Bush admin opens Tongass National Forrest to logging

Bush admin opens Tongass National Forrest to logging

www.ens-newswire.com

JUNEAU, Alaska, January 25, 2008 (ENS) - Today, the Bush administration put a "for sale" sign on trees in pristine roadless areas of the Tongass rainforest in Alaska - America's largest national forest.

This move by Bush officials to reverse roadless area protections parallels two others made recently in national forests located in Idaho and Colorado.

Conservationists from across the country are indignant that roads will be punched through some of the nation's last, best roadless areas to allow private corporations to log America's public lands.

"The few remaining roadless areas of our national forests are some of the only safe harbors for America's wildlife," said Mary Beth Beetham at Defenders of Wildlife. "As global warming threatens to dramatically change the landscape we must have the foresight to preserve these last remaining pristine forests for future generations. It's folly for the Bush administration, in its last few months, to work to destroy these areas."

In December 2003, Bush officials "temporarily" exempted Alaska's Tongass rainforest from the Clinton era Roadless Rule, designed to protect 58 million acres of roadless wild forests in 39 states.

The Bush administration's new management plan for the Tongass National Forest will raise no revenue for the U.S. government, as the U.S. taxpayers will have to pay to build the roads the timber companies need to access the forest.

(visit the link for the full news article)

LOL! So not only is Dubby the Decider going to mow down his latest forrest, but WE THE TAXPAYERS are going to be paying for the paving of the roads the loggers will use!

The hits never stop with these guys!

www.ens-newswire.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

With inflation of the dollar expected to skyrocket I bet the FED requested a new source of paper.

reply to post by Golack


Heh-No doubt, they're running out of paper. The most inane part about this is not only will the states see none of the revenue generated by this, but we are actually FUNDING IT. Just when I think these guys couldn't suprise me any more...

I hope people are paying attention to this. We are in a continual phase of being shafted here, and funding foreign money making schemes which are taking our tax-dollars out of our economy, and furthering others agendas.

We should be outraged and appalled by this. Or perhaps it's become so commonplace that everyone is just numb and doesn't care anymore?

So the UK are are getting involved with the worlds biggest carbon offset deal

news.mongabay.com...

and the USA are destroying all the carbon offset they have - Good game.

Sad, and stupid. How do you stop a government gone this badly wrong?

reply to post by Harlequin



LOL-No doubt. And screwing their own nation financially while doing so. These people's greed knows no limitations.

this may lead to further the rarity of wild life and could seriously damage the ecosystem, good job bush just what we need logging in one of the last remaining pristine forrests the us has . dimensional detective is right there greed knows no bounds and the worse part of this scheme is there using tax payer money to fund this.

This is a rather biased source. I went to google news and read 4 different versions of this story. It should be noted that this was the only one that mentioned taxpayer funded roads.

What was evident from reading the other articles is that this was a compromise. The environmentalists in the area want to sue to save the trees. The logging companies in the area say that due to regulations, they have been struggling to stay afloat for years and that this isn't enough land for them...they're suing too.

This is a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. If he throws them some land, the environmentalists go crazy. If he doesn't, the logging companies go out of business and all of the jobs go with them...then we have people complaining about unemployment.