>"topcat" <topcat@aboy.com>
>What exactly has he done to the
>environment. Be specific now.

I've noticed 2 specific traits with Republicans. They are the most
badly informed people in the world, and they are also the biggest
assholes ever. All you have to do is read the papers and you'll find
ample proof EVERYDAY of Bush's anti-environment policies. Here's an
article from today's paper. To get to the truth, here's a helpful
hint, EVERYTHING that Republicans say is the opposite of the truth.
What Bush called his "Healthy Forest" initiative, and he pushed it as a
way to "reduce fires", was in fact exactly opposite of that. I wish
there were more Republicans like this Judge who would just put blind
partisan worship of their God, George Bush, aside, and think instead of
all the damage being done to our country by his policies.

Abel Malcolm

Plan to log charred timber
Removal could boost risk of fire, judge says

By Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau

Thursday, July 3, 2003
URL:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...03/MN87689.DTL

Washington -- A federal judge in Sacramento has temporarily blocked the
Forest Service from logging fire-damaged trees in a remote area of the
Tahoe National Forest in the Sierra Nevada, ruling that removing the
trees could increase -- rather than reduce -- the risk of a severe
wildfire.

The Forest Service was ready to begin cutting trees this summer in
Duncan Canyon, a roadless area scorched by an August 2001 fire that
burned more than 17,000 acres of the Tahoe and El Dorado national
forests. The agency argued it needed to remove the trees before they
fell to the ground and created the potential for a mammoth blaze.

But in a ruling issued late Tuesday afternoon, Judge Morrison England
Jr. of the Eastern District of California, a President Bush appointee,
agreed with environmentalists that the logging could leave behind enough
"slash" debris -- branches, treetops and needles -- to create a severe
fire risk.

The controversy over Duncan Canyon is part of the larger battle by
environmentalists against the Bush administration's efforts to thin
millions of acres of dense, diseased and dying trees to prevent a repeat
of last summer's devastating wildfires, which burned more than 7 million
acres of Western forests.
England issued a temporary restraining order to block the Forest Service
from logging and scheduled a hearing July 28 to consider
environmentalists' request for a preliminary injunction.

"Plaintiffs have demonstrated a likelihood of success on their claims
that as trees will be cut, extreme levels of flammable slash will be
generated, wildlife habitat for species dependent upon burned forest
will be removed, (and) wildlife habitat for sensitive species such as
the California spotted owl will be threatened by future severe fire,"
the judge wrote.

Duncan Canyon, located between Auburn and Lake Tahoe, is one of the last
old-growth mixed conifer forests below 7,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada
to have escaped heavy logging. President Bill Clinton designated 9,400
acres as roadless and off-limits to development to protect the ancient
sugar pines, incense cedars and red and white fir trees that provide
habitat for the California spotted owl and other species.

After the Red Star fire burned the area, the Forest Service proposed
cutting no more than half the standing dead trees on 2,700 acres in
Duncan Canyon. Proceeds from the timber sale would pay for restoration
work.

"Our concern is when these dead trees eventually fall down -- and they
will -- that would create extreme amounts of fuel loading on the forest
floor, and these dead trees will readily burn when they are ignited by
brush," said Forest Service
spokesman Matt Mathes.

Environmental groups including the Sierra Club and the John Muir Project
sued, saying the project would increase the fire risk by removing large
trees, which are generally the most fire-resistant, but not the slash
debris.

The groups cited an estimate by Forest Service scientists that logging
could leave as much as 85 tons of slash per acre in Duncan Canyon. A
recent study by the agency's Rocky Mountain Fire Research Station found
that any more than 30 to 40 tons per acre of brush, branches, needles
and other forest debris constituted an "extreme fire hazard."

"The Bush administration is saying it wants to log in a roadless area to
prevent a fire. In fact, what it is doing is actually increasing the
risk of fire," said Sierra Club attorney Aaron Isherwood. "The judge was
smart enough to see through this."

However, the judge's decision will not affect the Forest Service's plans
to log fire-scorched trees on 1,600 acres outside of Duncan Canyon,
which environmental groups also opposed.

E-mail Zachary Coile at zcoile@sfchronicle.com.


<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Educate yourself and go to these links: http://www.buzzflash.com &
http://www.democrats.org & http://www.moveon.org

Liberals take the side of the powerless, whereas Conservatives take the
side of the powerful. Liberals stand up against the oppressors,
Conservatives stand with the oppressors and against the oppressed.
Liberals like me stand up against the forces of power and against the
evil who are rich and the evil who are powerful.

<AbelMalcolm@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:21328-3F04D910-268@storefull-2178.public.lawson.webtv.net...
> >"topcat" <topcat@aboy.com>
> >What exactly has he done to the
> >environment. Be specific now.
>
> I've noticed 2 specific traits with Republicans. They are the most
> badly informed people in the world, and they are also the biggest
> assholes ever.

And liberals are just plain stupid (59 PERCENT of people who vote who don't
have a high school education vote DEMOCRATIC, what does that tell you?) and
they hate America.

All you have to do is read the papers and you'll find
> ample proof EVERYDAY of Bush's anti-environment policies. Here's an
> article from today's paper. To get to the truth, here's a helpful
> hint, EVERYTHING that Republicans say is the opposite of the truth.

This is where I find out you have no objectivity and ignore your article.

TC

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