Environment and Wildlife To Be Victims of "Political Capital"

[Tony_Illinois]

December 23, 2004

Administration Overhauls Rules for U.S. Forests

By FELICITY BARRINGER

ASHINGTON, Dec. 22 - The Bush administration issued broad new rules Wednesday overhauling the guidelines for managing the nation's 155 national forests and making it easier for regional forest managers to decide whether to allow logging, drilling or off-road vehicles.

The long-awaited rules relax longstanding provisions on environmental reviews and the protection of wildlife on 191 million acres of national forest and grasslands. They also cut back on requirements for public participation in forest planning decisions.

Forest Service officials said the rules were intended to give local foresters more flexibility to respond to scientific advances and threats like intensifying wildfires and invasive species. They say the regulations will also speed up decisions, ending what some public and private foresters see as a legal and regulatory gridlock that has delayed forest plans for years because of litigation and requirements for time-consuming studies.

"You're trying to manage towards how we want the forest to look and be in the future," said Rick D. Cables, the Forest Service's regional forester for the Rocky Mountain region.

The rules give the nation's regional forest managers and the Forest Service increased autonomy to decide whether to allow logging roads or cellphone towers, mining activity or new ski areas.

Environmental groups said the new rules pared down protection for native animals and plants to the point of irrelevance. These protections were a hallmark of the 1976 National Forest Management Act.

<end of snip> full article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/23/politics/23forest.html?hp&ex=1103864400&en=7cbd9e17690f15c9&ei=5094&partner=homepage:-(

[izzie]

1. I wonder what this will mean?

Once things are gone it is hard to bring back, Look how long it has been in Maine since salmon could go up the rivers. In Alaska, after fishing some places out, the fish have not come back.

[Deja Q]

13. But it's the salmons' fault for wanting to go screw in the area where they

hatched.

:eyes:

Damn repukes. always about profits and money. They give fascist communism a GOOD name. Especially when the neo-cons represent fascist capitalism.

* is just hastening nuclear armageddon. Maybe that is compassion in the long run. We'll all be dead and so few planets have life already that nobody'll notice one more being just as dead.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. This story is of such great and awful significance --

thank you for posting. I can hardly bear to think about it.

[ivolsky]

3. It weakens forest protection but it benefits... guess who?

The special interest connection to the forest management rule change.

From the LA Times:

"Representatives of the timber industry and several Western politicians applauded the rule changes, saying they were overdue...Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the Forest Service, is a former lobbyist for the timber industry, which threw its political support overwhelmingly toward Republicans in the last election cycle, donating more than $1.7 million to GOP candidates and party committees and just $380,000 to Democrats, according to data compiled by Dwight L. Morris & Associates, a Virginia firm that tracks campaign contributions.

Contributors identifying themselves as working for the timber industry gave $268,552 to the Republican National Committee and another $163,321 to President Bush, records show. Three of Bush's elite fundraisers were also top timber executives: W. Henson Moore, chief of the American Forest and Paper Assn., the industry's trade group; Otis B. Ingram III, president of a Georgia lumber company; and Peter Secchia, chairman of Universal Forest Products.

Among the first donors to Bush's 2005 inaugural committee was International Paper Co., which donated $100,000 to help pay for the festivities."

For a comprehensive analysis of the forest-management rule change, click here.

[Tafiti]

4. This is unbelievable!

OK, it's the motherfucking Bush administration, so of course, it's believable. The corruption is enfuriating, and the ecological lack of foresight is simply extraordinary. The planet is collapsing, and the Bush admin. is happy to speed it along. Hopeless.

[Lorien]

5. They're trying to bring about the rapture by destoying the

planet. I've heard brainwashed "Left Behinders" salivating over it for some time now. They believe that when the last tree is felled, Jesus will return. :eyes:

In the meantime, BushCo's sponsors will pocket a sh*tload of cash. And in the meantime, Liberals and Conservatives alike will bicker over "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas" as proper seasonal greetings. :grr:

[Tony_Illinois]

6. The Fox is Officially in Charge of the Henhouse . . . imagine what will

happen when these folks begin the destruction of our wilderness and wildlife. When the trucks roll through the forests and the piplines are laid in the pristine areas of Alaska. Some things are not irreversible.
Yet somehow, regardless of my personal sorrow, I think that maybe we really need to let the people of this country experience the effects of their choices last November--let them see what they REALLY voted for. I truly believe that most people did not vote for what we are about to get--in this situation and in many others yet to come.
Karl Rove may have slipped one by the vast under-informed masses in the red states, but soon enough the reality of this election will hit home.
The bible-thumping will be drowned out by the saws and drills of ecological destruction all over this land. Yes, 11 states will rest in Christian peace knowing that no gays will marry in their backyards. And as they sleep comfortably, the corporate sponsors and beneficiaries of BushCo will rape their land and poison their air and water.
Amen.

[amazona]

7. the animals and trees did not vote for this

The Bible thumpers do not care. They do not go outside. I have never met a Bible thumper out camping or birdwatching. They do not care what they are stealing from those of us who do love the outdoors.

[blindpig]

8. This can't jive with the ESA but

they're in the process of dismantling that too. Knew this was in the cards but watching it happen might be the breaking point for me. Hayduke Lives!

[LaPera]

9. No one gives a shit!

Just look at how many here even pay attention to this thread.

It's disgusting!!!

So many people caught up in their own life, they don't give a shit that oil, timber, mining and corporate factories are exploiting our resources for their own greedy, selfish gains, while they destroy and pollute our lands, air and water.

People don't care, and if and when they do, then it's too late. You can't bring a species back from extinction, or clean up a river overnight, or a forest that's been clear-cut on our public lands, that's being given away to these republican Bush supporters for free and to exploit.

While everyone is watching the slaughter going on in Iraq...the environment is being given away, exploited & polutted to these same companies that donated to the GOP & Bush.

Bush has cut the EPA's funding to watch over this exploitation and the people who are suppose to look after our lands...and the same exploiters are the same people installed in this administrations highest "watchdog" position and look the other way as their company and their Friends companies continue to exploit in the name of patriotism and the American way. this too is all plan shit...

A war is great for the republican in so many ways, they can point to any program and say opps there's no money because we are fighting the "terrorist"Fucking pigs!!!

I've been a member of the Sierra Club since 1981 when Reagan appointed James Watt as Sec of Inteior...it's so much worst now and no one even gives a shit!!!

[G_j]

10. & The Orcs have it!

definition of evil? The Bush admin.

[ClintonTyree]

11. Look on the web for pictures of Haiti.......................

then think about how America will look after the Bush Administration is done with it. Scary, pretty damn scary.

[Tony_Illinois]

12. Help me understand something . . .

Seriously. GWB is a wealthy man and he has achieved his goal of being placed in the office of President. Twice. He did better than Daddy. He proved to Daddy that he could focus and stay sober long enough to "succeed" at something. Something really big, too. A job that's "hard work" and that makes him feel so much better than Jeb.

OK--great. But why not improve the environment and protect endangered animals and fish? Why not make that effort a cornerstone of the next four years? Does he only want to be know for tearing things down, making our nation feared and distrusted throughout the world? Republicans at one time were champions of the land, the sky and seas, and God's innocent creatures that roamed and swam this planet.

GWB does not need anything from these corporate interests that wish to spoil the earth for profit, does he? This confuses me. He could tell them to stick it, that he will NOT see this nation raped and pillaged for $$$. He could almost redeem himself by championing this cause. HELP ME UNDERSTAND THIS.

[IceOwl]

14. GWB doesn't read.

George Bush signs every bill that crosses his desk. The chances that he actually read what he was signing are pretty minimal. Hopefully, he will some day unknowingly and unwittingly sign his own death warrant.

[blindpig]

15. it's more than personal gain

bu$hco is just the face of Old Money & Serious Greed. Rich people don't need more money, it's just a way to keep score. By performing valuable services for his class his family will accumulate serious juju in the Rich Scum Intra-murals. He will NOT abandon his class as you suggest, the thought would never occur to the likes of him.

I'd like to know what those evil fucks have in mind for after The Collapse. L-5 orbit perhaps?

Or maybe a dark ages lifestyle would suit them as long as they have more wretched people to lord over.

[WingedLady1111]

17. Robert Kennedy, Jr.'s book

Read, "Crimes Against Nature", by Robert Kennedy, Jr. It will explain everything, including the fundamentalist Christian view of the Rapture and that they believe environmentalists are evil and dangerous. They don't believe that anything should be preserved for future generations because the "Lord is coming". There is much more in the book too about the big corporations, the logging industry, oil, etc. A must read.

WingedLady1111

[Tony_Illinois]

21. I was interested in your comment regarding the fundamentalists, so

I have been doing a little research to try to understand what they believe regarding the Rapture and the "end times". I found the following at a web site called Rapture Ready ( http://www.raptureready.com/index.html ) on a Q&A page. Interestingly, it indicates that what BushCo is attempting to do to the planet and its creatures is not what the Bible instructs. Now what to do with that information? :scared:

---

Since we know how the Bible ends, do things like protecting endangered animals, saving the trees, and the watching the condition of the ozone layer really matter?

The Bible vividly describes the end of this world as we know it, but that is no excuse for not being good stewards of God's creation. He has given us a home here on earth and, in fact, He says that if we don't do our job in praising Him, even the rocks will cry out in worship to God their Creator. This means that God's creation, just by existing, is worship of His name.

God gave us dominion over the land and the animals. Genesis tells us that God said, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground" (Gen. 1:28). This means that we are to exercise leadership over the resources that God has given us.

Furthermore, Genesis 2:15 says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” This charge was outlined right from the beginning: Take care of God’s creation.

We cannot take a defeatist attitude and just let things fall apart. Each of us has a responsibility to one another to care for the world around us. True, we do know how the story ends; but we are to live it out to completion, caring for all that God has blessed us with and preparing for His coming by spreading the Word.

[seaj11]

16. Oh SHIT!

I was hoping that by some miracle this wouldn't happen. :(

[mtnsnake]

18. It's times like this that make me grateful that the Adirondacks in NY

are a State Park and not a national one. The Adirondacks have some of the toughest laws going, and the toughest people fighting to uphold and maintain them.

What a shame that Bushco is doing this to our environment and the animals. The repukes have no heart whatsoever.

[spanone]

19. Bush* disdains environmentalism. These cretins have no shame

Bushco is ALL about profit and the environment is a mere commodity to them.

[MGKrebs]

20. This is why we must fight tort reform!

If tort reform is allowed to proceed, the corporations that waste the land for profit, poison the water, foul the air, and destroy the forests, will only be liable for pocket change in damages. It is obvious the administration is going to do everything they can to generate windfall profits at the expense of our health.

Imagine a logging company clear cutting a mountain, which causes a landslide, which blocks a river, which causes a flood that wrecks a town. And they would be liable for, oh, say $250,000. Max.

The trail lawyer thing is a smokescreen. THIS is why they want tort reform.