The Use of the National Forests - WHY NATIONAL FORESTS WERE FIRST MADE.
GIFFORD PINCHOT,
Forester
Issued June 14, 1907
U.S DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
The Neo-Colonialism of Federal Planners and Urban Elites - Part 3 of 5
This is the third in a five-part series about federal lands by Trent England of the Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs - www.OCPAThink.org.
Legislation adopted in Utah calls on the federal government to transfer certain of these lands to the state. It set a deadline of December 31, 2014.
Colonialism is “control by one power over a dependent area or people.” This definition applies to many western communities surrounded by federal land.
Most federal lands were originally open to use by local people and industries. Yet in classic colonial fashion, distant politicians and bureaucrats now routinely dictate restrictive policies that degrade or destroy local communities. Just one example, the Northwest Forest Plan devised in 1994 reduced logging by 80% for lands originally set aside for that very purpose. Based on bad science about the spotted owl, the plan devastated communities (as the USFS’s own report shows, corresponding with what this writer has seen in these same communities) and increased the intensity of wildfires.
Even some liberal politicians in the West have cried foul as outside interests have worked to shut down the use of lands for the very purposes they were originally preserved.
The Romance And Reality Of Federal Lands - Part 2 of 5
This is the second in a five-part series about federal lands by Trent England of the Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs - www.OCPAThink.org.
Legislation adopted in Utah calls on the federal government to transfer certain of these lands to the state. It set a deadline of December 31, 2014.
Before Horace Greeley and Lewis and Clark there was George Washington. As a teenager employed as a surveyor by Virginia’s powerful Fairfax family, Washington spent three years exploring the colony’s western lands. His very first investment, when he was 18 years old, was to purchase 453 acres of this land at this western fringe. While he lived in what is today an eastern state, Washington was a westerner at heart.
Like Washington, many patriots saw America’s future in the West. One of the causes of the American Revolution was Britain’s insistence on stifling westward expansion. Following ratification of the Constitution by the original 13 states, three new states entered the union during the Washington and Adams administrations. Ohio became a state in 1803, the same year Thomas Jefferson’s administration doubled the nation’s land area with the Louisiana Purchase. By 1850, the union consisted of 31 states.
The Damage of Wildfire
Ravalli County, MT Commissioner Suzie Foss discusses the damage caused by wildfire on public lands.
Why are the Federal Forests Burning
Our forests are burning at an unprecedented rate. Find out why and how we can fix it.
In the News Sept. 22-Oct 19, 2014
Today's Headlines: EPA water proposal is stirring up Senate race; House Candidates Zinke & Lewis Battle Over Public Lands; Klamath County Proclamation on the Transfer of Public Lands Act; Interior secretary urges Congress to act; Forest Fires Versus Radiation: A Lesson on How to Fail; Why is the U.S. importing coal?; PLC to explore states' involvement in public land management; Forest Service can’t hide its road closure plans
Read moreState vs. Federal: That’s Always the Question!
Re-allocating funds from treating and reducing wildfire risk to wildfire suppression will not SOLVE any problems. In fact, it is simply perpetuating the problem, making it bigger and even more out of control. Why do you think we’ve got out-of-control wildfires this season? Why do you think California did not, in fact, see a cessation of “wildfire season,” and it just carried straight on through the winter? Not simply because of the label environmentalists and the government like to throw around, “global warming.”
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