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Donated scout land often ends up as cash cow (Attack on Boy Scouts)
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Saturday, January 31, 2009 | Lewis Kamb

Posted on 02/01/2009 8:41:34 AM PST by Navy Patriot

It's been 62 years since conservationist Virgil McCroskey gave the Boy Scouts 400 acres of timberland near this village in Idaho's panhandle, with big ideas for a big new camp.

But don't expect any pup tents or even the faintest whiff of smoke from Camp McCroskey these days.

Rarely used for camping, the land instead has become a moneymaker for the Inland Northwest Council of Boy Scouts. Over the past 35 years, the council has repeatedly logged the property, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some of the money helped pay the mortgage on council headquarters in far-off Spokane, a former council board member says.

Never mind that McCroskey specified how the scouts should use the land when he deeded it in 1947: "for camp and recreational purposes, the site to be known as Virgil Talmadge McCroskey Camp."

Council officials interpret McCroskey's deed to mean they can log the land, so long as revenues are spent on anything related to "recreational purposes."

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Idaho
KEYWORDS: boy; bsa; conservation; environment; scouts; summercamp
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To: Navy Patriot

Good grief. Logging the property. That’s horrible! You’re supposed to let all the trees mature, die, and rot, and then have a good, hot forest fire. That’s the envirowhacko way.


21 posted on 02/01/2009 10:39:44 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: northislander
Do you feel strongly about this or is it just my imagination?

I have lived near San Francisco for 60 years, I know how the leftie perverts operate.

22 posted on 02/01/2009 10:49:07 AM PST by Navy Patriot (John McCain, the Manchurian Candidate, makes a Marxist President.)
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To: Navy Patriot

Sixty years near Frisco is a lot to take.

Spent twenty-five years in the Golden State and glad to be out of it.


23 posted on 02/01/2009 10:56:17 AM PST by northislander
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To: Cicero
Good grief. Logging the property. That’s horrible! You’re supposed to let all the trees mature, die, and rot, and then have a good, hot forest fire.

Yep, here's Kamb's watermelon whine: "That's enough timber to build roughly 140 two-bedroom homes, one forestry scholar estimated."

How dare they build homes for people? What gall.

24 posted on 02/01/2009 10:59:29 AM PST by Navy Patriot (John McCain, the Manchurian Candidate, makes a Marxist President.)
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To: urtax$@work

What can I say? - from the Philadelphia area. The Boy Scouts are being stalked and attacked with abandon. I wish I was wealthy enough to bankroll the Cradle of Liberty. If there was ever a place that needed a group that teaches decency and honor to young men it is Philadelphia - the city of Brotherly Love.

Could not be prouder of my sons, both proud Eagle Scouts.


25 posted on 02/01/2009 11:02:26 AM PST by Jenny217
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To: Navy Patriot

No doubt about it NP. Taking down the Boy Scouts is second only to taking down our nations churches.


26 posted on 02/01/2009 11:24:21 AM PST by DoughtyOne (D1: Home of the golden tag line: FBI cuts off CAIR for contact with Hamas, Obama wants to talk to.)
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To: DoughtyOne

Not that I care what the Scouts do with the land, but I find it ridiculous that no one ever mentions that logging (even clearcutting, which can create meadows, youg timber gorwth, etc.) can be BENEFICIAL if done properly.


27 posted on 02/01/2009 1:06:13 PM PST by MoTiger
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To: MoTiger

I agree. Say, listen to this statement I heard yesterday on an environmentalist show. They were talking about wolves in the upper northwest forests. As an aside they made this comment during the presentation.

“These forests have as diverse a presence of life as the rain forests in South America.” I’m 57 years old, and I had never heard an environmentalist admit that before. What a crackup.


28 posted on 02/01/2009 1:16:59 PM PST by DoughtyOne (D1: Home of the golden tag line: FBI cuts off CAIR for contact with Hamas, Obama wants to talk to.)
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To: gitmo
Over the past 35 years, the council has repeatedly logged the property, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This is clearly selective cutting and not clear cutting . This opens up the forest floor for explosive undergrowth which feeds woodland critters.

Mature forest are barren wastelands as far as foodstuffs for animals.

We select cut the woods on our farm(to pay taxes) every twenty to thirty years and have all sorts of critters and plants(including threatened species which thrive on border edges of woodlands). It allows healthier younger and middle aged trees to full mature and offer greater mast(acorns) and leafage to support wildlife.

The Scouts are managing their lands responsively. IMHO
29 posted on 02/01/2009 1:17:21 PM PST by RedMonqey
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To: MoTiger
...logging (even clearcutting, which can create meadows, youg timber gorwth, etc.) can be BENEFICIAL if done properly.

The problem is, at least in Tennessee, Companies out to make their quarterly reports look good, buy the land, clearcut the whole forrest and leave a barren landscape that won't support any noticeable wilflife for an generation. Those animals able to migrant will put pressure on other habitat resources. The rest die.

Not against responsible land management as we are in the same position as the scouts. See my post 29
30 posted on 02/01/2009 1:27:39 PM PST by RedMonqey
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To: Navy Patriot
A google search of "lewis kamb" and "gay" yields lots of hits. If it's gay, you'll find Lewis Kamb on it. No question about his bias on this issue.
31 posted on 02/01/2009 1:59:40 PM PST by Myrddin
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To: Navy Patriot
The scouts insist they manage the wild lands they own with sensitivity and care.

I'm sure they do. But it looks like the man who donated the land intended for the kids to enjoy it, not the loggers.

32 posted on 02/01/2009 2:31:21 PM PST by antiRepublicrat ("I am a firm believer that there are not two sides to every issue..." -- Arianna Huffington)
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To: DoughtyOne
No doubt about it NP. Taking down the Boy Scouts is second only to taking down our nations churches.

If not part of the plan to take down non-Lieberal churches. I know that at least a couple members of my church leadership are former Scouts, and I don't know about the others one way or the other. I wouldn't be at all surprised if most Conservative Christian Churches' leadership have at least a couple of scouts. Eliminating or converting the Boy Scouts would have the same effect on Conservatism as eliminating Liberal Indoctrination Centers (AKA public schools) would have on Liberals.

33 posted on 02/01/2009 2:47:41 PM PST by magslinger (I talk to myself but sometimes I like a third opinion.)
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To: magslinger

I wouldn’t argue with that.


34 posted on 02/01/2009 2:52:17 PM PST by DoughtyOne (D1: Home of the golden tag line: FBI cuts off CAIR for contact with Hamas, Obama wants to talk to.)
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To: antiRepublicrat
But it looks like the man who donated the land intended for the kids to enjoy it, not the loggers.

I'm sure that is so, however, almost none leave explicit instructions on how to manage the land for the kids.

All forest land will cycle through periods of improvement, deterioration, and renewal naturally. Proper management can reduce substantially, the deteriorating periods. Logging is one of the positive and acceptable tools of proper management that yields a valuable renewable resource.

The value can be used to cover the expenses of management and renewal. Environazis refuse to allow this proper management and require waste and deterioration of the forests they control.

Absent a proper and workable management plan stipulated on the part of the donor, the Scouts have in most cases initiated their own plan resulting in the best benefit for the kids, as charged.

Finally, environazi groups are also the recipients of donated lands, almost always with the stipulation that they be open to the public. After all is said and done, rarely are these lands opened to the PUBLIC. Rich socialist insiders and politicians abound, but no Joe Ordinary and family. The excuse is always money, not enough to hire supervision, though they are almost always on the tax dole. The Scouts have their lands in use, one way or another, by Joe Ordinary's kids.

35 posted on 02/01/2009 3:31:08 PM PST by Navy Patriot (John McCain, the Manchurian Candidate, makes a Marxist President.)
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To: magslinger
eliminating Liberal Indoctrination Centers (AKA public schools)

Now THERE'S an idea!

36 posted on 02/01/2009 3:32:39 PM PST by Navy Patriot (John McCain, the Manchurian Candidate, makes a Marxist President.)
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To: RedMonqey
The Scouts are managing their lands responsively. IMHO

Of course they are. I was being 200% sarcastic. (I'm an ASM and a life-long scouter myself.)

37 posted on 02/01/2009 4:47:02 PM PST by gitmo (I am the latte-sipping, NYT-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, PC, arrogant liberal. -BO)
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To: Navy Patriot

I don’t have a problem with logging as part of management of the land, all the better if it pays off any costs of managing the land. But if the primary purpose of the land isn’t for the kids, if they keep the land just as a profit maker, then the BSA violated the trust of the donor.


38 posted on 02/01/2009 5:12:47 PM PST by antiRepublicrat ("I am a firm believer that there are not two sides to every issue..." -- Arianna Huffington)
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To: RedMonqey

Note that i said sone properly. I’m not talking about stripping heavily sloped land all the way to the river’s edge.

A coniferous forest like what is likely to be found up in Idaho has a canopy that blocks out light from most everything under it. Claearcutting can give wildlife a place to eat.

Again, I don’t know what they’re doing in TN but there is some land near here in Missouri that was clearcut in the 30’s that now looks pretty much like the old growth I have seen. It’s amazing how the forest can repair itself. Unfortunately the oak borers (exotic beetles) have been spotted in the state recently. Hopefully it won’t hit hte forests as hard as they think it will.


39 posted on 02/01/2009 5:32:54 PM PST by MoTiger
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To: gitmo

Sorry, gitmo. My post was meant as an addition to what Navy Patriot said.

I understood you comments as satire. My bad....


40 posted on 02/01/2009 9:08:39 PM PST by RedMonqey
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