Trying to see forest for the trees

Sacramento Bee ^ | December 22, 2003 | Stuart Leavenworth

[farmfriend]

BOONVILLE -- The blue-collar diners and hippy hangouts of this Mendocino County town have been buzzing for days about a beguiling rumor.

According to the buzz, an East Coast conservation outfit was preparing to buy nearly 24,000 acres of neighboring timberland for $18 million. But instead of setting aside the redwoods as a preserve, the group hopes to turn it into a showcase of environmental forestry -- selectively harvesting some trees with the goal of restoring an old-growth forest.

[farmfriend]

Natrual Process

This book proposes a free-market environmental management system designed to deliver a product that is superior to government oversight, at lower cost. It provides examples illustrating how the system might work and proposes an implementing legal strategy. Though environmental in origin, the principles this book describes are applicable toward privatizing nearly any form of government regulation.

This book examines where we are going and what to do about it from the perspective of an amateur ecologist developing habitat restoration processes as a hobby. By profession, the author is a medical device engineer, representing neither of the polar opposites of the environmental debate. The combination of multinational regulatory, industrial, and "hands-on" experience is sadly lacking in policy development all too often dominated by lawyers, activists, or other interest groups. The goal is to introduce a system design, capable of reversing the growing reach of regulatory government and motivating the human and ecological benefits through the responsible expression of individual liberty.

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.

Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[farmfriend]

I would love to see some letters to the editor appear in the Bee.

[farmfriend]

using logging revenues to pay for upkeep of the land.

Gosh, that sounds so familiar somehow!

[farmfriend]

a state agency that uses voter-approved bond money for coastal protection projects.

There is your SF votes.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[farmfriend]

"I'm a big fan of sustainable forestry," she said. "But it depends who is doing it, and how they do it."

That last line says it all!

[Pro-Bush]

According to the buzz, an East Coast conservation outfit was preparing to buy nearly 24,000 acres of neighboring timberland for $18 million. But instead of setting aside the redwoods as a preserve, the group hopes to turn it into a showcase of environmental forestry -- selectively harvesting some trees with the goal of restoring an old-growth forest.

Excellent idea!

[farmfriend]

Excellent idea!

Yes but the problems come in with that last line in the article. They don't want a private property owner or timber company to do it.

[Carry_Okie]

I fear a single monolithic effort. Land is too complex for that. I also wish these people could drop their hatred for all development and see that people wishing to be good stewards have to live somewhere close to the work.

[forester]

Despite decades of intensive logging, coho salmon and steelhead trout still spawn in the river and its tumbling tributaries. More than 80 bird species have been sighted in the watershed, including northern spotted owls, falcons, eagles and white-tail kites.

Well gee whiz, when Louisiana Pacific owned it, it was considered to be a wasteland created by corporate greed. Now that the enviro's own it, suddenly it been restored to a garden of Eden? All this spin is making me sick!!

[SierraWasp]

Wull dang it forester, we've tried evrythang we kin think uv and thuh danged whackos jus keep cumin ovur the horizon wif sum new twist and turn, evrytime we turns around!!!

Whut shud we do... jus giv up???

[editor-surveyor]

"a state agency that uses voter-approved bond money for coastal protection projects."

Won't work in California anymore! - There will not be any 'voter approved' bond measures in this state for a long time to come. Arnold's 26 billion will be the first to go down in flames, but all the others will follow in lockstep, until they all figure it out - The sleeping monster has awakened.

[forester]

Whut shud we do... jus giv up???

I smell chum in the water.

On Dec. 11, the California Coastal Conservancy awarded $10 million to the Virginia-based Conservation Fund, a land trust with twin missions of nurturing nature and local economies. With the money, the nonprofit group has nearly enough to purchase 40 percent of the watershed of the Garcia River -- one of the largest conservation deals ever on the North Coast.

So the same big government groupies who just dissed Arnold for cutting millions from the budget has no problem taking millions and doing what????

... this will mark the first time a land trust has attempted to manage a working timberland in California,

Oh I see, it's an experiment. Well, at least they picked an experienced outfit.

A relative newcomer to the California land trust scene, the Conservation Fund was formed in 1985

What! They're greenhorns? So this a ten million dollar experiment run by people who have no idea what the hell they are doing?!?

"Jim, how much money is it going to cost to fix that?" Kelly asked during a brief moment of buyer's remorse.

Looks like they will follow the government's lead and go from a non-profit to debtor status. How sustainable will it be when they begin to lose thousands of dollars? How much money will they lose before they realize that the environmental permit system that they forced onto industry doesn't work? How long before a bright young bean counter comes to the conclusion that timber has no value unless one can sell it to a sawmill in a competitive marketplace? Finally, how long before they turn this tract of land (subsidized by taxpayer $) into a playground for the elite, and fence the unwashed masses out?

Thank god for a forum like this where we can identify seamingly benign proposals as the insider corruption that it really is.
{eggnog gives me rants}

[farmfriend]

I hope you are right but I have little faith. BTW, Tom Sullivan was telling people that this bond measure is not adding to the debt but a refinancing of current debt. The money has already been borrowed they are just redoing the loan so to speak.

[editor-surveyor]

" I also wish these people could drop their hatred for all development and see that people wishing to be good stewards have to live somewhere close to the work."

Must you be so damned sensible? :o)

[editor-surveyor]

Look out for what Tom Sullivan says; He has always been a big government guy who supported anything that might make his bank more profitable.

Bankers and investment brokers are not usually conservatives, and Tom is no exception. Tune your radidio to 1380, and listen to Eric Hogue instead.

[BOBTHENAILER]

What! They're greenhorns? So this a ten million dollar experiment run by people who have no idea what the hell they are doing?!?

Best line if the whole thread.

[farmfriend]

The last radio I listened to was RFR. It has great programing. I think that part of Tom's show I caught while driving somewhere in my mom's car. I'll make sure I change the station next time.

[SierraWasp]

"{eggnog gives me rants}"

Wull... That's nuthin! These phony Land Trust/Conservancy fruits give me the trots!!!