[at-l] Respect For AT Wildness Values

[rafe.bustin@verizon.net (Raphael Bustin)]

At 08:45 PM 5/27/2002 -0400, Bryan Kramer wrote:

>Telling people that they cannot cut the brush around their house when
>wildfires rage all around them because some critter might like the brush
>is a self-destuctive action that will only lead to a backlash. Just like
>the fiasco that led to five firefighters being burned to death because
>permission to scoop water from a creek was refused since they might
>scoop up a sucker. This is just madness.


The most dispassionate account of the incident in question
(that I could find) was at:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/134324629_fishfire01m.html

Of course, the incident was quickly seized upon by a number
of "wise use" organizations to discredit the ESA, for example

http://www.cei.org/gencon/023,02128.cfm

the "Competitive Enterprise Institute"

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b6768be144f.htm,

...self-described as a "Conservative News Forum."

And again by http://www.heartland.org,

yet another anti-environment, "Wise Use" outfit.

FWIW, the following URL shows an official memorandum of
the US Dept of the Interior, directly addressed to the scenario in
question, and quite specifically directs firefighters and emergency
personnel to place safety first in the case of a possible conflict with
the ESA:

http://news.fws.gov/issues/1995fire.html

Note that the incident in question occurred in 2001, while
the memo predates that by some six years.

Amazing (and disgusting) to me how the Wise Use
movement would use such a tragedy to further weaken
the ESA.


rafe b.