Free Republic

When the new West is won, will there be cowboys? In light of what her neighbors are up to, Double O Ranch owner Vicki Olson isn’t so sure. “I guess the point that I keep hammering at is that if they succeed, that means all of us third- and fourth-generation ranchers are gone,” Olson said. She is the average Montana rancher, 56 going on 70, working a spread gouged from the pebbly soil by her grandparents 100 years ago. Her neighbor, the nonprofit American Prairie Foundation, is methodically acquiring ranches and crafting a 3.5-million-acre wildlife reserve out of private property...

Zeke lived with an FFA teacher because he had no other home. He worked for his room and board; he fed the pigs and chickens, and helped with the milking. The summer between the 8th and 9th grades, Jasper, the FFA teacher, took Zeke to a neighbor's ranch and let him pick out a day-old Hereford bull for his first FFA project. The deal was that Jasper would pay for the calf, and for the feed, and Zeke could repay Jasper when the calf grew to become the Grand Champion Steer at the state fair, and sold at the fair's...

CHONGQING, south-west China’s largest municipality, plans to relocate 400,000 farmers, or 120,000 households, out of impoverished mountain areas in an unprecedented anti-poverty programme. People who will be relocated mainly fit within the following three categories: those living in high and cold remote mountainous regions with harsh climates and barren land; those households that are far from towns and transportation lines; and those living in regions where geological disasters are frequent and where diseases often break out. Located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Chongqing covers an area of 82,400sq kilometres with a population of 31 million. For hundreds...

Public officials have absolutely no excuse for implementing Sustainable Development. ...especially once you've given them a copy of the document I'm asking you to download today! ------------------- Dear friend of liberty: We've talked about it on our radio show... We've mentioned it in our writings... We presented it at the Freedom 21 National Conference in Reno in July... Now, the much-anticipated Guide for Public Officials is here! The full title of this powerful document is Understanding Sustainable Development (Agenda 21): A Guide for Public Officials. In just fourteen pages, you'll have the most concise and comprehensive single document outlining the...

I slept in peaceful bliss in the cab of a Ford pick-up when a burst of adrenaline startled me. Holding my breath, I got my bearings and raised my head just high enough to peek out the driver's side window. Nothing but empty desert; everyone else had ridden away on horseback about an hour earlier. Keys in the ignition swayed as the truck rocked back and forth. I swallowed and looked into the side mirror. With a disgruntled "Mrrr...," a black and white cow stepped into view from behind the truck. I came to the Owyhees in Oregon to interview...

It comes too late to save the farms and livelihoods of hundreds of southern Oregon farmers left high and dry last summer, but the National Academy of Sciences released a report Feb. 5 bearing out what those farmers have been saying all along — the federal government did not have sufficient scientific evidence to cut off irrigation water to the farms below Oregon's Klamath Lake Dam. Two hundred thousand acres of the Klamath Valley in southwest Oregon went without irrigation water last summer, with 1,500 affected farm families suffering losses that may total $250 million, dwarfing a $20 million ...

Cattle Grazers Welcome New Grazing Rules By JOHN HEILPRIN ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) - Livestock interests in the West are welcoming the Interior Department's proposed new federal rules for grazing on public lands, though they could cause some short-term harm to the environment. The department's Bureau of Land Management released a draft environmental impact statement Friday that conceded "some short-term adverse effects" from the new rules could result among 160 million acres of public lands considered suitable for livestock grazing. But what is grazed is considerably less than that due to drought, wildfires and business decisions. "The numbers are down...

Set up for another train wreck? Tri-County Courier 12/30/03 Kehn Gibson, staff writer. Despite ample evidence to the contrary, the Bureau of Reclamation and the NOAA Fisheries continue to rigidly adhere to a 'below average' water year type, releasing a lot of water over Iron Gate Dam in November and December and resulting in a violation in the required level of Upper Klamath Lake Nov. 30. UKL level violated in November; Bureau and NMFS still refuse to reconsult The Klamath Basin has notched 83 percent of its average annual precipitation since the water year began Oct. 1, and more is...

Outraged at continued efforts by the state of Florida to seize the home of a disabled veteran for conservation purposes, a local property rights group has launched a nation-wide letter-writing campaign on his behalf. "We need letter writing – phone, fax or e-mail – to Gov. Jeb Bush in support of Jesse Hardy," says Cindy Kemp, a Collier County, Fla., resident and founding member of the Property Rights Action Committee in an e-mail message alert. "The situation [he] is in breaks my heart." As reported by WorldNetDaily, Hardy, 67, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, lives with his adopted 7-year-old son,...

Narrow Minded ZealotsThe Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is home to some 350,000 people who live and work in the 23 counties that comprise the ecosystem. A very small but vocal and well funded group of this population (the Eco-Tally-Ban) is not happy we are utilizing our area's abundant natural resources to make our living and want us to stop. Ranching, farming, logging, forest recreation, residential construction and tourist facilitation is the target of these green activists that have deemed us trespassers in the land of the animal and tree. Human nature provides a mental mechanism (guilt) that sometimes retroactively provides a...

EMail from the Script writer: In an upcoming TV movie on CBS to be aired this Sunday, Rob Lowe plays an attorney who learns the real meaning of Christmas. He also represents a group of farmers who need protection from the "environmental junta" who wants to take their water rights away over the sucker fish. It is extremely RARE for a pro-rural point of view (no matter how small) to make it to the networks ... and I ought to know, because I wrote the script for the movie. We need to get as many people as possible not only...

In the early afternoon of Saturday, July 13, a lightning storm began in the northwest corner of California, crossed the state line into Siskiyou National Forest in southwest Oregon, and moved northeast toward Crater Lake sparking dozens of small fires in its wake. Several of these fires on the Siskiyou grew large and merged together, becoming the biggest wildfire in Oregon history – a mega-inferno that has consumed close to half a million acres of forest land, including nearly the entire 180,000-acre Kalmiopsis Wilderness, and in late July caused the 17,000 residents of the Illinois Valley to be placed on...

Senators steal Florida land Posted: September 14, 20021:00 a.m. Eastern © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com In 1989, Congress told the Corps of Engineers to build flood control structures to protect the people who live in what's called the 8.5 Square Mile Area of Dade County, Fla. Environmental extremists who want the Everglades restored to the "wilderness" condition that existed before people came, convinced the South Florida Water Management District to withdraw its support for the flood-control project. The project was never built. The new Everglades Restoration Plan calls for flooding about half the people in the area. A home-owners group filed suit, and a...

Apple Fire Update: September 03, 2002: Fire Information: (541)496-0235 Size: 13,595 acres Started: August 16, 2002 Containment: 75 percent Expected Containment: September 5 at 6:00 p.m. Line to build: 3 miles Location: 21 miles east of Glide near the area of Dry Creek Resources Assigned: 27 crews, 10 helicopters, 27 engines, 20 watertenders, 7 dozers. Total 912 personnel. Objectives: Keep the fire south of the North Umpqua River, west of Twin Lakes and 4770 Road, east of Panther Ridge, and north of a line between Lake in the Woods and Snowbird Mountain. Ensure firefighter and public safety, make management decisions...

AZUSA, Calif., 7:52 a.m. PDT September 3, 2002 - A wildfire in the San Gabriel Mountains that forced people to flee campgrounds over the Labor Day weekend has grown to 14,429 acres, officials said Tuesday. The blaze, which started Sunday afternoon about 30 miles northeast of Los Angeles, was 5 percent contained, said Linda Steinberg, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. It was expected that the wildfire would be fully contained by Sept. 10, Steinberg said.

In the last essay, titled "Paul Bunyan Meets Sierra Sue Happy and the Democrats," we learned that Paul Bunyan, as well as many other American folk heroes, were being deconstructed and then reconstructed into politically correct social icons by leftist groups like the Sierra Club aka Sierra Sue Happy. We found out that the Democratic Party has become the legislative arm of the radicalized environmental movement. We learned that 6 million acres of Western forests have burned to the ground, some of it to bedrock. This will ensure that some of those forests may take generations to grow back. That...

Still wrong after all these years Worldwatch misdiagnoses the planet again by Ronald Bailey The World Summit on Sustainable Development will convene in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002. The World Summit is the 10th anniversary follow-up to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.At the Earth Summit, ideological environmentalism achieved considerable success in advancing its agenda for reshaping the world's economy. That Summit saw the adoption of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the incorporation of the precautionary principle in international treaties.In the 10 years since the Earth...

POLSON, Mont. -- A U.S. Forest Service official told loggers Wednesday that some out-of-state environmental activists operating in Montana are terrorists trained in arson, vandalism and bomb-making. "Here in Montana, we are starting to see people from out of state and people who have direct ties to the Earth Liberation Front, and that concerns us," said Bill Fox, of the agency's Northern Region office in Missoula. Fox spoke Wednesday to members of the Montana Wood Products Association, gathered in Polson for their annual meeting. Earlier this summer, ELF told officials at the Bitterroot National Forest that all salvage logging in...

WINDS PUSH BISCUIT FLAMES OVER LINE Published: August 31, 2002 By Bill Lundquist, Pilot Staff Writer Chetco Effect weather conditions pushed the Biscuit Fire Wednesday afternoon over a contingency fire line near Tolman Ranch, but no structures were lost. Alaska Incident Management Team Information Officer Bill Beebe said crews were moved back and helicopters dropped water. Mike Frazier, with the U.S. Forest Service, said the area around Tolman Ranch has been cleared and protected, so there should be no danger to structures. Due to the increased fire activity, the estimated containment date has been moved to Sept. 6. In North...

Fire-It's Coming to A Forest Near You Mariah Wilson (c) 2002 mariahwilson@yahoo.com Do you love the Mountain West? The incomparable scenic vistas? The incredible parks? The way the wind rustles through the trees? Do you have special forest places that you like to visit again and again? Do you love it so much that you live in the mountains? That you built your whole life around the experience of living with trees, flora and fauna? Well, take a good look at it while you can. In fact, better take a trip this summer. Don't put it off. Don't wait. Take...

 The federal government is great at bothering the American people with a never ending barrage of laws, rules and regulations. Yet, they cannot seem to take responsibility for anything, no matter how much they mess up. This year alone, due to a mishmash of very stupid environmental laws and regulations, the federal government is responsible for allowing over 6.2-million acres (9,688 square miles) of good timber to burn. That's about double the annual average and this is still just August. The federal government took possession, unconstitutionally, of 196 million acres (over 306,000 square miles, total -- for comparison, the State...

New mapping drops Biscuit fire below half-million-acre mark By JEFF BARNARD The Associated Press 8/30/02 12:32 PM GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- Based on closer mapping, the size of the massive Biscuit Fire dipped below the half-million-acre mark Friday as firefighters built the last bits of containment lines to securely encircle the blaze. Burning since July 13 when lightning raked the Siskiyou National Forest, the Biscuit Fire stood at 499,780 acres, down from 500,068 acres, and remained 90 percent contained, said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Miera Crawford. Full containment was projected for Wednesday. The delay in full containment was caused...

A CSE core principle: "Environmental laws must respect the rights of property owners." For years, this principle has been violated by radical environmental groups. The Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society, the Nature Conservancy and others have relentlessly filed lawsuits, misusing the Endangered Species Act to restrict property use and confiscate private property without compensation.. Such groups, following an insatiable desire to acquire more lands for non-human use, are attempting to drive rural Americans off their land and into cities as part of "Wildlands Project" and "Sustainable Development" agendas. Logging in the West has essentially been shut down, making us dependent...

There's a Joseph Conrad kind of symbolism in the location of the United Nations-sponsored World Summit on Sustainable Development. A collection of central planners has convened in Johannesburg, South Africa, to further centralize control over private property and streamline the distribution of wealth from freer, more prosperous nations to despotic, underdeveloped ones. The intellectual and ethical impetus for this renewed assault on freedom and prosperity is the repugnant Marxist theory of environmentalism. Conservation is the central planners' Trojan Horse for a globally coordinated assault on individual rights. These "watermelons" – green on the outside, red on the inside – adroitly...

Red Flag Warning/Fire Weather Watch Information ZZZ000-291358-FNUS56 KMFR 281355 FWFMFR FIRE WEATHER FORECAST FIRE WEATHER OFFICE MEDFORD, OR FORECASTER: WOLF 700 AM PDT WED AUG 28 2002 A RED FLAG WARNING CONTINUES THIS MORNING FOR GUSTY NORTHEAST WINDS AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY ACROSS THE RIDGES OF FIRE WEATHER ZONES 618, 619 AND 620... DISCUSSION...A THERMAL TROUGH ALONG THE SOUTHERN OREGON COAST WILL CONTINUE TO PRODUCE GUSTY NORTHEAST WINDS AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITIES OVER THE RIDGES OF EXTREME SOUTHWEST OREGON THIS MORNING. THIS AFTERNOON THE THERMAL TROUGH WILL WEAKEN AND SHIFT INLAND BRINGING AN END TO RED FLAG WARNING CONDITIONS OVER...

Last Update:8:30 a.m. (MDT); August 27, 2002   Six fires reported for yesterday.  Three fires reported by the State of Arizona, two fires on Santa Fe NF, and one fire on Fort Apache Reservation.  One new large fire (i.e. fires >100 acres), LAKES FIRE on Santa Fe NF.   ARIZONAPACK RAT FIRE, located along the Mogollon Rim, 15 miles north of Payson, AZ, is now over 1,210 acres.  Burning in mixed conifer and chaparral on Coconino and Tonto National Forest's, the fire became very active yesterday with increased torching, spotting, and upslope runs.  A number of spot fires were found across...

Florida growth regulators notified Collier County on Monday that they had signed off on landmark changes to the county's rural growth plan, but opponents are vowing a legal challenge. County commissioners approved new growth rules this summer in response to a 1999 order from Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet that required the county to work with its citizens to come up with better environmental protections for its rural land. The rules apply to some 93,000 acres on the edge of Golden Gate Estates known as the rural fringe. Other changes, still under state review, would apply to almost 200,000...

Along with death and taxes, the U.N.'s America-bashing is one of the few things in life you can count on. The only variables in this global version of the Whack-A-Mole game are the time, place, and manner of the whacks. This week the venue moves to Johannesburg, South Africa, the site of the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development. The forum aims to focus on the deteriorating state of the environment in poor countries. News accounts remind us that 100 presidents and prime ministers from around the world will attend-but not George W. Bush!(gasp!) The New York Times' "news...

‘We’re not willing sellers’, say River’s End property owners by Sue Forde, Editor Citizen Review Onlinewww.citizenreviewonline.org Published 08. 26. 02 at 10:24 Sierra Time Clallam County, WA – 8/26/02 – Mark Thomas, acting on behalf of the property owners at River’s End on the Dungeness River, appeared before county commissioners to let them know once again that the private property owners are not “willing sellers.” The commissioners planned to accept bid proposals for environmental impact studies and appraisals toward the buyout of property there. Mark Thomas, acting president of the Dungeness Beach Association, brought a letter to the Clallam...

Biscuit Fire expected to be contained Monday August 25, 2002 PORTLAND - Fire bosses say they expect full containment on the Biscuit Fire in southwest Oregon by tomorrow. That's when they predict they can have the 300-mile line around the fire completed. The fire has burned nearly 500,000 acres since lightening started it about six weeks ago. However fire information officer Susan Mathison says containment does not mean the fire is out. She says it could still ignite and spread until the first serious rain. She said interior burning within the fire line, which ranges from one foot to 30...

<p>"Sustainable development" sounds like a good thing — one of those noncontroversial ideas over which we need not squabble. Few of us are for things that can't be sustained. So what is there to argue about?</p> <p>Quite a bit, actually, as representatives from around the world gather in Johannesburg to address poverty, environmental concerns and economic growth at the United Nations-sponsored World Summit on Sustainable Development. In perusing the fine print published by the organizers of the conference, economists and concerned people from across the globe are alarmed by what is concealed behind a seemingly harmless bit of jargon.</p>

(CNSNews.com) - "There is a lot of quality to be had in poverty," and the introduction of electricity is "destroying" the cultures of the world's poor, according to a U.S. environmentalist, who commented on the eve of the United Nations Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. But a pioneer of the environmental movement who left it because he viewed it as too radical, called the anti-electricity views an example of the "eco-imperialism" of the white upper-middle class who think it's "neat to have Africans with no electricity." Gar Smith, editor of the Earth Island Institute's online magazine The Edge,...

<p>"While visiting the west coast this week, I saw the destructive effects of one of the worst wildfire seasons in history," Bush said in his weekly radio address.</p> <p>"As we work to put out the fires and bring relief to their victims, we also have a responsibility to prevent the devastation that can be caused by future fires," he added.</p> <p>Bush said U.S. forest policy needed to focus on thinning out trees to reduce the incidence and damage from wildfires. He characterized the current U.S. forest policy as a, "hands-off approach" that was "devastating to our environment."</p>

Biscuit fire nearly surrounded 08/24/02ALEX PULASKI Firefighters pushed control lines closer around the Biscuit fire Friday, and hope to have its 240-mile perimeter sewn up by this weekend. From Our Advertiser Twenty-plus miles of line remained to be built around the Biscuit blaze, the biggest fire in the United States this year. The most critical stretch remains along the fire's western edge, near the Pistol River. Randy Shepard, a fire spokesman, said 10 hand crews were pressing south in rough terrain. Aided by bulldozers and three crews working toward the north to meet them, firefighters hope to tie the two...

JOSEPH PERKINS New thinking on managing nation's forests? Joseph Perkins SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE August 23, 2002 President Bush was in the Pacific Northwest yesterday where he unveiled a new forest management plan that aims to prevent the kind of catastrophic wildfires that have charred nearly 6 million acres this year. That have destroyed more than 2,000 homes and buildings, sent tens of thousands of people fleeing for refuge and taken the lives of 20 brave firefighters. That have laid waste to hundreds of millions of trees, destroyed wildlife habitat, and damaged forest soils and watersheds for decades to come. Even...

Here we go folks. Our anonymous FR bennifactor has kicked in $870 to get our Medford / Central Point Bulletin Board up! Imagine it....some dirty little green watermelon driving north after a long hard day filled with protesting and what's that up ahead? Why it's a Bulleting Board that reads...Sound good. Well what if that BB stayed there right up until ELECTION DAY? That would be even better.This is a golden opportunity!

August 22, 2002 President Announces Healthy Forest Initiative Remarks by the President on Forest Health and Preservation The Compton Arena Central Point, Oregon Master of ceremonies was Lars Larson with KXL, Portland. Senator Gordon Smith introduced the President of the United States. 12:54 P.M. PDT (YES! He was on time -- no 2 hour haircut holding up the airlines!) THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much for coming. Thanks for -- please be seated, unless of course you don't have a chair. (Laughter.) Thanks for that. Thank you all for such a warm welcome. It's such an honor to be...

Fires burning across Oregon The Associated Press8/23/02 10:22 AM Major wildfires were burning on about 565,362 acres in Oregon on Friday. About 8,944 firefighters were fighting five major fires around the state. The Northwest Interagency Communication Center is tracking five major fires in Oregon. Top priorities for fire officials Monday were the Biscuit fire, covering 492,342 acres, the 7,400-acre Apple fire and the 62,200-acre Tiller Complex. BISCUIT FIRE (formerly called Florence Fire; name changed on 8/11/02) Started: Florence fire started 26 miles west of Grant Pass, 07/13/02; Sour Biscuit started 17 miles southwest of Cave Junction. Size: 492,342 acres. Containment:...

Bush's message to Oregon: His forest plan equals jobs 08/23/02, TOM DETZEL "Times are tough, but let me tell you something -- so is America," he added. Bush issued a stinging critique of the forest policies that led to this year's record fire season -- policies expected to cost taxpayers more than $1.5 billion for fire suppression. Nationwide, nearly 6 million acres, an area the size of New Hampshire, have burned. He said red tape, regulations and "endless litigation" have become the tools for delaying worthwhile thinning projects. His plan would allow emergency thinning in the highest-risk areas while speeding...

To the dismay of environment-destroying "environmentalists," President Bush today shifted federal policy toward thinning national forests to reduce the risk of wildfires. "The forest policy of our government is misguided policy. It doesn't work," Bush told cheering residents outside Medford, Ore., near the state's largest fire on record. "We need to thin. We need to make our forest healthy by using some common sense. "We need to understand that if we let kindling build up and there's a lightning strike, you gonna get yourself a big fire. That's what we gotta understand." It makes sense to clear brush, he...

AUGUST 22, 09:40 ET Bush Unveils Plan to Fight Wildfires By JENNIFER LOVEN Associated Press Writer CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — Embarking on a three-day Western swing expected to haul in at least $5 million for Republican politicians, President Bush is taking a stand on one of the region's thorniest issues by proposing that more logging in national forests would help prevent devastating wildfires. Bush was traveling Thursday from his Texas ranch to southwestern Oregon, near the California state line, for a briefing on local fires that have ravaged the area and an aerial view of the damage. The president was...

Bush expected to promote new forest policy 08/21/02MICHAEL MILSTEIN and JIM BARNETT When he speaks Thursday in Medford, President Bush is expected to push for more intensive thinning of Western forests to reduce fire danger. And he will likely support legislation streamlining environmental rules that have slowed many Western logging projects. It will plainly signal the administration's approach to forest management against the backdrop of epic wildfires burning throughout Oregon and the West.It could also incite a storm of opposition from environmental groups that argue logging only will do more harm to Western forests. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said Tuesday...

Bush to push for thinning The Associated Press, 8/21/02 4:21 AM MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) -- President Bush will address forest health issues when he visits Medford on Thursday, most likely pushing for more intensive thinning of Western forests to reduce fire danger. When they reach Medford, the president and U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith will receive a briefing on Oregon wildfires, according to Joe Sheffo, Smith's press secretary. Bush and Smith will then be taken on a tour of the area burned by the Squire fire southeast of Ruch. The fire scorched nearly 3,000 acres of public and private land after...

The United States is based upon "murder, exploitation and … genocide." It supports "exploitation" and "slaughter." It engages in "oppression in its sickest forms." It is "the most extreme terrorist organization in planetary history." It is, in short, an imperialistic "disease." Those are the words not of some foreign terrorist group, but of 29-year-old Craig Rosebraugh in congressional testimony Feb. 12. Rosebraugh is the former spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a radical environmentalist group. According to the FBI, the ELF engages in terrorism (see "FBI Targets Domestic Terrorists"). Since the nation's attention became focused on international terrorism,...

It´s only June, the hot, dry months of summer are ahead, and according to the Washington Post, "there are six major fires in Colorado. Fires are also burning out of control in California, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona, where a large and dangerous fire in the tinder-dry forests of the eastern part of the state raced through a hastily abandoned town today, chasing firefighters off the line and prompting an evacuation warning for thousands of residents." MSNBC reported "About 393,000 acres have been consumed in eastern Arizona by two fires — the Chedesky fire and the larger Rodeo fire...

<p>Last month, environmental groups across the country hollered like banshees when politicians and local communities began taking them to task for the massive wildfires that are today gutting the West. The crescendo came when Arizona's Gov. Jane Dee Hull, watching half a million acres of her state go up in smoke, flatly blamed greenies for obstructing work to clean up national forests. She was talking about the never-ending stream of appeals and lawsuits they file to halt thinning, road building and firebreaks.</p>

I've completed most of the website for the local Naples Florida area organization taking part in the Sawgrass Rebellion. The Property Rights Action Committee is made up primarily of local people who live in the afflicted area and who are fighting tooth and nail to protect our property from the power hungry enviro-creeps who want to use our land and tax money to advance a political agenda. If you need more info as to what it's all about and why we're doing this, click the links below. There is lots of background information, directions to the event, accommodations and early registration...

Intended Consequences: Natural Process v. Environmental Arrogance By Sean FinneganPublished 08. 19. 02 at 18:58 Sierra Time Sean Finnegan, who reported regularly from Klamath Falls for The Sierra Times, will be providing exclusive coverage of the Sawgrass Rebellion - the convoy headed toward Florida. As expected, The Sierra Times will provide regular coverage of this event. Finnegan begins his series on the battles in the Western States.DISPATCHES:· In the early morning of October 18, 1998, fire destroyed five buildings and four ski lifts in Vail, Colorado. Two days later an underground terrorist group known as the Earth Liberation Front...

LOS ANGELES, Aug 19, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- With President Bush expected this week to call for a scaling back of overgrown forests that have turned into fire hazards, the Wilderness Society said Monday that the environmental movement should not be blamed for wildfires that have burned through nearly 6 million acres this year. The organization issued a statement denying charges from some western lawmakers that environmentalists have used legal challenges to derail efforts to clear out forest areas thick with tinder-dry brush and small trees and, instead, argued that the U.S. Forest Service was too...

Fires burning across Oregon (Still) The Associated Press 8/20/02 1:51 AM Major wildfires were burning on about 560,000 acres in Oregon on Monday. About 10,507 firefighters were working in the state. The Northwest Interagency Communication Center is tracking eight major fires in Oregon. Top priorities for fire officials Monday were the Biscuit fire, covering 448,857 acres, the 6,000-acre Apple fire and the 56,900-acre Tiller Complex. BISCUIT FIRE (formerly called Florence Fire; name changed on 8/11/02) Started: Florence fire started 26 miles west of Grant Pass, 07/13/02; Sour Biscuit started 17 miles southwest of Cave Junction. Size: 448,857 acres. Containment: 40...