THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VII, Issue # 10, January 15, 2005
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ENVIRONMENTALIST NOTIONS REGARDING OUR NATION'S FORESTS:
FORESTRY FOR DUMMIES
By Alan Caruba
ENVIRONMENTALISM & AMERICA'S FORESTS: THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS' OPPOSITION TO ANY KIND OF INDUSTRY THAT
SERVES PUBLIC NEEDS & THEIR INDIFFERENCE TO THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT WILL REALLY SAVE OUR NATION'S FORESTS & THE
WILDLIFE THEREIN
FULL STORY:
Recently, managers of the nation’s 155 national forests were granted more discretion to approve logging and other commercial projects
without the lengthy environmental reviews previously required by the 1976 National Forest Management Act. To most people that
might not qualify as front page news, but it should be.
The nation was saddled with all manner of environmental legislation during the 1970s, and part of the payback has been literally
catastrophic for many of the nation’s forests. There has also been a hidden cost for anyone using any kind of product involving or
derived from wood.
The new rules brought the usual Greens screaming to anyone who would listen. They declared: “... the President’s forest
regulations are an early Christmas gift to the timber industry masquerading as a streamlining measure." So said Rodger Schlickeisen,
President of Defenders of Wildlife. Mike Anderson, of The Wilderness Society, lamented that “wildlife safeguards” would suffer.
They are both not only wrong, but betray (1) the Green’s opposition to any kind of industry that serves public needs and (2) an
indifference to the truth about what will really serve wildlife in those forests. The goal of environmental organizations is to insure that
no humans ever use our forests for any reason.
George E. Gruell is a wildlife biologist and the author of Fire in Sierra Nevada Forests. In July, in a commentary published in the
Reno Gazette-Journal, Gruel wrote: “With embers smoldering around Carson City, it’s a good time to look at what fuels today’s
devastating fires and perhaps learn from history how to make our forests and communities safer.”
“Historically,” wrote Gruell, “Sierra Nevada forests were less dense and more resistant to catastrophic fire.” He noted the difference of
just a hundred years. “What we have today is an unnatural accumulation of forest fuels.” Why? Because Greens have conspired to
make it illegal, difficult, and unprofitable to harvest timber from our national forests, although the law that established them made
provision for that.
The Greens' interference resulted in “an unnatural accumulation of forest fuels.” Note the word “unnatural.” Gruell wrote that
“Nevada’s forests have experienced massive increases in tree cover resulting from human activities, particularly the suppression of
natural fires.” And here’s the kicker! “As a wildlife biologist, I know a large body of evidence strongly suggests that increasingly
dense forests are detrimental to wildlife, including numerous songbirds, and mammals such as rabbits, squirrels, and deer.”
It’s useful to keep in mind that the federal government owns most of the landmass of Nevada, and so the restrictions enacted by
laws put forth by environmentalists literally turned Nevada into the poster child for bad forest management.
Donna Dekker-Robertson is a forest geneticist and an adjunct professor at American River College in Sacramento, California,
living and working in a state that has almost forty million forested acres. In an August issue of The Washington Times,
Professor Dekker-Robertson wrote that “the devastation [of forest fires] goes beyond the unnatural (there’s that word again!)
accumulation of forest fuels that trigger megafires across Florida, Colorado, Arizona, California and the Pacific Northwest.”
She noted that the U.S.A. has a higher rate of wood product consumption than any other country in the world, about 2 cubic meters
per person. That includes everything from paper plates and napkins, to newsprint, crayons, cosmetics, and charcoal for the barbecue.
Despite this, compared to a mere 15 years ago, timber harvests in California were down more than 90% on public lands and 40% on
private forest holdings. As a result, California imports an estimated 75% of the wood it consumes. If that just does not make any
sense to you, you’re right.
By permitting the managed harvesting of timber in California, not only would the cost be reduced, the forests protected against
massive fires and the environment for wildlife enhanced, but aso that state and all others that must now import timber would not risk
importing non-native pests that are responsible for Dutch Elm disease and chestnut blight infestations. These originate in Asia.
There are “at least 27 potentially dangerous pests that may be accidentally imported and thrive in our forests…”
“Wood,” Ms. Dekker-Robertson reminds us, “is the only entirely renewable and recyclable building material we have. Compared to
other building materials, wood saves energy, produces the least greenhouse gases, causes the least water and air pollution, and
yields the least solid waste.” Trees are so environmentally pure the power required to grow them comes entirely from the sun!
So why have so many major environmental organizations opposed the proper management of our national forests and made life for
private forest owners so difficult? Why do they advocate restrictions that have caused, not just the loss of millions of acres of
forest and the jobs generated by the timber industry, but also the homes and other structures caught in the path of catastrophic
fires?
As Gruell points out, “Thinning could save lives, enhance critical wildlife habitat, and improve other resource values.”
These common sense reasons for good forest management run counter to the real goals of environmentalists -- the destruction of
the nation’s timber industry, the requirement for higher costs to build new homes for the nation’s growing population, and the
further restrictions on public access to our national forests (and parks), one of the reasons Congress determined to save them in
the first place.
Who are the real enemies of our natural forests and other resources? The Greens, the Greens, and the Greens.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center,
and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly
column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center
(www.anxietycenter.com). A compilation of his past columns, entitled Warning Signs, is published by Merril Press. In addition
to Warning Signs, Caruba is the author of A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam and The United Nations vs. the United States,
both of which are available from the National Anxiety Center, 28 West Third Street, Apartment 1321, South Orange, New Jersey, 07079.
© Alan Caruba 2005
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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