As if there weren't enough reasons to be glad * is vanishing...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

Here's another one:

From today's LA Times:

Editorial
The snowmobiles of Yellowstone
Why does the Bush administration insist on wreaking environmental havoc on the park?
November 29, 2008

Observing the actions of the Bush administration over the years, you'd think the Wyoming snowmobile industry was the economic glue holding the country together. National Park Service managers have pressed relentlessly to allow as many of the noisy, polluting recreational machines into Yellowstone National Park as possible, no matter what the public wanted (public comments were overwhelmingly against it), what park preservation laws stated or what the agency's own scientific research found.

That's an old, old story for the Bush presidency, and one of many reasons we're glad to see its days waning. But the latest action on snowmobiles so disregards the courts, science and good reason, it's startling even for this administration, and that's saying a lot.


After a federal judge in Washington ruled in September that the 540 snowmobiles a day sought by the Park Service was too high a number, the agency's staff issued an environmental report agreeing that so many machines would bring about "major adverse impacts" to Yellowstone. While the staff worked on a new long-term plan, expected to take a couple of years, Yellowstone Supt. Suzanne Lewis announced that the temporary limit would be set at 318 a day.

Zero would be better for Yellowstone, where air quality routinely falls below park standards, but the compromise might have been the best possible right now. Then, last week, Lewis suddenly more than doubled the number to 720 machines a day for this winter season, which begins Dec. 15. Lewis said that a second judge's order, upholding the first decision, called for her to boost the numbers, but it is clear that the intent of the court rulings was to allow fewer snowmobiles into the park, not more.

More at link:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-snowmobile29-2008nov29,0,494553.story

[EFerrari]

1. He's like a psychotic child that needs to destroy everything

that comes into his hands.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear sfexpat2000!

My feelings exactly...

I am so ready to have him gone!

[EFerrari]

3. Me too, my dear Peggy.

Soon! :hi:

[azmouse]

4. And what the #@(&! is wrong with people who would use those vehicles

in such a beautiful park KNOWING that they are polluting and destroying something so precious?
Don't they think?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. I don't think thinking about anything but themselves is high on their list...

They are self-centered, and anti-environmental types...

They most likely want to hunt the wolves too...

[NJCher]

17. they do after they've been in my class

And what the #@(&! is wrong with people who would use those vehicles

One of my students wrote in a personal essay how he enjoyed this activity.

I returned his paper, asking him to re-write it from the POV of a small animal who was just trying to live in the forest. I wanted him to think through how a rabbit, for example, would respond to the sounds and pollution of gas engines.

It took about four attempts but he finally did approach something resembling "empathy."



Cher

[CaliforniaPeggy]

18. Four attempts?

Good for you, making him rewrite till he began to get it...

My god.

:eyes:

[Critters2]

6. The motorcycles in Starved Rock State Park here seem similar to me.

Why go to a beautiful wooded area, only to destroy it as we've done our cities? Just heard Bobby Kennedy on AAR talking about his high hopes for the Obama administration. I hope he's right! Still, it's going to be an improvement, that's for sure!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. My dear mycritters2!

It is certainly a very similar thing...

Taking this delicate environment, and subjecting it to our noisy, dirty machines...

All in the name of convenience?

It makes me sick...

I am sure Obama will be a vast improvement!

[Ptah]

8. Here's another article about the National Foersts decline in visitors

National Forest visitors down, no one knows why


By JEFF BARNARD – 5 hours ago

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — In the years after World War II, Americans packed up their
young families and Army surplus camping gear and headed into the national forests to hunt,
fish, and hike. Going to the woods was part of what it meant to be an American.

Today, however, visits to the national forests are off 13 percent.

Top officials at the U.S. Forest Service blame it on circumstances outside their control —
rising gas prices, the popularity of video games and the Internet, and an increasingly
urban and aging population less inclined to camp out.

Critics focus on fees charged for hiking trails and visitor centers,
a proliferation of noisy off-road vehicles and the declining proportion of the
Forest Service budget dedicated to recreation.

More at link:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g5n1rBdnAR0_w1JlL6-4Mc5_vMBwD94OPOA00

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. My dear Ptah...

I'm inclined to believe the critics on this one...

The Forest Service has been gutted under *'s watch...

And this has caused a lot of degradation to our National Parks, alas...

:hi:

[vanderBeth]

9. And they like to claim they are the party of Theodore Roosevelt

Teddy must be rolling in his grave.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. I'm sure he is, my dear vanderRock...

I wish he could return and do some serious smack-downs!

[elshiva]

12. K&R, My dear CaliforniaPeggy.

Good riddance to Dubya. :toast: :hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

13. Thank you, my dear elshiva!

And not a moment too soon, either!

:hug:

[elshiva]

14. You are welcome.

:hug: :loveya:

Bye-Bye Dubya!

[shanti]

15. oh my...

how's it going, miss peggy? :hi:
wonder what else is in his box of last-minute tricks? every day, something else comes out :scared:


how's it going, miss peggy? :hi:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

16. My dear shanti!

I am well, thanks!

Except when I consider the atrocities that this bastard is still committing against us and our beloved country!

Indeed, every damn day, we find out what's happening...

And it is awful.


:hi: