National Forest Threat!

No, the threat I am referring to is not forest fire, though one might think so given the terrible fire recently in Tahoe (poor planning in our forests has added to the impact of those fires). It is instead those currently holding political power in the United States, who don’t see why there should be ‘national’ forests. The damage being done to public ownership of our (and they are ours) forests is not happening by accident nor lack of tax funds. It’s by design. Likewise the reason we ever had them at all was the same-- not by accident but by design. Ironically, rich men were and are at the heart of both philosophies.

I hope everyone followed the Washington Post series on Vice-president Cheney and his usurpation of power beyond the position to which he was elected (unless we have begun electing co-presidents and I didn't hear). The article for June 27, 2007 was about the environment and the Bush administration (or should that more accurately have been named the Cheney administration since it sounds like Bush is mostly there to sign where he's told, raise money, do photo ops, get his ego stroked, and parade past his fans as a wanta-be-cowboy.

Leave No Tracks pretty well says it all. Cheney operates as a self-appointed dictator and even when he loses, he wins something which usually means we all lose. Please read 'Leave No Tracks' if you read no others. Something important to this nation is being threatened.

In 2000, I feared what the bushies would do to the environment, but these guys have been worse than I imagined. (Yes, environmentalists have done some wacko things too, but when you over-protect, it is still there to use. When you under-protect, it can be gone forever.)

When in Montana , I was able to spend time at one of my favorite places, Rock Creek (all photos from there). It’s not the easiest thing to do these days given the forest service is doing minimal maintenance on the gravel road up the canyon. Signs below warn no RVs or low slung vehicles, and they are not kidding as your spine is jostled to premature disc problems by miles of deeply pot-holed, gravel roads. Now why would they do this to this popular fishing, hiking and camping site within 20 miles of a large city?

Whatever their reason, they are doing the same thing to other hiking places we visited. They don’t want people there is my first thought. If people quit using these lands, they are free to rape and pillage them with no one to see or complain. They can sell off the valuable pieces to their developer, mining and logging friends, leaving enough acres of less valuable land still in government ownership to reassure the naive populace that they still own forest lands.

A New York Times Select column by Timothy Egan on June 23, was called, “This Land was My Land.” I wish everyone could read it. He was talking about the same neglect I saw in Montana; but more importantly reminding his readers of from where and why came this concept of national forests. Unfortunately, I can’t put his whole article here but the following are a couple of key paragraphs:

“In establishing the people’s estate, they [Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot] fought Gilded Age titans — railroads, timber barons, mine owners — and their enablers in the Senate. And make no mistake: these acts may have been cast as the founding deeds of the environmental movement, but they were as much about class as conservation.

“Pinchot had studied forestry in France, where a peasant couldn’t make a campfire without being subject to penalties. In England, he had seen how the lords of privilege had their way over the outdoors. In the United States, he and T.R. envisioned the ultimate expression of Progressive-era values: a place where a tired factory hand could be renewed — lord for a day.

“In the national forests, big money was not king,” wrote Pinchot. The Forest Service was beloved, he said, because “it stood up for the honest small man and fought the predatory big man as no government bureau had done before.”
...
"They [Bush administration] don’t take care of these lands because they see them as one thing: a cash-out. Thus, in Bush’s budget proposal this year, he guts the Forest Service budget yet again, while floating the idea of selling thousands of acres to the highest bidder. The administration says it wants more money for national parks. But the parks are $10 billion behind on needed repairs; the proposal is a pittance. Roosevelt had his place on Oyster Bay. Pinchot had a family estate in Pennsylvania. Bush has the ranch in Crawford. Only one of them has never been able to see beyond the front porch.”

Bush and Cheney don’t need these forests for themselves. They hunt on the personal preserves of rich men where the birds are released for their shooting ease. They can afford second or third homes in natural regions. More and more, we see national forest trails, roads and even creeks or rivers having access blocked by private lands. Roads that at one time were open to the public are now gated, property decorated with 'No Trespassing' signs, fences across rivers to block even rafters.

It’s the ordinary person, some with very little money, who used to be free to spend weeks in national forests, communing with nature, fishing, just being. I grew up experiencing that, my children did likewise, and now it is my grandchildren. If those, with the mentality of Bush and Cheney, have their way, they will put a stop to that except for the richest among us.

Today, approximately 28% of the United States is considered to be in public ownership but that includes military bases. In Alaska, that is over 60%. A lot of government land occupies places nobody would ever want, but it also encompasses some of the most beautiful forests, rivers and lakes in the world as well as natural wonders that people come from around the world to see. There are those who would like to see the federal government own no public land. They would sell it off to pay the current debts-- sell it to their big-moneyed friends. The public land is a trust and it's a very significant issue how well it will be managed. It's not a nothing for who is next president of the country and for which party wins power.

I hope our next president sees this differently because Bush (provided a list by Cheney) has appointed men to the Supreme Court who seem to see no value in the little guy getting a chance to be in the wilderness, who don't see the value of the environment unless someone can make money from it. Manifest Destiny my foot!

Going up Rock Creek was full of delightful surprises as always—despite the bumpy road. All these photos are from June 22. Most were taken at one of my favorite spots for camping, sitting on the bank, wading, or finding round rocks (only found two this time as the water was still a bit high. I had taken an unpleasant fall on another trail earlier that day and didn't need a repeat).

The bear, cougar, elk, moose, Big Horn Sheep, coyotes, fish, deer, birds, and now wolves think they own this beautiful area. Better them all than the Cheneys of the world.

(All photos can be enlarged by clicking. Check out the spots on the fawn. As we drove back down and were on blacktop again, the most recently born of the Big Horn Sheep stepped unsteadily into the center of the road bringing all traffic to a temporary halt.)