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OREGON WILDERNESS PLAN EXEMPLIFIES BEST OF BUSH POLICY

by Agenda for America (agenda [at] cheneybush.com)
The Bush campaign is awarding its first annual "Healthy Forestry" award to Senator Gordon Smith, R-OR, for finding a way to convert 19,000 acres of prized wilderness into a highly valuable tree farm.<br><br><br>
OREGON WILDERNESS PLAN EXEMPLIFIES BEST OF BUSH POLICY
Senator's bravery in the face of public opinion earns him award; new Forest Service mascot unveiled


WashDC -- (AP) -- The Bush campaign is awarding its first annual "Healthy Forestry" award to Senator Gordon Smith, R-OR, for finding a way to convert 19,000 acres of prized wilderness into a highly valuable tree farm.

Converting the partially burnt Siskiyou "roadless areas" to tree farming, despite 70% public opposition to "old growth" logging, will mean not only the creation of several dozen temporary jobs, but also will guarantee that the area will never again be subject to "old growth" and "roadless" restrictions, and will remain forever open to logging regardless of public opinion.

Sen. Smith has announced that to make this happen, he will attach a "rider" to a disaster relief or other "must pass" Senate bill, requiring that the Siskiyou area be logged immediately and replanted with thousands of timber trees, bypassing Nature's slow, inefficient, and unprofitable process of recovery. The rider will also stipulate that it "shall not be subject to judicial review by any court of the United States"--thus preventing ecoterrorists from using the courts to interfere with the health of the forestry industry. (See http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1095163344112791.xml
for more information.)

OLD PROBLEMS, NEW SOLUTIONS

Even some ecoterrorists acknowledge that burnt old-growth trees can be hazardous to wildlife, as their rotting limbs can easily fall on innocent elk or deer. But the agreement ends there. By stubbornly refusing to let burnt old-growth forests build jobs, ecoterrorists have made it increasingly difficult for the forestry industry to turn a profit from America's last few bits of nonproductive landscape.

Sen. Smith was inspired in devising his rider by the earlier, 1995 "salvage rider," which for one year allowed virtually unregulated logging to occur on wilderness lands throughout the Pacific Northwest.

By again moving the issue out of the courts, Sen. Smith's rider suggests a way to bypass such opposition in a more permanent way: a "rider" that will open not just one region, but the entire federally-controlled National Parks System, for selective logging use.

The amount of useful acreage in Yellowstone and Yosemite alone, for example, would more than equal the contested areas of the Siskiyou. Such forests aren't quite as valuable to either the timber industry or to ecologists as those in the Siskiyou, but logging our National Parks would mean replacing many smaller, time-consuming local battles with one bigger one more likely to be won.

To popularize this idea, the Bush campaign has unveiled a new mascot for the USDA Forest Service: Smokey the Log. Smokey the Log is a replacement for Smokey the Bear, as bears have no use and are therefore not appropriate in the modern forest-use context. On a recent canvassing tour, Smokey the Log collected numerous signatures in favor of logging our National Parks (http://www.CheneyBush.com/smokey/petition/) and received endorsements from Congressional Candidate Jim Feldkamp
(http://www.CheneyBush.com/smokey/feldkamp/) and former Oregon governor Victor G. Atiyeh (http://www.CheneyBush.com/smokey/atiyeh/).

by Bongo
The management of the forest is a good idea if we let the professional manage the NF
by Mr. Trips (inlovewithhumboldt2yahoo.com)
Bongo, are you actually suggesting that we privatize the National Park System for logging purposes? Wow.
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