Healthy Forests

=aka No Tree Left Behind:---<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative</a>wiki Healthy Forests Initiative (or HFI), officially the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-148), is a law originally proposed by President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W.Bush" title="George W. Bush" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">George W. Bush</a> in response to the widespread <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_fire" title="Forest fire" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">forest fires</a> during the summer of 2002.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-1" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[1]</a> The main thrusts of the law are to thin overstocked stands, clear away vegetation and trees to create shaded fuel breaks, provide funding and guidance to reduce or eliminate hazardous fuels in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Forest" title="United States National Forest" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">National Forests</a>, improve forest fire fighting, and research new methods to halt destructive insects. Much of the basis for the law revolves around the overcrowding of forests due to the suppression of low intensity fires, which vary in their natural role of thinning small trees and clearing vegetative debris. The resulting buildup of ground fuels and trees weakened by overpopulation (resource competition and spread of disease) pose a serious threat in some stands that can no longer be addressed through prescribed burnings. Disagreement exists concerning the role of private logging companies in thinning stands and clearing fire-breaks. The HFI also requires that communities within the "wildland urban interface" create "community wildfire protection plans." Community wildfire protection plans designate areas adjacent to communities that should be thinned so that crown fires will not directly burn into communities.<div id="toc" class="toc" style="border: 1px solid rgb(170, 170, 170); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);"><div id="toctitle" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;"><h2 style="color: black; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; display: inline; line-height: 1.3; background-image: none;">Contents</h2>  [<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#" id="togglelink" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">hide</a>] </div><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#Controversy" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">1 Controversy</a><ul style="line-height: 1.6; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#Pro_HFI" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">1.1 Pro HFI</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#Anti_HFI" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">1.2 Anti HFI</a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#Litigation" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">2 Litigation</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#References" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">3 References</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#External_links" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">4 External links</a></li></ul></div><h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Controversy[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Healthy_Forests_Initiative&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Controversy" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">edit</a>]</h2><table class="metadata plainlinks ambox ambox-style ambox-Tone" role="presentation" style="margin: 0px 110px; border-width: 1px 1px 1px 10px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(170, 170, 170) rgb(170, 170, 170) rgb(170, 170, 170) rgb(244, 196, 48); color: rgb(37, 37, 37); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(251, 251, 251);"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image" style="border: none; padding: 2px 0px 2px 0.5em; text-align: center;"><div style="width: 52px;"><img alt="" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f2/Edit-clear.svg/40px-Edit-clear.svg.png" width="40" height="40" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f2/Edit-clear.svg/60px-Edit-clear.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f2/Edit-clear.svg/80px-Edit-clear.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="48" data-file-height="48" style="border: none; vertical-align: middle;" /></div></td><td class="mbox-text" style="border: none; padding: 0.25em 0.5em; width: 791px;">This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Writing_better_articles#Tone" title="Wikipedia:Writing better articles" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none !important; padding: 0px !important; background-position: initial initial !important; background-repeat: initial initial !important;">guide to writing better articles</a> for suggestions. (January 2008)</td></tr></tbody></table>The Bush administration claims broad support for HFI, stating on the official website: "The Administration and a bipartisan majority in Congress supported the legislation and are joined by a variety of environmental conservation groups." This statement ignores the opposition to HFI by conservation groups such as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Club" title="Sierra Club" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Sierra Club</a>,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[2]</a> the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Resources_Defense_Council" title="Natural Resources Defense Council" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[3]</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wilderness_Society(United_States)" title="The Wilderness Society (United States)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The Wilderness Society</a>,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[4]</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir_Project" title="John Muir Project" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">John Muir Project</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[5]</a> Supporters include the Society of American Foresters,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[6]</a> local fire protection agencies, and a number of hunting and fishing advocacy groups.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[7]</a>In March 2006, it was reported in the news section of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Chemical_Society" title="American Chemical Society" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">ACS</a> journal <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_Science%26_Technology" title="Environmental Science & Technology" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Environmental Science & Technology</a> that timber interests created a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_group" title="Front group" class="mw-redirect" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">front group</a> called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Project_Protect&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Project Protect (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(165, 88, 88); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Project Protect</a> to help pass the Healthy Forests legislation.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[8]</a><h3 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 1.6;">Pro HFI<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Healthy_Forests_Initiative&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Pro HFI" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">edit</a>]</h3>Proponents of HFI believe that high intensity fires in the Western United States have increased in intensity and size in recent years. This is largely a result of fire suppression, which has created a buildup in fuels and ladder fuels, as well as climate change. Supporters believe this act may be able to simplify the NEPA process for projects which are meant to reduce the susceptibility of National forests to forest fires; reducing the risk of conflagrations that endanger human lives, destroy valuable forests, and can reduce the quality of habitat for late seral wildlife species. The act is specific, that projects under the act should focus on small tree removal, and maximize retention of large trees. Furthermore, supporters of the act point to the fact that projects under the act must, before going through NEPA, be approved by a collaborative group, which should include all interested and affected parties (including adjacent land owners, special use permit holders in the area, and environmental groups). The intent of NEPA is to allow the public to have input on projects, influence the topics of analysis for projects, and develop alternatives for projects. Collaborative groups may allow for more input and influence on projects from the public than the normal NEPA process, despite the fact that projects under the act go through an expedited NEPA process.The cost of fighting major wildfires caused by years of neglect have become entirely too expensive for USFS budgetary expenses. American Insurance companies have raised the issue of structural destruction caused by super forest fires is exceeding 2 billion dollars a year. From a historical standpoint looking to the Sierra Nevada Mountains prior to the inception of the Forest Service the forests were burned every year by the ranchers who ran livestock in these regions. Consequently the amount of fuel left on the forest floor was minor, resulting in low intensity fires. The fires were typically lit during the first storms of the winter and crept along the forest floor. Low branches and fallen trees were consumed in the low intensity larger logs tended to burn beneath the snow during the winter. Positive advantages of this practical meathod of forest management was that the ash left behind fertilized the forest trees and plants and bark beetles which are ravishing so much of the Western Forests were killed before boring into trees. Pinecones were also liberated by the heat to release their seeds into the soil. In the spring natural grasses provided extensive grazing opportunities for livestock and wildlife inhabiting the forest regions and also provided critical anti-erosion during heavy rains. To return the forest to such pristine grandness will require extensive planning to remove the more dense fuel loads and careful prescribed burns to liquidate remaining pockets of heavy fuels left on the forest floors by 70 years of neglect.<h3 style="background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; line-height: 1.6;">Anti HFI<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Healthy_Forests_Initiative&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Anti HFI" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">edit</a>]</h3>Opponents of the nicknamed "No Tree Left Behind" Act point out that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logging" title="Logging" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">logging</a> companies will be allowed to unnecessarily cut large diameter trees under a false pretense, while neglecting the greater issue of ladder fuels (such as brush and small trees) and possibly leaving debris that would add to extremely volatile ground fuels. Furthermore, forest fires occur naturally and are critical to the long-term survival of many forests, since many trees will only grow once they detect that a fire has occurred since this gives them access to sunlight. Some opponents also criticize the blanket prescription of thinnings to forests where low intensity fires did not historically play a pivotal role[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">citation needed</a>]. In addition, some opponents consider the term, "Healthy Forests Initiative" (similarly to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_Skies_Act_of_2003" title="Clear Skies Act of 2003" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Clear Skies Initiative</a>), to be an example of administration <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orwellian" title="Orwellian" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Orwellian</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak" title="Doublespeak" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Doublespeak</a>, using environmentally friendly terminology as "cover" for a give-away to business interests.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[9]</a> Furthermore, some saplings only grow after forest fires have cleared away older and dead trees; if humans intervene by preventing natural forest fires from occurring for too long, the forest will eventually die and grow back very slowly.<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); line-height: 1.3; background-image: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Litigation[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Healthy_Forests_Initiative&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Litigation" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">edit</a>]</h2>In 2004, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Club" title="Sierra Club" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Sierra Club</a> and Sierra Forest Legacy (formerly named Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign) brought a lawsuit challenging one aspect of HFI. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Environmental_Policy_Act" title="National Environmental Policy Act" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">National Environmental Policy Act</a> requires preparation of an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_statement" title="Environmental impact statement" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">environmental impact statement</a> (EIS) for agency actions. Under HFI, the Forest Service had promulgated a "categorical exclusion" that eliminated the EIS requirement for timber sales up to 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) and prescribed burns up to 4,500 acres (18 km2). On December 5, 2007, in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sierra_Club_v.Bosworth&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Sierra Club v. Bosworth (page does not exist)" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(165, 88, 88); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Sierra Club v. Bosworth</a>,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[10]</a> the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Ninth_Circuit" title="United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Ninth Circuit</a> held that the Forest Service's promulgation of the categorical exclusion "was arbitrary and capricious".<a href="http://sourcewatch.org/images/a/a9/Pt_bigindustry.pdf">http://sourcewatch.org/images/a/a9/Pt_bigindustry.pdf</a>Paul Thacker
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Mark Rey "timber beast" forst and paper trade groups; murkowski sr and craig sen; salvage rider; spkone at wiser use conv: defender od ES = "radical env legal terrorism campagn...taking direct aim at private proprty rights" 55

clearcutting is compatible w/ forect ecology, like windstorm 56

healthy forest: Mark Rey "timber beast" forst and paper trade groups; murkowski sr and craig sen; salvage rider; spkone at wiser use conv: defender of ES = "radical env legal terrorism campaign...taking direct aim at private proprty rights" 55 strat ignr

Healthy Forest paid co's to log as service (fire down) but left behind fire haz 93 cost 1600$/acre

2003 Davis asked emerg $ 430m, then lost 20 ppl, 2400 houses 1/4 mil acres, denied after fires

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connaughton? reinterpret law (eg used farmed salmon to remove from ES list so logging co did not have to protect wild ! 33 rfk2?

<ul>

<li>The administration has abdicated the decades-old federal responsibility to protect native animals and plants from extinction, becoming the first not to voluntarily add a single species to the endangered species list.</li>

<li>

</li><li>It has opened millions of acres of wilderness -- including some of the nation's most environmentally sensitive public lands -- to logging, mining, and oil and gas drilling. Under one plan, loggers could take 10% of the trees in California's Giant Sequoia National Monument; many of the Monument's old-growth sequoias, 200 years old and more, could be felled to make roof shingles.</li>

<li>Other national treasures that have been opened for development include the million-acre Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in Arizona, the 2,000-foot red-rock spires at Fisher Towers, Utah, and dozens of others.</li>

</ul>

==

sw:

An Op-Ed in the August 12, 2003 edition of The New York Times—<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/12/opinion/12TUE5.html?th">A Misdirected Forest Strategy</a>—points out the fact that President <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/George_Walker_Bush" title="George Walker Bush">George Walker Bush</a>'s plans for the Healthy Forests Initiative, announced last year against the backdrop of the Biscuit fire in southern Oregon, "on close inspection has less to do with preventing forest fires than it does with helping his friends in the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Timber_industry&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Timber industry (page does not exist)">timber industry</a>."

<hr />

<h2>Related SourceWatch Resources</h2>

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Bush_administration" title="Bush administration">Bush administration</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Bush/Republican_Initiatives" title="Bush/Republican Initiatives">Bush/Republican Initiatives</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Christine_Todd_Whitman" title="Christine Todd Whitman">Christine Todd Whitman</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mike_Leavitt" title="Mike Leavitt" class="mw-redirect">Mike Leavitt</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special_interest" title="Special interest">special interest</a></li>

</ul>

<h2>External links</h2>

<ul>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/healthyforests/">White House Healthy Forests</a> web information, including numerous links to articles and announcements.</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.fs.fed.us/projects/hfi/">US Department of Agriculture's Healthy Forests Initiative</a> (HFI) web information.</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.doi.gov/hfi/newhfi/">US Department of the Interior Healthy Forests Initiative</a> (HFI) web information.</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.defenders.org/forests/forest/bush.html">Help Save National Forests</a> by <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Defenders_of_Wildlife" title="Defenders of Wildlife">Defenders of Wildlife</a>.</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.endangeredforests.org/assault/hfi.htm">The Healthy Forests Initiative</a>, EndangeredForests.org.</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.law.ucla.edu/healthyforestsproof.pdf">"HEALTHY FORESTS" INITIATIVE: SOUND WILDFIRE MANAGEMENT OR LICENSE TO LOG? A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION</a>, UCLA School of Law, April 16, 2003.</li>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ems.org/wildfires/healthy_forests.html">"Healthy Forests Initiative": Background & Reaction</a>, Environmental Media Services. Last updated May 22, 2003.</li>

<li>Bill LaCroix, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.montanaforum.com/rednews/2003/08/01/build/forests/deeppockets-op.php?nnn=5">Guest Opinion: Deep pockets behind 'Healthy Forests Initiative'</a>, Montana Standard/Montana Forum.com, August 1, 2003: LaCroix "recently received a slick pamphlet in the mail promoting Bush's Healthy Forest Initiative paid for by <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Project_Protect" title="Project Protect">Project Protect</a>, and [assumed that] everyone else in the Bitterroot and beyond got one, too... Out of curiosity as to who put up the money for such a massive mailing, [LaCroix] logged onto their Web site, http:www.LandSense.us .... [which linked to] the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Evergreen_Foundation" title="Evergreen Foundation">Evergreen Foundation</a>, a timber industry organization with the representatives from <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Weyerhaeuser" title="Weyerhaeuser">Weyerhaeuser</a>, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Boise-Cascade&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Boise-Cascade (page does not exist)">Boise-Cascade</a> and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Potlatch&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Potlatch (page does not exist)">Potlatch</a> sitting on its board of directors and a nasty article about how 'radical environmentalists are blocking projects focused on protecting homes and families from wildfires.'"</li>

<li>Terence Chea, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001753.html">"Judge Rules on Road Ban in Forests,"</a> Associated Press (Washington Post), November 30, 2006.</li>

</ul>

</div>

<div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>:

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Environment" title="Category:Environment">Environment</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:US_government" title="Category:US government">US government</a></li>

</ul>

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===

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The Healthy Forests Initiative (or HFI), officially the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-148), is a law originally proposed by President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush" title="George W. Bush">George W. Bush</a> in response to the widespread <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_fire" title="Forest fire" class="mw-redirect">forest fires</a> during the summer of 2002.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-1">[1]</a> The main thrusts of the law are to thin overstocked stands, clear away vegetation and trees to create shaded fuel breaks, provide funding and guidance to reduce or eliminate hazardous fuels in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Forest" title="United States National Forest">National Forests</a>, improve forest fire fighting, and research new methods to halt destructive insects. Much of the basis for the law revolves around the overcrowding of forests due to the suppression of low intensity fires, which vary in their natural role of thinning small trees and clearing vegetative debris. The resulting build up of ground fuels and trees weakened by overpopulation (resource competition and spread of disease) pose a serious threat in some stands that can no longer be addressed through prescribed burnings. Disagreement exists concerning the role of private logging companies in thinning stands and clearing fire-breaks. The HFI also requires that communities within the "wildland urban interface" create "community wildfire protection plans." Community wildfire protection plans designate areas adjacent to communities that should be thinned so that crown fires will not directly burn into communities.

<h2>Contents</h2>

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<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#Controversy">1 Controversy</a>

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<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#Litigation">2 Litigation</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#References">3 References</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#External_links">4 External links</a></li>

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<h2>Controversy</h2>

</td><td class="mbox-text">This article's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:TONE" title="Wikipedia:TONE" class="mw-redirect">tone</a> or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Guide_to_writing_better_articles" title="Wikipedia:Guide to writing better articles" class="mw-redirect">guide to writing better articles</a> for suggestions. (January 2008) </td></tr></tbody></table>

The Bush administration claims broad support for HFI, stating on the official website: "The Administration and a bipartisan majority in Congress supported the legislation and are joined by a variety of environmental conservation groups." This statement ignores the opposition to HFI by conservation groups such as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Club" title="Sierra Club">Sierra Club</a>,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-2">[2]</a> the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Resources_Defense_Council" title="Natural Resources Defense Council">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-3">[3]</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wilderness_Society_%28United_States%29" title="The Wilderness Society (United States)">The Wilderness Society</a>,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-4">[4]</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Muir_Project&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="John Muir Project (page does not exist)">John Muir Project</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-5">[5]</a> Supporters include the Society of American Foresters,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-6">[6]</a> local fire protection agencies, and a number of hunting and fishing advocacy groups.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-7">[7]</a>

In March 2006, it was reported in the news section of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Chemical_Society" title="American Chemical Society">ACS</a> journal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_Science_%26_Technology" title="Environmental Science & Technology">Environmental Science & Technology</a> that timber interests created a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_group" title="Front group" class="mw-redirect">front group</a> called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Project_Protect&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Project Protect (page does not exist)">Project Protect</a> to help pass the Healthy Forests legislation.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-8">[8] </a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-8">

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<div id="citation"><cite>Environ. Sci. Technol.</cite>, 2006, 40 (10), pp 3128–3134</div>

<div id="pubDate">Publication Date (Web): May 15, 2006</div>

Proponents of HFI believe that high intensity fires in the Western United States have increased in intensity and size in recent years. This is largely a result of fire suppression, which has created a buildup in fuels and ladder fuels, as well as climate change. Supporters believe this act may be able to simplify the NEPA process for projects which are meant to reduce the susceptibility of National forests to forest fires; reducing the risk of conflagrations that endanger human lives, destroy valuable forests, and can reduce the quality of habitat for late seral wildlife species. The act is specific, that projects under the act should focus on small tree removal, and maximize retention of large trees. Furthermore, supporters of the act point to the fact that projects under the act must, before going through NEPA, be approved by a collaborative group, which should include all interested and affected parties (including adjacent land owners, special use permit holders in the area, and environmental groups). The intent of NEPA is to allow the public to have input on projects, influence the topics of analysis for projects, and develop alternatives for projects. Collaborative groups may allow for more input and influence on projects from the public than the normal NEPA process, despite the fact that projects under the act go through an expedited NEPA process.

Opponents of the nicknamed "No Tree Left Behind" Act point out that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logging" title="Logging">logging</a> companies will be allowed to unnecessarily cut large diameter trees under a false pretense, while neglecting the greater issue of ladder fuels (such as brush and small trees) and possibly leaving debris that would add to extremely volatile ground fuels. Furthermore, forest fires occur naturally and are critical to the long-term survival of many forests, since many trees will only grow once they detect that a fire has occurred since this gives them access to sunlight. Some opponents also criticize the blanket prescription of thinnings to forests where low intensity fires did not historically play a pivotal role[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed">citation needed</a>]. In addition, some opponents consider the term, "Healthy Forests Initiative" (similarly to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_Skies_Act_of_2003" title="Clear Skies Act of 2003">Clear Skies Initiative</a>), to be an example of administration <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orwellian" title="Orwellian">Orwellian</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak" title="Doublespeak">Doublespeak</a>, using environmentally friendly terminology as "cover" for a give-away to business interests.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-9">[9]</a> Furthermore, some saplings only grow after forest fires have cleared away older and dead trees; if humans intervene by preventing natural forest fires from occurring for too long, the forest will eventually die and grow back very slowly.

<h2>Litigation</h2>

In 2004, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Club" title="Sierra Club">Sierra Club</a> and Sierra Forest Legacy (formerly named Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign) brought a lawsuit challenging one aspect of HFI. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Environmental_Policy_Act" title="National Environmental Policy Act">National Environmental Policy Act</a> requires preparation of an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_statement" title="Environmental impact statement">environmental impact statement</a> (EIS) for agency actions. Under HFI, the Forest Service had promulgated a "categorical exclusion" that eliminated the EIS requirement for timber sales up to 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) and prescribed burns up to 4,500 acres (18 km2). On December 5, 2007, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sierra_Club_v._Bosworth&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Sierra Club v. Bosworth (page does not exist)">Sierra Club v. Bosworth</a>,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_note-10">[10]</a> the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Ninth_Circuit" title="United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit">Ninth Circuit</a> held that the Forest Service's promulgation of the categorical exclusion "was arbitrary and capricious".

<h2>References</h2>

<li id="cite_note-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_ref-1">^{</a></span}> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/healthyforests/">"Healthy Forests an initiative for wildfire and stronger communities"</a>. Retrieved 2008-01-13.</li>

<li id="cite_note-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_ref-2">^{</a></span}> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Club" title="Sierra Club">Sierra Club</a>. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.sierraclub.org/forests/fires/healthyforests_initiative.asp">"Debunking the "Healthy Forests Initiative""</a>. Retrieved 2008-01-13.</li>

<li id="cite_note-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_ref-3">^{</a></span}> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Resources_Defense_Council" title="Natural Resources Defense Council">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/pfires.asp">"Wildfires in Western Forests"</a>. Retrieved 2008-01-13.</li>

<li id="cite_note-4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_ref-4">^{</a></span}> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wilderness_Society_%28United_States%29" title="The Wilderness Society (United States)">The Wilderness Society</a>. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/McInnis-WaldenBillAnalysis.cfm">"Analysis of "Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003""</a>. Retrieved 2008-01-13.</li>

<li id="cite_note-5"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_ref-5">^{</a></span}> Chad Hanson (August 26, 2002). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.johnmuirproject.org/news-exploiting-federal-lands.html">"Exploiting Federal Lands The myth of 'thinning' forests"</a>. Retrieved 2008-01-13.</li>

<li id="cite_note-6"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_ref-6">^{</a></span}> Society of American Foresters. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070928034951/http://www.safnet.org/policyandpress/hfiupdate.cfm">"The Healthy Forest Initiative: Legislative and Regulatory Update"</a>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.safnet.org/policyandpress/hfiupdate.cfm">the original</a> on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2008-01-13.</li>

<li id="cite_note-7"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_ref-7">^{</a></span}> The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070928061107/http://www.sportsmenslink.org/issues/legislation/archives/108th/healthyforests-conference.asp">"House and Senate Pass Final Healthy Forests Bill"</a>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.sportsmenslink.org/issues/legislation/archives/108th/healthyforests-conference.asp">the original</a> on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2008-01-13.</li>

<li id="cite_note-8"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_ref-8">^{</a></span}> Paul Thacker (March 8, 2006). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es062689z?prevSearch=Hidden%2BTies%253A%2BBig%2BEnvironmental%2BChanges%2BBacked%2Bby%2BBig%2BIndustries&searchHistoryKey=">"Perspective: Hidden ties"</a>. Retrieved 2008-01-13.</li>

<li id="cite_note-9"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_ref-9">^{</a></span}> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.southshore.com/baedd.htm">"A Guide to the Bush Administration's Environmental Doublespeak"</a>. October, 2004. Retrieved 2008-01-13.</li>

<li id="cite_note-10"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_Forests_Initiative#cite_ref-10">^{</a></span}> Judge David Thompson (December 5, 2007). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2007/12/05/0516989.pdf">"Sierra Club v. Bosworth United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Opinion"</a>. Retrieved 2012-02-09.</li>

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<h2>External links</h2>

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<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.healthyforests.gov/">Official Healthy Forests Website</a> - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_link" title="Dead link" class="mw-redirect">Dead link</a></li>

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<dd><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://web.archive.org/*/http://www.healthyforests.gov/">Archive copy</a> at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback_Machine" title="Wayback Machine">Wayback Machine</a></dd>

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<div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Categories" title="Help:Categories">Categories</a>:

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<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:United_States_federal_environmental_legislation" title="Category:United States federal environmental legislation">United States federal environmental legislation</a></li>

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Project Protect was a <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Front_group" title="Front group" class="mw-redirect">front group</a> supporting the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Bush_administration" title="Bush administration">Bush administration</a>'s pro-logging <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Healthy_Forests_Initiative" title="Healthy Forests Initiative">Healthy Forests Initiative</a>.

<h2>Contents</h2>

[<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Project_Protect#" class="internal" id="togglelink">hide</a>] </div>

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<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Project_Protect#Anti-Enviro_Front_Groups_Grow_on_Trees">1 Anti-Enviro Front Groups Grow on Trees</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Project_Protect#Articles_and_Resources">2 Articles and Resources</a>

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<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Project_Protect#Sources">2.1 Sources</a></li>

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<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Project_Protect#External_links">3 External links</a></li>

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<h2>Anti-Enviro Front Groups Grow on Trees</h2>

Paul Thacker reports on "one short-lived 'grassroots' organization" based in Oregon, whose leaders "played a key role in passing President <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/George_W._Bush" title="George W. Bush" class="mw-redirect">George W. Bush</a>'s Healthy Forests legislation and are now promoting changes" to the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Endangered_Species_Act" title="Endangered Species Act">Endangered Species Act</a> (ESA) that would reduce protections and require compensation for landowners.

One key figure is <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Tim_Wigley" title="Tim Wigley">Tim Wigley</a>, the director of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Public_relations" title="Public relations">public relations</a> firm <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Pac/West_Communications" title="Pac/West Communications">Pac/West Communications</a>. After working for a timber industry trade group and a forest-products company, Wigley led the group Project Protect, a $2.9 million <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Media" title="Media">media</a> campaign which supported President Bush's Healthy Forests legislation and was run out of the offices of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Forest_Resource_Council" title="American Forest Resource Council">American Forest Resource Council</a>. Wigley is now the campaign director of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Save_Our_Species_Alliance" title="Save Our Species Alliance">Save Our Species Alliance</a> (SOSA), "which has become a prominent voice in convincing voters that change to ESA is needed." <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Project_Protect#cite_note-0">[1]</a>

<h2>Articles and Resources</h2>

<h3>Sources</h3>

<li id="cite_note-0"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Project_Protect#cite_ref-0">↑</a> Paul Thacker, "<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2006/mar/policy/pt_bigindustry.html">Hidden ties:</a> Big environmental changes backed by big industry Lobbyists and industry officials who once pushed for the presidentâ??s Healthy Forests legislation now collaborate with Rep. [Richard] <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Richard_Pombo" title="Richard Pombo">Pombo</a> to alter the Endangered Species Act", Environmental Science & Technology, March 8, 2006.</li>

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<h2>External links</h2>

<table style=" margin: 0.5em 0.57em 0.5em 0.7em; border-collapse: collapse; background: #fffacd; border: 1px solid #dad26d;"><tbody><tr><td style=" width: 100%; padding: .25em .25em 0.25em .25em;">This article is a <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SourceWatch:Find_or_fix_a_stub" title="SourceWatch:Find or fix a stub">stub</a>. You can <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/SourceWatch:Find_or_fix_a_stub" title="SourceWatch:Find or fix a stub">help</a> by <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Project_Protect&action=edit">expanding it</a>.</td><td>

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<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Front_groups_portal" title="Category:Front groups portal">Front groups portal</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Front_groups" title="Category:Front groups">Front groups</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Stubs" title="Category:Stubs">Stubs</a></li>

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===BS
Ecoterrorism KillsBut not necessarily the way you thinkRobert J. Smith • October 30, 2007
With reports that some of the fires in California may have been started by arsonists, some people have speculated that all the fires were set by ecoterrorists. What these accusations seem to overlook, however, is that the nation has long faced a much deeper and more insidious philosophical ecoterrorism.
This philosophical ecoterrorism envisions and strives for an mythical, pre-settlement America — while ignoring the fact that we have 300 million people living here. This philosophy, combined with governmental inefficiencies, has created the conditions under which forest fires flourish and eventually spread out to destroy private property, as has occurred with the most recent catastrophe.
Every one of this month’s 15 major southern California’s fires started on government lands — mainly in the three or four National Forests that stretch 250 miles from Mexico into Ventura County. These are the Cleveland National Forest, the San Bernardino National Forest, Angeles National Forest, and Los Padres National Forest. Also the Malibu fire came down out of the infamous Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The eighth-largest fire was at Camp Pendleton Marine Base, which is now run largely as an inviolate Endangered Species Preserve.
These fires have burned out of control for a number of reasons. First, the federal government has mismanaged all the National Forests for a century — believing fires were unnatural and evil, the government sought to extinguish at all costs. The Smokey the Bear era — beginning in the 1940s — exacerbated that policy, pushing to stop every fire within 24 hours.
By contrast, the pre-settlement, open, park-like forests naturally were characterized by relatively frequent ground-hugging low-intensity underbrush clearing fires. However, the action on the part of the feds to stamp these out for about 100 years, filled the forests with duff, needles, cones, deadwood, and downed wood, and thousands of small undergrowth trees — what amounts to a tinder box. In addition, these conditions stressed and weakened the entire forest.
Then the nation let the Greens and “deep ecologists” move us from the era of mismanagement into the trendy era of no-management. This idea they dubbed “natural regulation.”
The “natural regulation” philosophy allowed forests to whither and die from drought, over-crowding, insects, beetles, diseases, and eventually fire. Greens and federal bureaucrats accepted this result simply because they deemed it “natural.”
President Reagan temporarily ended the let-burn policy in the National Parks following its ”successful” debut in the 1988 Yellowstone National Park fires, but he was shortly out the door, and the deep Green philosophy was quickly and quietly reinstated.
As a result of the reigning philosophy and its consequent regulations, we now can’t cut trees, thin over-crowded forests, or clear out underbrush. We can’t spray for insects or beetles, and we can’t harvest green trees. We also can’t salvage brown or black trees while the wood is still valuable.
The California government has given the okay for salvage of standing dying/dead brown and black trees, but unfortunately, there is no place to take them.
Green government policies have shut down hundreds and hundreds of sawmills. California sawmills have dropped from the 200 that were functioning 20 years ago, to about 38 today — a 70-percent drop. No one is going to salvage trees if they can’t process them, and the last sawmill in southern California near the end of the Sierra Mountains is on the verge of closing. It’s down to one shift and only enough logs already on the deck to last until June. (The ESA and courts closed all the National Forests around that sawmill because the fisher, a mink relative, may be added to the endangered species list.) If the sawmill closes, the nearest sawmill would be at least 500 miles north.
The green philosophy certainly reigns supreme. But rather than being directed by some “monkey-wrenching” Earth Liberation Front (ELF) activists, it’s advanced by our national acceptance of their philosophy, and implemented by our presidential advisers, Cabinet members, a vast number of the 70,000 people at the Department of Interior, and lord only knows how many of the 30,000 people in the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture. It’s also upheld by our courts.
Supposedly the passage of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 was going to stop these problems. Many in Congress, horrified by the catastrophic fires in 2000, 2001, and 2002, worked with the Bush Administration to solve the problem in 2003. At the height of the very similar October 2003 southern California fires and after 3,000 homes were destroyed and 17 lives lost, Senator Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) finally agreed to let the Healthy Forests bill go through. But then the Santa Anas fires stopped, cool fogs, rain and snow arrived, and Boxer refused to go to conference. After a month of wrangling, she finally capitulated, and Bush signed the bill on December 3, 2003.
Nonetheless, it didn’t work — just try to use the law. Try to salvage dead trees while the wood is still valuable. Greens will find a judge who will grant a temporary injunction of three months or so — covering the warm season when you can get into the mountains and remove trees. Then snow and ice hit the mountain forests and the standing deadwood has another year to rot and decay, become discolored, and lose value. And you can trust that when the next warm season rolls around, the process will be repeated.
There is a kind of “ecoterrorism” that is destroying America, but it takes the form of green policies. And though it may not be called arson, it’s much worse than the work of some lone ELF disciple.--<div>
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