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California Governor Called "Trumpian"

BigHornRam

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"Bold move, California

A Democratic Governor in a deep-blue state made headlines in declaring a state of emergency ahead of this year's wildfire season. As part of the declaration, California Gov. Gavin Newsom moved to ease state regulations to expedite targeted forest management projects to help protect communities from wildfire.

We've long supported similar reforms in Congress to expedite forest management on at-risk lands. There at least 80 million acres of National Forest System lands that need treatment right now. Due to the lack of funding, personnel, agency analysis paralysis and the real (and perceived) threat of litigation, the U.S. Forest Service is only treating a fraction of these acres annually.

In other words, it takes too long, and costs too much money for federal land agencies to do the work that needs to be done. For our federal forests and many of our communities, this has been disastrous.

The same groups that have fought us in Congress are predictably criticizing the governor's declaration. But Newsom is pushing back:

"Some people, you know, want to maintain our processes and they want to maintain our rules and protocols," Newsom said. "But I'm going to push back on that. Some of these projects quite literally, not figuratively, could take two years to get done, or we could get them done in the next two months. That's our choice."

As we've reported in the past, it now takes the Forest Service as long as four years to develop and implement a forest management project, and delays are only getting longer. The agency has initiated administrative efforts to streamline its environmental analysis and decision-making process, but true relief can only come from Congress.

The same groups opposing accelerating forest management were also quick to frame the decision in political terms, recognizing President Trump's low approval in the state. The forest director of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation called the Governor's move "Trumpian." The Center for Biological Diversity urged the governor to "reject the Trump approach of logging and rolling back critical environmental protections."

Reading the fine print, the governor's policy decision is quite modest, but he recognizes the status quo is failing to protect our communities. We've tried the same approach of "hands-off" forest management for the past three decades, and it's not working. It's time for something different. "
 
I worked 10 years on The Sierra Nevada Forest Management Plan as a peer reviewer & witness in DC. It was the base of all western forest management in future we were told. We needed urban interface zone thinning then, before the drought & beattle invasion.
It was shot down in one month after thinning had barely started around the lake.
 
What a classy organization. Obstruction, obstruction, obstruction... The Center for Biological Diversity. Feed them money to pay their obstruction legal fees.
 
What year was it that they pulled the plug on the thinning, Hank? I assume you are referring to Lake Tahoe?
2005? Huntington Lake.
Sierra Nat. Forest. 1st forest reserve that TR & Gifford established. It became 3 Nat Parks & 7 Nat. Forests. 1st Ranger Reserve station was Billy Creek there. Oldest, largest forest community of leasehold cabins in US. Many built before the forest was established.
The equipment showed up & worked one week in doghair lodgepole in one area near a tract of cabins then sat there til winter set in.
I resigned from board of NFHA & Doweville tract board I was in, also oldest forest tract in nation. My cabin was built by another Park Ranger for his retirement in 1955,the second phase of the subdivision after 1st buildings in 1919.
Sold the cabin & my dream of retiring in Sierra's in 08'& moved to NM.
I rarely get involved in many issues personally any more after years of boards,groups & commitees.
 
More details on the Helena area project.



Conservation groups accuse Forest Service of evading roadless rule

  • Ten Mile


Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest Supervisor Bill Avey said he was disappointed that Helena Hunters and Anglers had decided to sue over the project. The organization had been part of a community collaborative process and attended the field trips and meetings that led to the final decision.
“The roadless piece (of the Tenmile project) is very, very small,” Avey said. “This is a fuels reduction project, not a logging project. The decision was made because it’s where we need to treat the fuels. We have to remove some of that either by hand or mechanical work before treating it with prescribed fire to benefit the landscape and not harm it. And the abundance of standing dead trees there is an imminent hazard to hand crews.”
Avey said he personally hiked and snowshoed through the project area frequently, and that in some parts, nine of every 10 trees was killed by beetles.
“We’re not doing any permanent improvement in inventoried roadless at all,” Avey said.
 
Sad the repeat offenders are still with us.
I just read the same thing is going on with a Santa Fe forest thinning project now.
 
Sad the repeat offenders are still with us.
I just read the same thing is going on with a Santa Fe forest thinning project now.
That's how they make their living.

 
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