[ft-l] President's Bush's new forest policy for logging and forest fires

[ft-l@mailman.backcountry.net (ELN/tyrerob)]

Picture a comercial logging company in the Redwoods, Smokeys, Everglades,
Yosemite, or anywhere there is old growth.  I'm all for periodic controlled
burns.  Fund the Forrest Service to hire more people to do periodic burns
during "controlling" weather.  The commercial companies that are backing
this plan are not similar to UF...they want the valuable old growth
trees...because they are rare..because of logging policy.  Commercial
companies have no use for the dead/down/litter trees and growth that the
President was trying to convince us of on T.V. Thanks for the email, it was
interesting.
conservationist,environmentalist,common sense!

-----Original Message-----
From: ft-l-admin@mailman.backcountry.net
[mailto:ft-l-admin@mailman.backcountry.net]On Behalf Of Brad Grant
Sent: Friday, September 06, 2002 10:47 PM
To: ft-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: Re: [ft-l] President's Bush's new forest policy for logging and
forest fires


Bryan,
I guess there is something to be said about the definite and major
differences in being a true Conservationist and
the "IN" practice of being an Environmentalist.

Brad Grant

----- Original Message -----
From: "J Bryan Kramer" <jbryankramer@msn.com>
To: <ft-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2002 6:55 PM
Subject: RE: [ft-l] President's Bush's new forest policy for logging and
forest fires


> Thinking on this I don't understand how anyone can logically oppose a
> program of reducing the fire load of the forests. I had a long talk with a
> Ranger at Bryce when we were out there. He said that Bryce and a lot of
> other National Parks are doomed unless drastic action is taken. The fire
> load is so high, something like twenty times historical values, that once
a
> fire gets started the whole park will be reduced to ashes. Fire fighters
> will have no chance of stopping such a fire he said. Flames would be over
a
> hundred feet high, and old growth trees will be completely destroyed along
> with most of the wildlife.
>
> All this can, as I'm sure you know, back to the NPS and Forest Service
> policies adopted back before WWII after some major fires demolished a
couple
> of towns with great loss of life. But it's rather obvious now that the
> policy was just wrong. But even tho just about everyone admits that the
> policy was wrongheaded some groups refuse to consider taking corrective
> action so that the natural cycle of wild fires every 20 years or so can be
> allowed to start again.
>
> I work near Gainesville at the Deerhaven Generating Station, you may be
> familiar with the site. Its between Gainesville and Alachua and we have
> about 1200 acres of land. Most of it is forested. The City has gone thru a
> wise policy of getting the UF Forestry people to help reduce the fire load
> in these woods. Over 3 or 4 years they have thinned the woods ( having a
> commercial logger do the work), done controlled burns and created a system
> of woods and meadows on the property. All of this was done in sections so
> the critters living there (and there are a lot of them on site: deer,
> turkey, otter, eagles, osprey and so on.) have been able to move to a
> unaffected section of the site when work or burns were being done.
>
> The site still looks a bit ugly but I think that after another year or two
> it will look rather good as the litter decays off and the burns fade. I
> assume this is the same thing that the feds want to do in the National
woods
> and forests. The creation of meadows in the solid block of trees is
supposed
> to benefit the wildlife population, the biological productivity of forests
> is supposed be much less than that of meadows. Also if this area was open
> for hiking I think a mix of trees and meadows would be more attractive. By
> meadows I mean that they thinned something like 80-90% of trees from
narrow
> wandering strips of land leaving large blocks of trees in between. They
left
> the largest trees behind.
>
> The political aspect of your complaints is pointed out by the fact that NO
> environmental organizations raised a cry when Senator Daschle exempted all
> of South Dakota from any lawsuits which would prevent the same process
from
> occurring in his state. Environmental groups have blocked fire load
> reduction in the Black Hills for more than 25 years IIRC. He slipped a
> proviso in some unrelated legislation to do this. The silence is even
odder
> since his opponent, a republican, suggested doing the same a couple of
years
> ago and drew outraged  opposition, just like yours, just for suggesting
it.
> Daschle does it and only silence is heard from people like you.
>
> How do you justify that?

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