National Forest (Bush) Sell-off March 30 is deadline for public input

[rodeodance]

Posted ealier but gets buried quickly


Sat Mar-25-06 06:27 AM
Original message

Deadline looming -Mar 30 - . National Forest Sell-off

Paul Richards (Candidate for Senate from Montana) has set up a page to protest the sale to private developers of more than a quarter of a million acres of public lands.

We only have until March 30 to get our comments into the National Forest Service.

After six years of undermining protections for public lands and forests, President Bush's FY 2007 budget proposes to sell more than a quarter of a million acres of public lands. This is another example of the Bush administration's loyalty to the logging, oil and gas industries. According to the New York Times, the Department of Interior's budget documents show that they plan to allow companies to pump about billion in oil and natural gas without paying royalties.


The Administration claims that selling forests managed by the U. S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is necessary to generate million to "offset" payments to rural schools. The permanent sale of these forestlands will only temporarily fund the program. This land sale proposal comes only a month after Congress, in the face of widespread, bi-partisan opposition, stripped Representative Pombo's scheme to sell millions of acres of national forests and parks for private development from the federal budget bill.

Please go to his "action" page and he'll forward your remarks to the Park Service and your own reps.

http://www.richards2006.us/petitions /

[rodeodance]

1. k

[rodeodance]

2. k

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3. k

[rodeodance]

4. k

[rodeodance]

5. only a few days left folks

[rodeodance]

7. take a few minutes and save our National forests from a sell-out

[rodeodance]

9. k

[rodeodance]

10. k

[rodeodance]

44. k

[rodeodance]

53. kick

[rodeodance]

54. k

[rodeodance]

21. k

[CrazyOrangeCat]

6. Done.

[rodeodance]

8. hey thanks.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

13. Not a problem.

This whole thing is an appalling sham.

Corporate scum . . . and they call themselves conservatives.

[rodeodance]

11. k

[rodeodance]

12. k

[rodeodance]

14. k

[rodeodance]

15. k

[rodeodance]

16. and send to all your friends (and foes)

[rodeodance]

18. k

[wicket]

17. K & R

:kick:

[MazeRat7]

19. The sale is roughly only 2% of the total Natl Forest acreage.

I have actually been researching many of the tracts for sale thinking I would like to get in on this as well. I had wondered for years how people were able to buy tracts of land in what "seemed" like the middle of the Natl. Forest. What I have found is, generally speaking, these tracts for sale are isolated from the larger body of the Natl Forest and are already surrounded by private land. As an avid camper, backpacker, nature lover, etc I was appalled at first about this offer but after looking at the actual tracts for sale, the surrounding topology/hydrology/etc... I can say these are really sub-prime tracts that are not being actively managed today. My hope is they will actually use the revenue from this sale to better Rural Schools (per the program name).

Bottom line, this is one time I actually support what the Interior Department is doing... and yes.. its a first for me. :)

Get Maps, Listing of Tracts for sale, and info here

MZr7

[rodeodance]

20. good luck but I do not agree.

[niallmac]

26. I supported the Idaho State Lottery for the same reason.

Huge windfall of income that was to benefit Idahos' dilapidated school buildings.
Billions of dollars in lottery tickets have been sold in the Northwest...same old dilapidated
Idaho School buildings.
It's not with the rural schools in mind that the republican businessmen sell our heritage.
As for 'unmanaged'...The Idaho Primitive Area is unmanaged. I hope that doesn't mean
it is prime for development.

[rodeodance]

31. Bushco recklessly spends $$, now he wants revenue by selling Nat.

forests! to me it is galling!

[proud patriot]

22. k&r

:hi:

[rodeodance]

51. k

[nicknameless]

23. Thank you for posting this!

Nominated

[rodeodance]

34. you bet!

[Canuckistanian]

24. Another "last minute" payoff

Another "dancin' with the one that brung you" move.

K&R

[acmejack]

25. Need input

[lildreamer316]

27. kick

[Gregorian]

28. Put your chainsaws down, and back away from our National Forests

This is seriously shitty. Bush is a salesman for our National Forests, huh? First he bankrupts the country, and now he wants to take our grandchildren's forests away. I can here the loggers and conservatives now- "They grow back". Bushit! They don't grow back. Once you cut them, you never stop cutting. Fuck you. That's all I can say, is fuck you. This makes me fighting mad. And we aren't backing down without a huge fight on this one.

Thanks for posting this.

[rodeodance]

30. I feel like I am doing something positive by writing my comments--with-

out that I feel like i am just complaining to a wall!

[Gregorian]

56. I can only guess that you mean I sound like I'm complaining.

Well, I'll be honest- my comment was not exactly positive. I'm enraged by what I've seen. When I lived in the city, I bought lumber. But when I moved to the country where the logging was going on, I saw and heard with my own senses just what those crazy hippies sitting in trees were upset about. I cannot convey what I experienced, except to say that I am not used to having my surroundings change. I am used to hiking and biking in what was a permanent setting. To show up for a bike ride, and see what is nearly identical to an atomic bomb blast, is really shocking. I still have the four foot diameter wedge from the tree I used to start my forest ride on. And now I have moved to an area that is even more extreme. It's something you have to experience to get. I am enraged beyond words. In fact, I bought one of the most beautiful properties on the planet, a year ago. As nice as it is, I am selling and leaving. Words just don't work. Sometimes you can't be polite. And with global warming on the increase, we cannot afford to deforest, at all. But it's full steam ahead. In fact, it's so bad here, that I'm going to have to actually rent a house, and leave where I live, before I even sell. Fuck them all. And they aren't all Bush loving idiots. But by far that is the case. I met my first intelligent logger today. It was a bit of a mind boggler for me. But I stand firm that something has to change, and fast. A full 20% of carbon dioxide increases are due to deforestation alone.

[rodeodance]

59. no, i did not think you were. sorry to see your sad story. really

[tom_paine]

29. K & R

"To remain silent when they should be protesting makes cowards out of men."
--Abraham Lincoln

[rodeodance]

32. thats a grand abe lincoln quote.

[rodeodance]

33. k

[IDemo]

35. The measure is apparently dead, for the moment anyway:

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Idaho Sen. Larry Craig says he will not allow a Bush administration proposal to sell 300,000 acres of national forest land to make it through a subcommittee he controls and which has to approve the idea.

"It's bad policy to sell land to fund programs," Craig's spokesman, Dan Whiting, told The Spokesman-Review newspaper of Spokane, Wash. "That's not a road he wants to go down. I don't really see it going anywhere in Congress."

Craig, a Republican, is chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests, and his support would be needed for the plan to go forward.

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/tch/local/state/story/7555689p-7467235c.html

[progressoid]

36. Good. Lets hope he sticks to his guns.

[sandnsea]

38. It's not buried

They're still taking public comments, it's not completely dead yet. Don't let them slip this by us.

http://www.fs.fed.us/land/staff/spd_summary.html

Email [e-mail]
Fax [phone],

[rodeodance]

42. agreed---do not let this slip by!

[rodeodance]

41. They still need to know how we think about it (just in case)

[sandnsea]

37. Email and Fax

2 Days Left

Email [e-mail]
Fax [phone],

More:
http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/?p=13

[madokie]

39. The sad part is once they, other interest, have possesion of our

national forest the damage will be done in a short time that even if we were able under new leadership to reverse these assnine decisions by this cabal it will already be too late.:mad:

[rodeodance]

43. once it is gone it is GONE.

[madokie]

46. Its a shame that the good fights we fought to be where we were

in 2000 will all have to be fought again by our kids and grandkids, with so much being lost in the mean time. Its hard not to be mad but mad is not conducive to rational thinking and we need our thinking caps on now more than ever.

[rodeodance]

55. well, --yes,

[rodeodance]

40. Email and Fax here.

cross posted from Activist thread.

Wed Mar-29-06 05:16 AM
Original message
Email and Fax - Forest Service Public Comment

We are in the final 2 days of Public Comment on the most recent Attack on America from the Bush Administration, the loss of huge portions of our national heritage. At stake is the largest sale of our National Forests since the founding of the NFS 100 years ago. In 41 states, over 300,000 acres are proposed to be put on the auction block, including over 10,000 in Oregon, 7,500 in Mississippi, 20,000 in Missouri, 23,000 in Colorado, 75,000 in California and more.

The Forest Service is taking Public Comment. They request emails or fax.


Email [e-mail]
Fax [phone],

More:
http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/?p=13

[ellie]

45. Done and kicking

Thank you for this.

[rodeodance]

57. kicking

[rodeodance]

58. and kicking again

[central scrutinizer]

47. Local fishwrap had an editorial on this today

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/03/29/ed.edit.forestsale.phn.0329.p1.php?section=opinion

...............excerpt

So far, however, officials in the affected states have largely focused their criticism on the administration's budgeting scheme rather than the federal program that the land sales would bankroll.

That's a heartening response, one that indicates that other states re- cognize the federal government's century-old obligation to timber counties in Oregon and elsewhere in the Northwest.

At the same time, officials in other states also recognize that the administration's proposal to sell off a portion of its finite supply of public forests to pay for a program that should be regarded as a normal federal operating expense is a prime example of bad budgeting and irresponsible stewardship.

Missouri's Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican, recently offered this rebuke to the administration: "Missouri's natural resources are not a commodity. They are intended to be enjoyed by all, not to be sacrificed just to fill holes in the federal bud- get."

North Carolina Gov. Michael Easley, a Democrat, took a similar line in a letter to Mark Rey, the undersecretary of agriculture and primary architect of the land-sales strategy. Easley said the plan would remove much-needed open space "from public access for all time in order to provide temporary funding."

....................end excerpt

[rodeodance]

52. glad some ARE paying attention

[mia]

48. Reply from Senator Bill Nelson

Thank you for contacting me regarding the President's proposal to sell National Forest System lands, especially the 973 acres in the Ocala National Forest. As a fifth-generation Floridian, I am devoted to protecting Florida's environment and the beauty of our great State, and I am opposed to this land sale.

On February 6, 2006, the President submitted his FY 2007 budget request to Congress. The budget submitted by the President shortchanges hard-working Americans, gives the biggest breaks to only the wealthiest among us, and puts our nation in deeper debt. It also includes a proposal to sell over 300,000 acres of National Forest. Forests provide so much for our nation, including a habitat for thousands of animal species and trails and parks for families to visit. More than half of the nation's forests are already open to mining, logging, and oil and gas development, so it is vital that we work to preserve the remaining portion of our forests.

To set spending priorities, I firmly believe we must implement sound fiscal policies that will help reduce the $8 trillion debt. Reducing the debt will help prevent inflation and cuts in critical government programs that many Americans rely upon, like Social Security and Medicare.

As a member of the Senate Budget Committee, I will work with my colleagues to achieve a budget that reflects the values and priorities of Florida and the nation. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future. Your communication helps me to serve you better in the Senate.

[rodeodance]

50. good,

[DenaliDemocrat]

49. Done