🚀 go-pugleaf

On Jan 29, 7:28 am, "maguahi...@gmail.com" <maguahi...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Jan 27, 12:40 pm, SMITH29 <smit...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > habe...@lycos.com wrote:
> > > On Jan 27, 1:51 am, jazzerci...@hotmail.com (-) wrote:
> > >>http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2008/2008-01-25-095.asp
>
> > >> Bush Opens Roadless Tongass National Forest to Logging
>
> > >> JUNEAU, Alaska, January 25, 2008 (ENS) - Today, the Bush administration put a
> > >> "for sale" sign on trees in pristine roadless areas of the Tongass rainforest
> > >> in Alaska - America's largest national forest.
>
> > >> This move by Bush officials to reverse roadless area protections parallels two
> > >> others made recently in national forests located in Idaho and Colorado.
>
> > >> Conservationists from across the country are indignant that roads will be
> > >> punched through some of the nation's last, best roadless areas to allow
> > >> private corporations to log America's public lands.
>
> > >> "The few remaining roadless areas of our national forests are some of the only
> > >> safe harbors for America's wildlife," said Mary Beth Beetham at Defenders of
> > >> Wildlife. "As global warming threatens to dramatically change the landscape we
> > >> must have the foresight to preserve these last remaining pristine forests for
> > >> future generations. It's folly for the Bush administration, in its last few
> > >> months, to work to destroy these areas."
>
> > >> In December 2003, Bush officials "temporarily" exempted Alaska's Tongass
> > >> rainforest from the Clinton era Roadless Rule, designed to protect 58 million
> > >> acres of roadless wild forests in 39 states.
>
> > >> The Bush administration's new management plan for the Tongass National Forest
> > >> will raise no revenue for the U.S. government, as the U.S. taxpayers will have
> > >> to pay to build the roads the timber companies need to access the forest.
>
> > >> "With so much of our forest heritage already lost, every roadless acre counts.
> > >> The spectacular roadless areas in Alaska deserve as much protection as those
> > >> in every other state," said Larry Edwards with Greenpeace in Sitka, Alaska.
>
> > >> "The Roadless Rule and the courts have sheltered many of the last, best places
> > >> in our national forests, even during an administration hostile to forest
> > >> protection. Now, with one foot out the door, Bush officials are looking for
> > >> whatever way they can to give away the family silver," said Franz Matzner at
> > >> the Natural Resources Defense Council.
>
> > >> Tongass logging fell dramatically in the 1990s, and for years now has existed
> > >> at levels that do not require slicing roads and clearcuts into virgin
> > >> old-growth forests, as the Forest Service itself has acknowledged.
>
> > >> "The new plan suffers from the same central problem as the old plan. It leaves
> > >> 2.4 million acres of wild, roadless backcountry areas open to clear cutting
> > >> and new logging roads," said Earthjustice attorney Tom Waldo. "The Tongass is
> > >> worth a whole lot more to the American people as a standing forest than it is
> > >> as a sea of stumps and logs."
>
> > >> The land management plan released today was ordered more than two years ago by
> > >> a federal court which concluded that the old plan justifying opening Tongass
> > >> wildlands for development was invalid due to several factors, including a
> > >> gross overestimation of demand for Tongass logs.
>
> > >> Congress also has expressed concern with Tongass wilderness logging. The House
> > >> of Representative has voted three times to stop taxpayer dollars from funding
> > >> new logging roads there.
>
> > >> In September 2006, the federal District Court of Northern California ordered
> > >> the Bush administration to reinstate the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule
> > >> to protect almost 50 million acres of National Forests and grasslands across
> > >> the lower 48 states and Puerto Rico from road construction, logging, and other
> > >> harmful development.
>
> > >> Roadless area of the Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska.
> > >>           (Photo credit unknown)
> > >>    http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2008/20080125_tongass.jpg
>
> > >> Judge Elizabeth Laporte ruled that the Bush administration violated both the
> > >> National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act by when it
> > >> repealed the Roadless Rule and put into place another rule without any
> > >> substantial analysis or need.
>
> > >> But the long term status of the roadless areas in the Tongass National Forest
> > >> in Alaska was not settled by Judge Laporte. In 2003, the Bush administration
> > >> exempted the Tongass from the roadless rule by creating a separate amendment
> > >> that was based on the validity of the Tongass Land Management Plan.
>
> > >> "The Forest Service is losing money hand over fist on roads that Americans
> > >> don't even want," said Christy Goldfuss of Environment America.
>
> > >> "Today," said Caitlin Hills with American Lands Alliance, "the federal
> > >> government, in defiance of the facts and the strongly expressed sentiments of
> > >> the American people to protect all roadless areas, has answered 'fire up the
> > >> chainsaws.'"
>
> > >> "The Tongass is the crown jewel of our nation's roadless wildlands," said
> > >> Trish Rolfe at Alaska Sierra Club. "Wild salmon, bears, eagles, and wolves
> > >> thrive there among moss-draped ancient trees, along crystalline fjords and
> > >> untamed rivers. It has nine million acres of roadless areas that lack
> > >> permanent protection. The Bush administration has just put some of the best of
> > >> them on the chopping block."
>
> > >> "All over the Tongass there are roadless wildlands that local people and
> > >> visitors hold dear, jeopardized by this new plan," said Gregory Vickrey with
> > >> Tongass Conservation Society.
>
> > >> "These are special places critical to the region's incredible fish, deer and
> > >> other wildlife, world-famous recreational opportunities, cherished subsistence
> > >> practices, and the businesses and jobs that depend on the region's natural
> > >> treasures," said Vickrey. "These are the very things that make Southeast
> > >> Alaskans most want to live here."
>
> > >> Environment News Service (ENS) 2008.
>
> > > Agree that Bush is a disaster. But which party has the will to tackle
> > > that most devastating
> > > of environmental impacts, the population growth which is now almost
> > > totally a function of
> > > immigration, legal and illegal?
>
> > > Dennis
>
> > xxxx
> > We eventually lose unmanaged forest land to uncontrollable fires.
> > Strip ( clear cutting ) harvesting provides fire breaks so the whole
> > plot doesn't go up in flames. Reforestation plants trees in those strips
> > and in 20-30 years the old growth strip is harvested.
>
> > We should properly manage ALL our forest lands to preserve this finite
> > resource.
> > I have watched forest fires out of control and they are beautiful at
> > night as the trees explode and fire balls jump tree top to tree top.
> > Impossible to control and too hot to get near.
> > Tree hugger s and Spotted Owl freaks are the forest's worst enemy next
> > to fire as No.1 ...
> > Logging on the Olympic Peninsula was halted years ago putting an
> > industry out of business just to save an endangered Owl which was later
> > found to actually prefer living in a McDonald's elevated sign in Los
> > Angeles California........
> > So much for the environmental movement and it's loony ideas.
>
> > 29
>
> Who properly managed it before we came along? mother nature. She has a
> way...

...Of giving some people cancer, birth defects, AIDS, bird flu and
acne.