By Investigative Journalist, Barry R. Clausen

July 30, 2012

NewsWithViews.com

http://www.newswithviews.com/Clausen/barry110.htm

U.S. Forest Service (USFS) employees throughout the west say an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or an Environmental Review (ER) can take from one (1) to ten (10) years to complete. Upon completion, there is an additional process for logging contracts or to thin trees on our National and State forest lands. Upon conclusion of that process, environmental groups file lawsuits to stop any logging while homes burn along with our forests and in some cases causing deaths.

The following two paragraphs and the pictures were taken from Evergreen Magazine.

“Why we plead, beg, fight, and what for? To try to thin our 750,000,000 acres of forests, woodlands, and watersheds.”

“What is happening in Colorado this summer is happening all over the 11 western states: Oregon, California, Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, Washington and New Mexico. And it will continue to happen in progressively larger and more deadly scales until the federal government [that would be Congress] gets serious about doing the thinning and stand tending work necessary to reduce the risk of stand replacing wildfires in overstocked and dying federally-owned forests.

“The “hobby forestry” projects the Forest Service is currently conducting aren’t making a dent in the crisis we face. Large-scale, long-term projects that pay their own way [meaning no taxpayer subsidies] are the only solution. We have the science, manpower, technology and markets needed to do this work safely and successfully in an environmentally sound way. And still Congress refuses to act. Meanwhile, depending on whose estimate you wish to accept, somewhere between 40 and 60 million acres of federal timberland in the west are ready to burn with the next lightning strike or abandoned campfire.” [Link]

During the early part of the 1980’s as a USFS employee in Ennis, Montana my job was to write brochures related to the experiences we Americans can enjoy on our public lands. It was during this time I studied Pine Beetles and Dwarf Mistletoe, which at that time they were getting established in many of our National Forests.

Today, decades later with nothing being about the parasites, they have left many of our National Forests overrun by Pine Beetles leaving millions of acres dead. With the millions of acres of dead trees dropping their nettles to the ground, the possibility of massive fires is astounding. As you travel the highway from Bozeman, Montana to the hereby town of Livingston, instead of flourishing green trees the mountains are covered in brown trees – dead from Pine Beetles.

Using the Butte National forest as just one example, the Native Eco System Alliance and the Alliance For The Wild Rockies file lawsuits and in almost all cases they are successful in halting timber sales. The Butte National Forest has 3.4 million acres of federal lands and currently 1.3 million of those acres are either dead or dying. There are presently three logging sales pending in the Butte forest, they are the Fleece Sale, the East Deer Lodge Valley Sale and the Flint Foothill Sale and all are being protested or in the process of being halted because of the environmental groups legal maneuvers. [Link]

As environmentalists fight to stop all logging in the forest, one has to wonder if they are just stupid or do they realize what dangers they are permitting to families, their homes and the forests. In the past there have been some radical environmentalists from Eugene, Oregon that say it is better to burn the forests than to allow timber companies to log. One has to ask the question, is it better to destroy homes and forests by using our tax dollars to further their radical agenda than to have healthy flourishing forests as a result of responsible forest management? [Link]

Throughout the west it is the same story, environmentalists creating havoc with American industry. In just one case, in December of 2009 logging activity was halted in the Six River National Forest after Karuk Tribal activists blockaded logging roads. The Karuk were working with three radical environmental groups, the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), Klamath Forest Alliance, and Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center who stated in their jointly filed lawsuit that they were against that logging plan. These groups and the Tribe ultimately prevailed in that lawsuit.

Happy Camp, California is where the Karuk Headquarters are located. In years past the actions of the Tribe itself along with environmentalist are responsible for the five local timber mills shutting down. Happy Camp is dominated by Forest Service land that encompasses 6,000 acres of private land and 600,000 acres of public land, once the environmentalists and Karuk Tribe had halted timber sales, many tribal members had to leave town to find jobs. Today, shamefully, Happy Camp is famous for drugs and alcoholics. [Link]

In another example of thousands is about one of the most despised persons in Northern California for over two decades is radical environmentalist Felice Pace of the Klamath Forest Alliance. Pace has worked aggressively against not only the timber industry but also against farmers and ranchers by continually testifying to the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board that farmers and ranchers are ignorant of good agricultural practices. Additionally, Pace has worked with the Karuk’s efforts to stop all logging and hobby gold dredging on the Klamath River which is destroying local communities as a result of abolishing the tourist trade. While at the same time many of Pace’s associates have been involved in the growing of marijuana on America’s National Forests near Happy Camp.

To reiterate, it is time to save our National Forests with the help of our elected officials. Using President Obama who’s staff controls the USFS, California’s Governor, Jerry Brown and California’s Assemblyman Jim Nielsen as examples, so many of them apparently believe it is better to criticize each other, to lie, cheat and steal to further their own political agenda and financial gain instead of dealing with radical environmental groups that are damaging America’s resources and economy.

© 2012 Barry R. Clausen – All Rights Reserved