Bush Administration Seeks to Approve 700% Logging Increase in Oregon's Old-Growth Forests
by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles 
on 01. 7.08
Under the cloak of bureaucracy, the Bush administration has sanctioned a back-door deal with the timber industry that would see the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) remove protection for old-growth and streamside forests in the Cascade, Siskiyou and Coastal mountains of western Oregon. The preferred alternative of its Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the "Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR)" would result in a whopping 700% increase in logging of the state's remaining old-growth forests.
For more information on the BLM plan - and to see how and why you should take action - be sure to head on over to the Oregon Heritage Forests website to read their Citizen's Guide.
See also: ::Canuck Forests Reduce Emissions by 62 Per Cent, ::Proposed Logging Puts Critical Spotted Owl Habitat at Risk, ::MorethanMonarchs.org: Networking for Illegal Logging Activism
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Oh dear. Time for Merry and Pippin to pay the Ents another visit and break the news to them that Saruman got elected to a second term.
Honestly, I don't think I can take another year of this. It seems like there isn't a day that goes by without bad news about the administration's choices, whether it is scandal, or closed door deals with corporations at the expense of the environment and public interest.
no exaggeration i seriously just choked on my cereal after reading that. fortunately i survived but now am depressed.
It could get better next year, but long term that may not hold.
The goats were given the run of the cabbage patch for 7 years, and will try to eat as much as they can before a new Administration comes to power and chases tthem out of Federal resource management agencies, whereupon the goats who are the most will gain employment in the Think Tanks until the next opportunity to slink back into the resource agencies.
If there are serious shortages of natural resources in the next 5 years - thinking about iron ore, defense critical rare metals, natural gas, and so on - the next round of chowing-down could be even more intense. If that happens, corporate barbarians unleashed by Congressional allies will arrive at the gates of US national parks; and ,unless our resource consumption rates are much reduced, and reclaimed critical materials in electronics stop going to China, they will gain access.
Instead of signing hundreds of more petitions, is there any way I can just sign a blanket statement saying that I oppose everything this administration does and make it available to all the relevant organizations trying to stop Bush?
Bush really is the most despicable little weasel of a man. Has he done any good whilst in office?
Impeach!! Impeach! Impeach!
OUT OF OFFICE!!!!!! OUT OF OFFICE!!!!! OUT OF OFFICE!!! OUT OF OFFICE!!!!!! OUT OF OFFICE!!!!! OUT OF OFFICE!!!
Aside from writing letters and feeling helpless about these things there are alternatives. Support your local (or national or international) direct action organizations. The Earth First chapters (among others) there have been working hard, on the front lines, to protect these last strands of forest for years. If not direct involvement I am sure they could at least use some monetary support.
Bush the devil has no end to his evil ways, he must be stopped by any means necessary. I can hardly wait to expatriate away from this damn country!
Here's what I think... Bush should have come to Woodson, OR, which is just east of Westport, OR if you are heading west on OR30, which actually had homes slide into the busy state hiway due to a mudslide. Yes, it was a very LARGE mudslide that would not have happened had they not strip logged the mountainside above the hiway and these peoples' homes. I thought that all that stupid crap was behind us and that we had learned our lessons 20 years ago!
Please don't cut them down....they look so much more impressive when they burn down. They pollute the air as they burn and take up all kinds of valuable resources, jet and helicopter fuel for days and weeks at a time to try and put them out.
Managing forests can be done two ways. By loggers who do it right or mother nature. The treehuggers are seeing some of the massive forest fires this decade not because of global warming but because they refuse to "manage" forests. Remember the great plains of Kansas used to be all trees before they burned completely. Mother Nature is a beast. We can manage forests but controlling global warning is not possible.
California won't let you cut a tree down so this summer mother nature took care of it for them. Why not use the valuable resource for something useful. But then again I would not have the opportunity to see those forest fires that are unstoppable. Burn baby burn.
stupid has made great strides here today
Save a tree: kill a Bush.
I know the comment submission button says intelligent and civil. Please don't misunderstand me. My statement is definitely for the sake of civility.
NO. Those are MY forests and you may NOT do that, bush. I will take it personally if you allow this...
This post is a timely reminder to all of you in the States (I'm in Australia), it is time to look at who has integrity in this year's election, what world do you want to live in? One of separation, destruction, greed, military power, police states, lies or one of peace, freedom for all, equal rights and a good country for all no matter what colour of skin or sexual identity. My vote would be for Dennis Kucinich.
How completely will America be sold out by the end of the Bush Administration?
Oh, excuse me, it's the Bush Administration. One moment... There we go.
America will be completely sold out by the end of the Bush Administration.
It's just so sad, I live in Ohio and I had the chance to visit northern California/Southern Oregon to see the old growth forests this past fall. It is one of the most amazing things you could ever see! It would be a cosmic shame for something to happen to them...
Please please please everyone post comments here NOW...we only have until the 11th of January!
http://www.daylightdecisions.com/wopro/
Foosfan is right. Giant forest fires destroy valuble timber that could be put to good use and create logging and milling jobs. Unfourtunatly, the environmentalists want to do the "natural thing" and let all our valuble timber burn or be eaten by bugs. Even after it burns they want to leave it in a natural state instead of salvaging what is left. Old growth provides large, high quality lumber and should be logged in some areas, while setting a side other areas for recreation, habitat, etc. O yeah, most of the "old growth" on the oregon coast has grown back since the 1840's when a massive fire set by indians swept across oregon. Fort vancouver trappers documented it.