Re: [GBlist] Bush to propose easing logging restrictions (to lessen threat of wildfires?)

["Chalice \(note new email address\)" <chalicenew@earthlink.net>]

If the Bush administration can use 9-11 to make the world secure for
corporate oil interests, they can use the forest fires to make it secure for
corporate timber interests. Their audacity, opportunism, and transparency
are beyond the beyond.

Below is a poorly written AP story on it (but if you make it through to the
end, the environmental explanation of the fires is revealed)--evidently the
L.A. Times first reported on it, and theirs may be a better read.

Cheers,

Mary Bull
Save the Redwoods/Boycott the Gap Campaign
252 Frederick Street, San Francisco, CA 94117
415-731-7924 chalicenew@earthlink.net  http://www.gapsucks.org


AUGUST 21, 11:43 ET
Bush to Propose Easing Logging Rule

By RON FOURNIER
AP White House Correspondent
AP/ [30K]
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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush will propose making it easier for the
timber industry to thin national forests, backing a change in federal rules
the White House says will reduce the kind of devastating fires sweeping the
western states this summer.

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
Bush will announce the plan Thursday during a West Coast swing, despite
opposition from environmental groups.

Bush hinted at the changes during a tour of fire-ravaged Arizona in June.
``Listen, we got a lot of work to do to make sure the Forest Service has got
wise forest policy, to make sure - to maintain the forests so that they're
healthy and viable and not become kindling boxes,'' he said June 25 in
Eagar, Ariz.
AP/Ken Lambert [26K]
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----



Environmentalists said Bush's plan is ``based on gutting forest safeguards''
and that, instead, the administration should direct more resources to
protecting communities from wildfires. They called for creation of
``community protection zones'' and said other forests should be left alone.

There's concern the Bush plan ``will open the door for runaway logging''
with timber companies not only thinning forests of brush, but cutting timber
now protected, said Sierra Club spokesman Allen Mattison.

This year's fires have renewed the perennial debate between conservationists
who oppose cutting in the nation's woods and logging interests who argue
that underbrush and deadwood in untamed forests increase the risk of fire.

Details of the plan have not been made public. But the senior official said
Bush will propose removing or reducing administrative barriers to cutting
timber from fire-prone forests. It would make it easier to get approval to
thin underbrush and small noncommercial trees, the official said.

The plan, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, would make it harder for
environmental groups and others to appeal logging plans. The newspaper said
that some commercial-grade wood would be allowed to be removed in areas at
high risk of fire.

However, the senior official said the plan was not intended to expose
forests to widespread commercial logging.

The president plans to leave his Crawford, Texas, ranch Thursday and fly to
southern Oregon to make the announcement. Both Oregon and California,
another stop on his brief trip, have suffered catastrophic wildfires this
year.

In anticipation of the trip, a number of environmental groups including the
Sierra Club and Wilderness Society, proposed their own plan Wednesday to
reduce the devastation from forest fires.

The groups proposed a five-year, $10 billion plan that would make available
money for fireproofing homes in forest areas and focus programs for thinning
forests and removing brush to a ``protective zones'' around communities.

``By deploying forest service resources and manpower to safeguard
communities at risk of fire, this plan will save lives, save homes and
ultimately save money,'' said Carl Pope, the Sierra Club's executive
director.

The environmentalists maintain that ``decades of fire suppression,
overlogging and recent years of drought'' are to blame for this summer's
wildfires. They said natural fires should be used to maintain healthy forest
habitat.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Debra Lombard" <dlombard@earthlink.net>
To: <greenbuilding@crest.org>; <dougfir@sover.net>
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2002 6:51 PM
Subject: [GBlist] Bush to propose easing logging restrictions (to lessen
threat of wildfires?)


> Bush to propose easing logging restrictions to lessen threat of
> wildfires.
>  Thursday, August 22, 2002
>
> http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/08/08222002/ap_48240.asp
>
> Does anyone on this list have any more details on this?
>
> ~Debra
> dlombard@earthlink.net
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> This greenbuilding dialogue is sponsored by REPP/CREST, creator of
> Solstice http://www.crest.org, and BuildingGreen, Inc., publisher of
> Environmental Building News and GreenSpec http://www.BuildingGreen.com
> ______________________________________________________________________
>




______________________________________________________________________
This greenbuilding dialogue is sponsored by REPP/CREST, creator of
Solstice http://www.crest.org, and BuildingGreen, Inc., publisher of
Environmental Building News and GreenSpec http://www.BuildingGreen.com
______________________________________________________________________