B*** Wants To Privatize Columbia Gorge

[Me.]

Every 5 minutes it's something new. Just got this in an email:

wants to privatize Columbia Gorge forestland...
by lokiloki
Sun Feb 19, 2006 at 10:37:08 PM PDT

The Administration's obscene "foot-in-the-door" to privatize our public lands gets much worse.

Perhaps you believed 's claim that the 300,000+ acres of public land slated for sale are "worthless"? Wrong.

From Friends of the Columbia Gorge:

The US Forest Service is proposing to put 300,000 acres of what they call "disposable public lands" out to the highest bidder, including 730 acres in the Columbia River Gorge Natl Scenic Area. <...>

Properties on both sides of the Columbia Gorge are named on the potential sale list. These include lands in Corbett, above Sheppard's Dell and near Cascade Locks in Oregon. On the Washington side, land near Cape Horn, Wind Mountain and above the flooded Celilo Falls would be available to the highest bidder.

The Columbia Gorge is one of the crown jewels of the Pacific Northwest. (Even Reagan apparently recognized this, as it was in 1986 that the Gorge was named as the first Natl Scenic Areas.) And, bizarrely, even someone in THIS seems to recognize its worth:
Ironically, 's 2007 budget also calls for $1 million for further land acquisition in the Columbia River Gorge Natl Scenic Area.

This entire privatization scheme needs to be halted. It's not just the Columbia Gorge... it is hundreds of similarly valuable places. Just because land appears to be "fragmented" on a topo-map, it often isn't when you look at a satellite view. And even isolated land can serve as a core for new conservation efforts in the future.

This scheme is simply a way to set precedent for future budgets... if they can sell off chunks of the Gorge now, just imagine what they might sell next year, or in 10 years.

While everyone should take action and ask the Regional Forester to remove Columbia Gorge lands from the auction targets, it seems to me that the Gorge could be a potent symbol for the entire 300,000 acres. If vital forestland in the Gorge is on the auction block, well, just imagine what else might be included?

For those who don't know what the Columbia Gorge is, consider that this impacts just about every State. And, just like the Gorge, other valuable land is included in the list to sell:

In North Carolina:

Forest Service maps show several tracts adjacent to the Needmore land in Swain County could be sold. The state owns 4,400 acres in the area and manages the land as game lands. The Needmore tracts were bought in 2004 after a major public/private campaign to preserve the property. The US Fish & Wildlife Service put up $2 million toward the purchase.

Hm. So this worthless land that is to be auctioned off also includes land that was previously purchased for conservation?

If the US Forest Service begins selling off public lands, the agency won’t have any trouble finding buyers for land in Western North Carolina.

“I know there would be massive interest in larger tracts due to the fact there aren’t any large tracts of land left in Macon County,” said Robin Parker, owner of Cat Creek Realty in Franklin.

That's right. Large tracts of open space are a rarity in more and more of the country. Their "value" is precisely because they are undeveloped, and they should be kept as such.

In Colorado:

The US Forest Service has listed scenic land overlooking Rocky Mountain Natl Park and land around St Mary's Glacier as sites that could be sold to raise money for rural schools in 41 states.

In Missouri:

The Missouri land that might be sold is part of a once-depleted forest that public financing and decades of management have nurtured back to health.

Yes, after the public has paid for its reforestation, it's time to sell!

Cedar Creek District Forester Carol Trokey said the land was mostly wooded, but some parcels have old fields with cedar trees. She said the parcels would be most useful for recreation or hunting.

Wait? The land would be useful for recreation or hunting? I thought that there was no recreation value in these lands?

And even some of the most anti-environment GOPers seem to be coming out against this proposal:

"<"Public"> lands are an asset that needs to be managed and conserved," said Sen Larry Craig of Idaho.

I can't believe I am saying it, but Larry Craig is right (at least about the conservation part).

UPDATE: ACTION ALERT. Takes 1 minute. Please take action by emailing the regional forester and, more importantly, your congressional delegation.

UPDATE 2: DONATE ALERT. Please take action above. But also consider making even a small contribution to the organizations that are fighting this battle. Sadly, the environment receives a fraction of total philanthropic donations. Please consider donating to Friends of the Columbia Gorge and, for the larger battle, to The Wilderness Society.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/2/20/0378/14945

[glitch]

1. These guys are way beyond their "extinct by" date.

Hate and pity are warring in my heart for these people.

[Me.]

9. Hate and pity are warring in my heart for these people

Excellent way of describing it.

[Ready4Change]

2. I've seen the results.

I've travelled the Oregon coastline and seen the results of Bushs relaxed forrestry regulations. There are places with 100 feet of untouched woods along roads, hiding completely denuded mountain slopes. It's not visible if you look directly inland. But if you look up or down shore...

Those hills and mountains are raped. The only trees left are those on slops too steep to harvest. From the top down to the 100 foot from the road line it is all GONE.

There is NOTHING to hold that soil on those slopes. I predict mudslides along the Oregon coastline soon.

That is the future of our nations forests under the Bush Administration.

I'd visited that region 5 years before. The change was stark, radical, devestating. I'm not a tree hugger. Really. But I was shocked.

Gone.

[KT2000]

6. No one really understood

what clearcutting was until the news showed aerial photos. The "barriers" near public land kept a big secret and it was quite hypothetical to most. Then they flew over the land and it was bare forever.
It is mutilation and that is what is makes me feel like to look at it.

There is another problem with maintaining denuded land. It is replanted and the deciduous trees that naturally spring up (they actually feed the larger firs nitrogen with their fallen leaves) are sprayed with herbicides from helicopters - they must be killed so they will not compete with the firs. The chemicals they use get into the water shed - kill the amphibians, fish and other insects and animals. The immune systems of deer become compromised etc. so the are more susceptible to disease. The chemicals they use a re persistent and go through the food chain - depositing in fat tissue of every being that consumes it. It does not go away. This is why women will passit to their babies in breast milk.

The spraying cost tons of money and must be done at least a couple times a year.

Sorry if you already knew about this but it is the reality of the situation. Notopnly is the forest disappeared, it is poisoned for a long time to come.

[Blue Belle]

3. OMG!!! I can't believe this shit!!

I'm going to post something about this in the Oregon Forum too. and then I'm going to contact Defazio and Wyden.

[Me.]

8. Spread The Word

Our only hope

[Blue Belle]

13. I did... I posted this thread in the Oregon Forum.

I hope you don't mind.

[Redneck Socialist]

4. These fucktards get more fucktarded every goddamn day.

:mad:

[file83]

17. 1 picture = 1000 words...

[Bluebear]

5. Who's buying this, Kuwait? Bahrain?

[CrazyOrangeCat]

7. Rapists.

This is going to be their very worst legacy . . . in a long line of horrors.

We've really got to fight this.

My brother is sending letters by mail because he's found the forest service tends to give them more credence.

Thanks for the update.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

10. No! No! NO! Driving through the Gorge I fell in love with Oregon!

Driving a big U-Haul on the way from Colorado, to start over with my boys...

I had to pull over, I was so overcome with the beauty! Waterfalls by the side of the road, Huge Ancient Trees, Green, Green everywhere...

I walked out into the old growth just a few yards and I was so overcome with emotion at the absolute beauty, I couldn't drive again for about 20 minutes...

OVER MY F*CKING DEAD BODY WILL THEY DESTROY THIS!!!

Anybody got some chain and a padlock I can borrow? :mad:

[Liberty Belle]

11. outrageous. kick!

[Harald Ragnarsson]

12. Why does excess public land not go to the public?

Instead of being sold off to private interests? Many wealthy families today got their start by homesteading land 100 years ago or more. With so many people in this country without homes or places of their own, it seems like it ought to be thrown open to those citizens that want to settle it and improve it, rather than being sold off and the money blown on crap like "Iraq".

[Bridget Burke]

18. Undeveloped public land belongs to "the public"....

It doesn't need to be settled & "improved." Homesteading days are over.

Is there a shortage of housing? Yes--of affordable housing in or near cities or towns. You know, places where people can get jobs. Trust fundies, the well-off retired & those who can afford second homes would be the ones to move to the "excess" land.

[northofdenali]

14. Here's a quick snapshot taken near The Dalles:

See the little white building at the top right? Now, picture the little white building underneath the golden arches, with trash floating down the sides of the cliffs..........

[Me.]

20. Breathtaking

They're evil, hallow men in the WH

[ClayZ]

15. She Who Watches...

The famous Native American rock art known as "She Who Watches" is located in the Columbia Gorge on the Washington side of the river east of The Dalles.

THE LEGEND OF TSAGAGLALAL: She Who Watches

THERE are several versions of the legend, but the one that was told to us by the Wishram people is as follows:

A woman had a house where the village of Nixluidix was later built. She was chief of all who lived in the region. That was a long time before Coyote came up the river and changed things and people were not yet real people. After a time Coyote in his travels came to this place and asked the inhabitants if they were living well or ill. They sent him to their chief who lived up on the rocks, where she could look down on the village and know what was going on.

Coyote climbed up to the house on the rocks and asked "What kind of living do you give these people? Do you treat them well or are you one of those evil women?" "I am teaching them to live well and build good houses," she said.

"Soon the world will change," said Coyote, "and women will no longer be chiefs." Then he changed her into a rock with the command, "You shall stay here and watch over the people who live here."

All the people know that Tsagaglalae sees all things, for whenever they are looking at her those large eyes are watching them.

snip> http://www.lensjoy.com/gallery/20.htm

[file83]

16. Now that motherf--ker is trying to destroy my backyard?

He's fucked up Afghanistan, Iraq, the rest of the world, but now he wants to trash the beautiful Columbia Gorge?
Oh, the bad karma that man is racking up will take him billions of years to work off. If he only knew.

[Me.]

25. But Will It Get Him Before

or after he has completely destroyed America?

[progressoid]

19. The US gov't is having a FIre Sale to pay bills.

21. the pacific northwest is one of the crown jewels

of natural regions left, still to be experienced in United States and they want to go muck it up.

[Hubert Flottz]

22. Same as with the New River Gorge National Park.

And the crooks are waiting in line to grab the property and ruin it.

[rucky]

23. Multnomah Falls would make a great waterpark!

:sarcasm:

[SammyWinstonJack]

24. If more people had paid attention to what this pissant did to Texas

what he allowed private companies to do in Texas, maybe more people wouldn't have voted for the corporate whore!

[Az_lefty]

26. Bush is a corporate whore...there's no doubt any longer.

:grr:

[Bruce McAuley]

27. A friend has a piece of that "land for sale" right next to his land...

We live in Eastern Washington, and the Feds own an 80 acre piece right next to his land in rural Ferry County, middle of nowhere.
He was talking to me last night, and had just learned that the piece next to his would fall under this "land sale". He figures his rich neighbor will/would buy it, as he's got the only real access tothe piece, which is the peak of a hill called Bald Peak.
Worth? About $30,000 to $80,000, depending on size of the piece.
Salability? Only to one or two adjoining neighbors.
Wouldn't hardly fill the gas tank on a C130 though.
The piece IS truly separated from any other Fed land. Wouldn't mean diddley to sell it to a private party, it's neither usable nor accessable by anyone the way it is now.
The land along the Columbia Gorge is another story, it IS accessable and usable by tourists and gawkers. Save it for history.
Some of this fragmented land IS worth selling, though, actually.

Bruce

[Blue Belle]

28. Wait.. isn't this the area around were they want to build that Casino??

From your Text:

"Properties on both sides of the Columbia Gorge are named on the potential sale list. These include lands in Corbett, above Sheppard's Dell and near Cascade Locks in Oregon."

I'm not sure of the geographical location... but could it coincide with this:

http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/article/3903/C426/L426

<SNIP>The basics of the Cascade Locks proposal are this: The Warm Springs tribes want a cash cow nearer to Portland than their current, out-of-the-way resort at Kah-Nee-Tah. Cascade Locks needs the money to support its services in lieu of a solid economic base. The Indians own trust land in Hood River, further east, but that community doesn’t want the casino. So — swap Hood River land for Cascade Locks property, get the state’s blessing, and it’s a deal. If the federal government approves.

The Warm Springs are actually proposing a 60-acre resort centered around a casino. We’re talking $300 million development sprawled over 500,000 square feet. The casino itself would be a serviced by a 250-room hotel, spa, convention facility, retail shops, interpretive center, restaurants, daycare facility (nothing like a family day at the slots!) and parking for 3,700 vehicles.

Or, in other words, enough parking to fit three times the actual population of Cascade Locks.

Now, it’s up to the feds, who are weighing the issues and also preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS). It’s unknown how long Interior Secretary Gale Norton will take to decide the legitimacy of the state-Indian compact. The EIS, say the feds, is expected to be available for public review early next year, and completed by summer.


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