HI, Del,
The controversy of regular burns vs no regular burns to clan out the dead trees and underbrush has been going on for a long time. I forget exactly when it was, but a few years ago one of the regular burns got out of control, which set off a furor.
I'm one who favors them. (Surprise!)![]()
Several years ago I learned that the seeds from giant redwoods would not take root and grow without being burned, a fact I did not know.
Your Lincoln National Forest (original home of "Smokey the Bear) recovered from an accidental burn, and is now beautiful!
Angeline
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com
It'll be interesting to see how much and how fast anything gets
accomplished. Between the stagnant bureaucracy and red
tape of the Forest Service, there might be sorely little funds
left to actually "work" in the forests. Add to that the now
infuriated Gore supported environmentalists, and our weasel
minded appeasing court system, and we will wait, and wait,
and burn and burn, and get thirstier and thirstier, before we
ever see anything meaningful actually getting done.
Betcha a donut.
Oh,...don't forget the whole new batch of Phd's, who can't tell
the difference between a Pine and a Mesquite, that they'll
hire at hefty 5 figure salaries, to write the thousands of pages
of "specs" on how the job is to be done.
November 21, 2003
PRESS RELEASE
House Passes Healthy Forest Restoration Act
WASHINGTON, D.C. -Congressman Steve Pearce (R-NM) announced today that the House overwhelmingly passed H.R. 1904, the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, by a vote of 286-140. The Senate is also expected to pass the legislation today, paving the way for President Bush to sign the bill into law.
Pearce, a member of the House Committee on Resources and co-sponsor of the bill said, "This is the most significant reform of forest management policy in nearly a century, and it could not come any sooner. In recent years, we have seen millions of acres of forestland and wildlife habitat decimated, water supplies and air quality polluted, and family homes and human lives lost forever at the hands of catastrophic wildfire.
The bill includes a sensible forest thinning plan. "There are in excess of one billion excess trees in New Mexico. Each tree consumes over a gallon of water a day -water which is taken away from our streams, rivers, lakes and watersheds. Common sense tells us that when we thin our forests, our water supplies increase - an extremely important benefit to a water starved state," said Pearce
"This bill will empower experts to actively maintain our national forests to reduce the risk of these tragedies from occurring in the future. By reducing dangerous fuel loads on the forest floor, we can reverse the trend in our national forests from one of increasing risk and disease to one that reflects healthier and well-managed forests for future generations to enjoy," Pearce added.
Major components of this bill include:
(1) Revamping the Forest Service's conflict-ridden administrative appeals process, requiring would-be appellants to participate early in the development stages of a forest restoration project in order to reserve the right to file an appeal.
(2) Creating an historic paradigm shift in the way Courts consider legal challenges to hazardous fuels reduction projects, mandating that the Courts weigh the environmental consequences of management inaction when the specter of catastrophic wildfire looms.
(3) Expediting analysis and review requirements for priority wildfire mitigation projects, applying House-passed environmental analysis requirements to projects focused on protecting communities, and Senate passed analysis procedures to projects focused on protecting watersheds and endangered wildlife.
(4) Ensuring that the public has a full and thorough opportunity to participate in the decision making process. It embraces the House-passed, bipartisan Western Governor Association 10-Year Strategy's robust public input and participation requirements, ensuring that interested persons will have numerous opportunities to engage decision makers during all phases of a project's development and implementation.
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Trust everyone, but
BRAND YOUR CALF !

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