Forest Service promoting logging in Sierra Nevada with propaganda leaflets

[pmbryant]

And the leaflets are blatantly deceptive. Imagine that! :grr:

From the Los Angeles Times: Apr 11 2004

Forest Service Paints Blurry Picture of Sierra Nevada
Recycling photos from Montana spurs questions about the credibility of the agency and its claims.

By Scott Sonner
Associated Press Writer
April 11, 2004

RENO — Forest Service photographs appear to support the agency's argument that the Sierra Nevada must be more heavily logged to restore the historic conditions of a century ago, and thus ease the threat of wildfires.

Six small black-and-white photos spanning 80 years appear in a government pamphlet published in January beside descriptions of how the "forests of the past" had fewer trees and less underbrush, making them lower fire risks.

(snip)

But the 1909 photo does not depict natural conditions. It was taken just after the forest had been logged.

And the pictured forest is not anywhere near the Sierra Nevada. It's in Montana.

(snip)

The agency has used the same photos — minus the pre-logging shot — to back logging in the Pacific Northwest too.

"I can't believe they are still doing this," said Timothy Ingalsbee, director of the Western Fire Ecology Center in Eugene, Ore. In 1998, he said, "They used this same sequence of photos and misrepresented it to make it seem like it came from the forest just above Ashland, Ore."

(snip)

The Forest Service plan would more than double logging efforts across 11.5 million acres of the Sierra, covering 11 national forests from south of Yosemite National Park to north of Lake Tahoe.

The Forest Service spent $23,000 to produce and print 15,000 of the brochures as part of the "Forests for a Future" campaign that brought criticism from some members of Congress because the agency hired a private public relations firm.

(snip)

More: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-admn-forestpix11apr11,1,2847186.story?coll=la-home-nation