Partisan divide stymies progress on forest policy

Redding Record Searchlight ^ | 8/15/08 | editorial

[marsh2]

Our view:It’s criminally negligent when politicians can’t set aside differences long enough to talk for a morning about an urgent public safety hazard The organizers of a wildfire forum in Sacramento on Wednesday brought together three members of the U.S. Congress and half a dozen state lawmakers.

They drew the California fire marshal, the head of the state Fire Safe Council, Forest Service researchers and officials, and county supervisors from around the region.

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SHARE THIS STORY [?] They attracted reporters and more than a hundred interested spectators.

What they couldn’t land, however, was a single elected Democrat. Not one member of the party that controls Congress and the state Legislature was willing to show up and discuss fires and fuel management. And it’s not, the GOP organizers insist, for lack of inviting.

[marsh2]

To watch the hearing in full: http://www.calchannel.com/search.php?date=081308&source=All&type=All&title=&Search=Submit

To those of us in the north state who are threatened with wildfire or trying to breath under smokey conditions, the "California Burning" hearing was an important one. It was very disheartening to be dismissed out of hand by the democrats in the legislature.

These overstocked and dangerous fuel conditions have persisted way too long in northern California. We need the resources to thin the National Forests that perennially threaten our communities.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Ditto to that from Arizona! We’ve been having some bad wildfires here too because some black robed fascist has decided that it is “unconstitional” for us to be good caretakers of our forests. A few years ago, a major fire wiped out the forest where I live. I’ll never see it grow back in my lifetime. I was proud to see the Apaches tell the judges and their Marxist comrades to —— off and die. They have begun going in and cleaning up the floors of their forests. Between wildfires and the good old “bark beetles,” our forests are finished. I believe that even the “bark beetles” were a result of the poor management of our forests since the Clintonistas cleaned out the veteran U.S. Forest Service employees and loaded it up with their worthless “environmentalists.”

[marsh2]

ping

[calcowgirl]

Many conservatives still long for the good old logging days and rant, as the soon-to-retire Rep. John Doolittle did Wednesday, about “liberal zealots.” Well, those days were very good for the north state economy, but they aren’t coming back. The law and public sentiment have shifted. It’s time to adapt.

Sheesh! No bias there.

On the left, environmentalists say we need to get used to natural fire and plan our communities better to keep safe. They have a few fair points, yet they studiously ignore the health damage caused by months of thick smoke and the crippling economic weight that summer-long fires have on mountain communities

It's sad to say it--but if fire prevention were pushed as a solution to global warming, they might go along.

[tubebender]

Thanks for the Ping M2.These Marxist Zealots have neutered the Forest Service in Humboldt County and now they are going to kill the rebuilding of Humboldt Bay and they are abetted by a Planning Department at the county level that are masters of the Stall and lost paper work. No one in their right mind could envision barging logs into the bay to keep Schmidtbauer and Sierra Pacific mills going...

[AuntB]

I wish those dems had to spend 3 months in this smoke like we have. Visibility at my house this morning is about 3 feet.
Did anyone bother to mention the drug cartels growing dope all over the forests that they pretend to want to protect?
Rhetorical question, I know the answer.

[SierraWasp]

Sometimes, young lady, rhetorical questions must be asked and are many times profound!!! There is a whole political party inleague with groups of some pretty twisted minds that should be forced to answer these questions with far more that an irresponsible shrug of the shoulders!!!

The courts should be the minority's refuge and protection from the "tyranny of the majority!" Not to dream-up new "precedents," but to restore reason, sanity and the original intent of past lawmakers and a far more rational society prior to being intimidated as not being concerned enough about the all-encompassing "environment" and a rash of trumped-up and vastly overstated threats!!!