| Topic: |
Sociology > Education |
| User: |
"Dana" |
| Date: |
29 Aug 2004 02:32:02 PM |
| Object: |
Bush Gives States More Say Over Road-Building on Federal Lands |
http://heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15545
Bush Gives States More Say Over Road-Building on Federal Lands
Bush reverses last-minute Clinton decision, vows federal-state cooperation
in roadless areas.
Written By: James Hoare
Published In: Environment News
Publication Date: September 1, 2004
Publisher: The Heartland Institute
Responding to the pleas of western-state governors seeking more say in the
administration of national forests within their borders, the Bush
administration on July 12 announced national forests will no longer be
off-limits to new road construction. State governors will be encouraged to
submit proposals to the federal government regarding the designation of
roadless areas in national forests within their individual states.
"Our announcements today illustrate our commitment to working closely with
the nation's governors to meet the needs of local communities, and to
maintaining the undeveloped character of the most pristine areas of the
national forest system," said Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman in a July 12
statement.
National Forests Have History of Multiple Uses
In January 2001, in one of the last acts of his presidency, President Bill
Clinton designated nearly 60 million acres of national forest lands
off-limits for logging and unavailable for the construction of new roads.
Clinton's act reversed decades of federal policy regarding the vision for,
and management of, America's national forests.
Noted Jerry Taylor, director of natural resource studies for the Cato
Institute, "As environmentalist icon Gifford Pinchot, the first director of
the U.S. Forest Service, wrote in a speech for Teddy Roosevelt in 1901,
'Forest protection is not an end in itself; it is a means to increase and
sustain the resources of our country and the industries which depend on
them.'"
From such beginnings, U.S. national forests became a "multiple-use"
resource. The federal government committed itself to accommodating the
competing interests of recreationists, conservationists, and resource develo
pers. This multiple-use philosophy held sway until it was reversed in the
waning hours of the Clinton administration.
Bush Plan Restores Multiple-Use Balance
With the decision announced in July, the Bush administration restores that
original multiple-use balance as federal policy. Under the Bush plan,
governors are invited to submit their own proposals regarding national
forest lands within their individual states. Governors who support strict
roadless policies, such as former Clinton cabinet member Bill Richardson,
now the Democratic governor of New Mexico, can petition to leave the Clinton
rule intact within their states. Others who oppose strict enforcement of a
universal roadless rule, such as Republican governor Judy Martz of Montana,
can submit a proposal to return the national forest lands in their states to
multiple use.
According to the July 12 news release from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, which is ultimately in charge of shaping the nation's national
forests policy, the U.S. Forest Service will adhere to the following five
conservation principles in developing state-specific rules:
Make informed decisions to ensure the roadless rule is implemented with more
reliable information and accurate mapping, including local expertise and
experience.
Work with states, tribes, local communities, and the public through a
process that is fair, open, and responsive to local input and information.
Protect forests to ensure that the potential negative effects of severe
wildfires and insect and disease activity are addressed.
Protect communities, homes, and property from the risk of severe wildfires
and other risks that might exist on adjacent federal lands.
Ensure that states, tribes, and private citizens who own property within
roadless areas have access to their property as required by existing law.
The Department of Agriculture news release emphasized the role of governors
and noted most roadless areas are concentrated in just a few states: "The
proposed rule establishes a process for governors to work with the Forest
Service to develop locally supported rules for conserving roadless areas in
their states. While there are 39 states that have 'inventoried' roadless
areas on National Forest System lands within their boundaries, just 12
states contain 56.6 million acres, or 97 percent, of all roadless areas in
the country. Those states are: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho,
Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming."
In the interim period before governors craft their proposals and submit them
for federal approval, the U.S. Forest Service will administer national
forest lands in accordance with the five principles noted above.
"State governments are important partners in the stewardship of the nation's
land and natural resources," said Veneman. "Strong state and federal
cooperation in the management of roadless areas will foster strong local
involvement and support for a final policy."
Western Governors Support Multiple Use
Governors in the 12 states with the largest roadless sections have expressed
a desire to return to multiple-use policies.
The July 14 Rocky Mountain News observed, "Most Western governors opposed
the [Clinton anti-road-building] decision because it alienated entire
communities, including local governments, businesses, land managers, and
people living closest to the forests. Little wonder it has been the subject
of nine lawsuits in federal courts in Idaho, Utah, North Dakota, Wyoming,
Alaska, and the District of Columbia."
"[L]ike clockwork," the article continued, "a number of environmental groups
immediately warned of armies of chainsaw-bearing loggers razing the national
forests. But a much less hysterical reading is that the U.S. may be
returning to the sensible 'multiple-use' policy that had long guided
management of most public lands."
The July 15 Seattle Times noted, "Richardson and Oregon's Gov. Ted
Kulongoski [D] will be empowered to keep their pristine tinderboxes under a
signature of their own. But judging by their responses, it's not as
appealing to support radical environmental policies when your office is on
the line--such things are more conveniently accomplished through
presidential fiat than persuading voters."
"If any one lesson can be learned from this history," noted the Rocky
Mountain News, "it is the need to restore basic integrity and local input to
the process by which public-lands policy is established. Under the Bush
proposal, each state would craft and implement its own strategic vision of
roadless conservation, with the Forest Service of course having final say.
Governors would be allowed to maintain roadless protections or they could
seek some exemptions, but not on lands identified as national monuments,
national recreation areas, wilderness-study areas, wild and scenic rivers,
or national scenic and historic trails."
Montana Governor Martz agreed with that principle. "State, tribal, and local
governments are best equipped to make key decisions about the future of our
public lands," Martz told the Rocky Mountain News.
"The old rule said that Washington, D.C., decision-makers knew better,"
observed Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne (R), who had challenged the Clinton
roadless rule in court in January 2001. "You'll [now] be hearing from
governors as to what approaches work best for their state, and that's how it
should be."
"Common-sense environmentalists recognize the importance of striking a
balance between environmental conservation and the use of resources to
produce economic prosperity--which is itself protective of health and the
environment," commented Dr. Kenneth Green, director of the Center for
Studies in Risk, Regulation, and Environment at the Vancouver-based Fraser
Institute.
"We also know the importance of local knowledge in environmental
policymaking," Green continued. "Decisions made from afar, by people with
little knowledge of local conditions or needs, and who bear no consequences
for misjudgment, are bound to be inferior to decisions made at more local
levels, by decision-makers who will bear the consequences of their actions.
"In striking a balance between conserving our environmental resources, and
using them to produce economic prosperity, state-based decision-making on
whether or not to allow road building makes much more sense than a blanket
ban out of Washington, D.C."
--
Atheism teaches that there is no God, hence no God-given rights. That
ideology coupled with a system that believed in the superiority of the state
at the expense of the individual was murderously synergistic.
.
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| User: "Roger" |
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| Title: Re: Bush Gives States More Say Over Road-Building on Federal Lands |
29 Aug 2004 04:32:30 PM |
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Exodus 20:10 - But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it
thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy
manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is
within thy gates:
"Dana" <#$%@%$#.com> wrote in message
news:6b0ba2bb5f4158ccd01a91bbbbf066ca@news.meganetnews.com...
http://heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15545
Bush Gives States More Say Over Road-Building on Federal Lands
<snip>
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| User: "Scratch" |
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| Title: Re: Bush Gives States More Say Over Road-Building on Federal Lands |
29 Aug 2004 08:20:21 PM |
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Mark 2:27-28
27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the
sabbath:
28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
KJV
"Roger" <rogerfx@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:OXrYc.13161$da2.9080@newssvr27.news.prodigy.com...
Exodus 20:10 - But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in
it
thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy
manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is
within thy gates:
"Dana" <#$%@%$#.com> wrote in message
news:6b0ba2bb5f4158ccd01a91bbbbf066ca@news.meganetnews.com...
http://heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15545
Bush Gives States More Say Over Road-Building on Federal Lands
<snip>
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