed. Work on the road stopped long before Clinton’s roadless ban, but over the same issues the roadless ban was put in place.
Control may certainly be a part of it, but there is an entire religion centered around the “protection” of “mother nature” from human development.
As for the back side of the road leading West out of Republic; It is a great 2 lane paved highway going almost 30 miles to absolutely nothing. And never a cop on it… I’ve heard stories that drug runners from Canada like to pick up the duffle bags that are dropped from helicopters next to that road, quick escape.
I don’t remember who passed this along to me, but I thought it was applicable. Trees are the Answer is an article by Patrick Moore, who was a founding member of Greenpeace. In it he talks about why things like logging are good for the environment and why the contemporary environmentalists are on the wrong track. It’s a long read, but a good preparation for going head to head with environmentalists.