Well, everyone who is sane, anyway.
Timber-salmon plan gets federal go-ahead
In one of the most sweeping deals of its kind in the nation, federal officials Monday agreed to shield timber companies and forest landowners from provisions of the Endangered Species Act for 50 years if they follow new state rules to protect salmon when logging.
The contentious, hard-fought agreement grew out of rules approved by the state Legislature in 1999 that will govern 9.3 million acres of public and private state forest land. The rules will require loggers to leave more trees near streams, reduce timber harvest on unstable slopes and control runoff on private land across the state.
In exchange, the government will give the state’s thousands of participating landowners assurances that they won’t be required to further restrict use of their land to save fish.
The blueprint, known formally as a Habitat Conservation Plan, and its organizers were praised by officials from the state, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, who consider it the only way to ensure salmon and timber harvesting can both survive in rural Washington.
Because of the eco-socialist cult, landowners have had to ask permission of cry, loud flatulence near stream on their land for the last couple decades. That, combined with ever changing regulation, sometimes just depending on the whim of a particular inspector and his tape measure, landowners have left their lands to become fire hazards.
Both sides, the landowners and the government, are happy. Business will move forward and life for loggers and sawmills and government inspectors will stop being such a pain in the ass.
Which means that the eco-socialist cult is incredible pissed off.
But environmentalists, who backed out of initial negotiations seven years ago claiming their positions would never be seriously considered, remain deeply skeptical that the program will work as designed.
“Our concern is that it is nowhere near protective enough,” said environmentalist Glen Spain, of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen. “Will this adequately protect the state’s fish runs? That’s a big open question.”
Miguel Perez-Gibson, a policy adviser for a collection of conservation groups known as the Forest and Fish Conservation Caucus, said, “while this plan is a step in the right direction, we want it to be able to adjust to new biology and new science.”
Basically, they want to change it when they can come up with (or fabricate) some proof that the fishies MIGHT be in danger.
The whole of the US is in danger from terrorism (or, in days past, communism), that is absolutely not a problem. In fact, it is just a neo-con conspiracy to frighten everyone. But slow down the flow of a stream where the little fishies will be affected, and holy shiznit, they’ll work to strip you of your land, livelyhood and see if they can stick some jailtime in there too.
They’re priorities are just one of the things they’ve got screwed up.
That you choose to write about this makes me chuckle because you are ever so right about “them” never being satisfied. No matter what a landowner is forced to give up in the management of their property or how stringent the regulatory agencies become, it won’t ever be enough.
BUT, what makes me laugh the hardest is that for almost 20 years, while you were growing up, and I worked in one of those regulatory agencies, namely the Washington State Dept. of Natural Resouces, processing those frustrated landowner’s logging applications, guess who was a lowly forester working for that same agency.
Yep, Miguel Perez-Gibson ….. except everyone who worked with him at the time called him Mike Gibson!
We all thought it rather snooty and odd of him at the time (back in the 80’s) when he got married and took his wifes last name and became a “hyphenated man”. Women didn’t even often do that back then. He became and insisted on being called Michael Perez-Gibson. Now it looks like Michael doesn’t suit him anymore either because he’s become Miguel !! Fancy Schmancy ! Goes to show there will always be somebody around who remembers when ……..