Marie Foster: Blog Baby Goes Green

Thu, 29 May 2003 21:57:30 GMT

Time to Take Conserve out of Conservative

Imagine that! GW is vulnerable on issues of environment!

Here is how they plan on spinning it. ABC covered the story this way.

I think they are planning on doing a corporicide on the US. They are not concerned about the possible death to our people via corporate greed.

Let’s face it. The fact is that spinning is going to be cheaper than fixing what is wrong.

But the implications in not doing so are much worse. The concentration of humanity and our effect on our world may be contributing to human illness as well as poverty and famine.

Now that Christie Todd Whitman has resigned as the head of the EPA, who will Bush Co. appoint to replace her? Will Bush pick someone before the election or simply let a deputy assume the leadership of the agency.

I think it is time that we take conserve out of conservative. The brand of politics currently played by our GOP is radical and dangerous.

Fri, 09 May 2003 16:16:18 GMT

Please help with this effort!

Please call your Representative at 1-800-839-5276 and tell them to

vote NO on HR 1904, the "Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003."

The "Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (HR 1904) will:

1. Cut the Heart out of NEPA. The McInnis bill allows the Forest

Service to conduct large-scale, environmentally damaging logging

projects without considering any alternatives, including the "no

action" alternative or their relative environmental impacts.

2. Remove the Public from the Process. The McInnis bill eliminates

the statutory right of citizens to appeal Forest Service logging

projects.

3. Log the Backcountry rather than Protecting Communities. The

McInnis bill promotes logging in threatened and endangered species

habitat, allows logging and temporary road building in roadless

areas, and gives the Secretary "sole discretion" to log in old growth

areas and old growth fire resistant trees -- all under the guise of

protection of communities from fire.

4. Interfere with the Independent Judiciary. The McInnis bill seeks

to restrict a core principle of our democracy -- the right of

Americans to seek redress in the court for grievances involving the

federal government. The bill limits preliminary injunctive relief to

45 days, and forces any U.S court to render a final decision on the

merits of a case within 100 days. Finally, the bill seeks an

astounding change in American legal standards by requiring courts to

give deference to agency findings regarding the balance of harms in

deciding whether to enter a temporary restraining order, preliminary

injunction, or a permanent injunction in ANY court challenge where

the agency claims the action is necessary to "restore fire-adapted

forest or rangelands ecosystems."

5. Create New Insect Categorical Exclusion. The McInnis bill creates

a new Categorical Exclusion from the National Environmental Policy

Act on all Department of Interior and Forest Service lands by

authorizing an unlimited number of projects (up to 1,000 acres each)

for all lands that the agencies claim are at risk of infestation by

certain insects.

6. Provide New Logging Subsidies. The McInnis bill would authorize

$125 million in subsidies to the biomass industry to log our National

Forests.

Wed, 07 May 2003 22:32:25 GMT

How Norton Did It

I found an interesting article by the International Herald Tribune on just exactly how Gale Norton accomplished the turn over of all those acres of public lands to oil and mineral prospectors. She settled a law suit with Utah and gave Orin Hatch what he has long wanted. She ripped all those acres from ownership by all Americans and told Utah that they have primacy over them.

That is an interesting theory. As someone who lives in the west where most of the public lands are I have often thought that letting the states have the control over them would lead to more conservation and less exploitation. What I did not think about is that states like Utah could choose not to be stewards. People of Albuquerque may have a different idea as expressed by an opinion article in their paper.

I missed the dateline piece mentioned in the Idaho Statesman. But it seemed to open up the issue for debate and the consensus seemed to be that the people of the nation need to be involved in these decisions more.

Well, America I think you just got shafted. Maybe you don’t see it that way. Let me know what you think of the whole thing.

Thu, 01 May 2003 19:14:33 GMT

Got This in Email Today

"The National Forest Protection Alliance (NFPA) has put forth an inspiring and positive vision for the future of our national forestlands and it is their sole focus to make this vision become a reality.
Please help NFPA protect America's natural legacy by actively supporting their
work to end the federal logging program."
- E.O. Wilson, Pulizer Prize-winning author and scientist, Harvard University

Dear Friend,

I hope this letter finds you making plans to visit your favorite National Forest this spring. This will be one of our toughest years defending our National Forests. This is why I urgently need you - our members and supporters - to help us stop an unprecedented threat to America's endangered National Forests.

What's at Stake: Clean Water, Clean Air, Wildlife Habitat and Democracy.

America's National Forests comprise some of the most biologically and economically significant land on earth. Despite the fact that these national assets are irreplaceable, the administration in Washington D.C. has put a career timber industry lobbyist, Mark Rey, in charge of deciding the fate of America's endangered National Forests.

While the nation is distracted by the war on Iraq, Rey and the timber industry are dismantling our environmental laws behind-the-scenes. Their goal: dramatically increase logging and resource extraction on public lands. Their strategy: eliminate citizen oversight and the very laws that protect these lands.

National Forests are especially critical for maintaining biological diversity since more than 95% of the United States virgin forest's have already been logged. The remaining 5% of pristine, unlogged forests are largely found on our National Forest lands.

These endangered treasures provide invaluable social and economic contributions to the nation, simply by existing as natural ecosystems. For example, nearly 80% of America's rivers originate on National Forests, while over 900 municipal watersheds are found on National Forests, which provide nearly $4 billion annually in drinking water to communities.

Keystone Environmental Laws at Risk:

Gutting environmental laws and removing citizens from the process of land management is the only way the timber industry can proceed with its goal of returning the taxpayer subsidized logging program to the National Forests.

One such law in jeopardy is the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), our nation's bedrock environmental law. If NEPA is gutted, our ability to stop logging projects by writing comments or through administrative appeals will all but end. Citizens' only recourse will be costly lawsuits or putting their bodies on the line, literally.

Imperiled species such as the Northern Spotted Owl will lose key protections if another fundamental law, the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) is dismantled. In addition, the industry-run U.S. Forest Service would have complete discretion in establishing long-term plans for National Forests. Already, the agency in California has proposed a 10-year management plan that more than doubles the amount of logging in forests of the Sierra Nevada.

A wave of anti-forest laws has already been passed . The Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the largest forest in the US, is severely compromised by limitations on legal challenges to stop logging projects, and the designation of new Wilderness is now illegal. Most threatening in the lower 48, however, is the "stewardship" contracting program whereby the timber industry can log large, valuable trees on National Forests as compensation for thinning economically less valuable ones.

In fact, every region of the U.S. has timber sales planned in previously protected roadless areas, in old growth and mature forests and in sensitive areas recently burned by wildfires. America's National Forests including the Tongass and Sequoia, as well as forests in the Great Lakes, Appalachians, and Northern Rockies all endangered by logging.

We are calling on you to help us stop this attack immediately. If Mark Rey's logging agenda is realized, corporations will have more authority to manage America's Forests than the rightful owners, American citizens. That is why I am asking for your help in two important ways.

First: Please send a contribution to NFPA of $25, $35, $50 or more, so we can continue advocating for the strongest protection possible of our National Forests. You can donate on-line at www.forestadvocate.org. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the "Donate Now" button.

Second: Please call your Congressperson and ask them to stop any attempts to weaken environmental laws and to support protecting National Forests from commercial logging, in particular ask them to vote no on the McInnis Bill.

The National Forest Protection Alliance responds: Our national network of over 130 organizations and 25 state chapters are on the frontline in stopping the Bush administration from enacting its pro-logging agenda. The following is a snapshot of what we are doing this spring to protect America's endangered forests.

National Day of Action to Protect America's Endangered Forests
Member groups across the country from more than seventeen cities held rallies, marches, lobby visits, and sit-ins to stop the Bush administration's attempts to weaken environmental laws that protect public land, including endangered forests. Please visit our Day of Action photo gallery at www.forestadvocate.org to see our events.

Forest Activist Training Camp
This June, NFPA and member group, Greenpeace, will train a new generation of activists on how to defend our National Forests in a week-long educational camp in Montana. Participants will be taught valuable skills in grassroots organizing and direct action by some of the most accomplished trainers in the U.S. A new cadre of forest activists will emerge by the end the camp to defend National Forests, including the forests selected in our 2003 Ten Most Endangered Forests project.

America's Ten Most Endangered National Forests Report
NFPA will release our second bi-annual report in June that offers activists, the media, and the public a startling snapshot of an entire national forest system under attack. This full color report serves as a powerful tool, profiling the impacts of past and present Forest Service policies. The report also illustrates the dire need for ending all commercial extraction on America's public lands. NFPA will launch a series of on-the-ground public education campaigns in the 10 selected forests with the report's release.

The National Forest Protection and Restoration Act
We are working hard on the reintroduction of the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act this April - a bill that would end the timber sale program on federal lands and redirect those funds into ecologically based restoration. This year we will gather a new bipartisan group of cosponsors; co-host a lobby week in Washington, D.C. and continue to build alliances with religious leaders, Republicans, scientists and editorial boards across the country in order to broaden our base of support.

We know that you too advocate the complete protection of National Forests from logging and commercial exploitation.

So please, help us by giving NFPA the financial support we need to defend our National Forests from the Bush administration and corporate timber industry.

Sincerely,
Mike Petersen
President, National Forest Protection Alliance
www.forestadvocate.org

To look up the name of your Congressperson, visit: www.house.gov or check the government pages of your phone book.

Thu, 01 May 2003 17:39:14 GMT

Globalization and Privatization

There is more in this article about proposals for world trade bidding on US jobs. The proposal for privatizing the USPS is talked about as well as service sectors (including writing rules that allow for indentured servitude workers to come to the US on special Visas).

A quote from the article:

Water, sanitation, environmental services
The Bush administration and the Europeans have also both listed “environmental” services – a broad category that includes many areas that many people would not immediately think of as environmental – as targets for privatization under GATS. Topping the list for both is water. The European proposal targets water collection, purification and distribution, and waste-water treatment – functions now mainly operated by municipal water districts, and staffed mainly by union workers.

The proposal to require privatization of such services dovetails neatly with the current corporate push to get control of water into corporate hands. Rebecca Mark, for example, former CEO of Enron’s water division, Azurix, said she would not rest until she had “fully privatized the global water market.” The World Bank estimates a fully-privatized global water market to be worth $800 billion. Enron, by the way, worked closely with the Bush administration to define the U.S. goals for the GATS negotiations.

Wed, 30 Apr 2003 22:57:08 GMT

Join the Fight to Save Our Forests

Greenpeace is sponsoring a one week Forest Activist/Campaigner Training
Western Montana - June 22nd - 28th, 2003.

Go here to get more details and an application.

Wed, 30 Apr 2003 22:36:39 GMT

Loss of Rainier National Park to Privatization?

Here is an article detailing what is in store in the upcoming months for our state’s National Parks.

Tue, 29 Apr 2003 02:55:20 GMT

I Am Quoted on Altercation Today

Not exactly sure how he got my material, but I can not complain!

He has carried my BLM story about Bush Co. rule changes.

Mon, 28 Apr 2003 12:25:04 GMT

Another Assault on our Public Lands by Bush Co.

We will grant our lands to corporations who will take our tax money to build roads, extract timber, minerals, etc. They will gain the profit and you will reap the cost. Are the few jobs that this will create worth it? Can our money not be better spent?

"Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton said her department remains committed to wilderness protection."

What a joke.

Sun, 27 Apr 2003 02:03:59 GMT

Silent Theft: the Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth

David Bollier has written an important new book about the neoconservative movement and their plan to privatize everything.

According to the review the connection between the CATO institute and PERC is funded by the same individuals and corporations. Not only does he detail the plan but he names names of the people in Bush Co. who are carrying it out.

Here is a review of that book. The title of the Review is: The Free Market Al-Qaeda.

Wed, 23 Apr 2003 19:03:29 GMT

Baby goes Green

Given the current assault on our public lands Blog Baby is taking up the environment as a cause. Hopefully, she will find her voice and her desire to make some positive impact on the destruction she sees happening around her. See the new Category called Baby Goes Green for a permanent repository of these articles.

To that end, this will be a set of links to articles of interest, organizations, etc. of people who wish to band together to reverse the Bush Co. plan to privatize our national heritage.

Please note: The following articles are listed oldest at the top. New ones are added at the bottom.

The most critical article is one that lays out the neocon plan to privatize our public lands and national parks.
Here is an important article on the issue of logging on our public forests.
The first article is from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle entitled – What Would Teddy Think.
Here is an article written by one of my Blog Sisters Kate S. about what is going on with ANWR.
Earth Justice has this article about Bush Co. current Public Lands Policies.
Republicons has an article about Bush Co. lowering pollution standards and its general attacks on the environment.
More on the Bush Co. pollution record.
Wild Wilderness has a lot of info about the move to privatize.
Here is more important information about the history of the commons and how it pertains to the issue of privatization of our environmental heritage.
Bush supports the privatization of our water.
The CATO Institute time line for full divestiture of Public Lands is 20 – 30 years.
Here is a direct link to PERC. PERC stands for Political Economy Research Center. These folk believe that private interests make better stewards of our commonly held property.
Link to the Review The Free Market Al-Qaeda. This is a review of Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of our Common Wealth.
Link to the webpage of Richard Behan who has another book called Plundered Promise: Capitalism, Politics, and the Fate of the Federal Lands.
A link to the government site where the test case called Recreational Fee Demonstration Program. And here is a critique of the program.

Wed, 23 Apr 2003 16:34:34 GMT

What Might the Map Look Like if Bush Co. gets his way?

Progress can be a good thing. But the whole sale loss of so much public land would be a tragedy. We can never regain any lands lost to corporate greed.

I am not saying that all corporations are greedy and would despoil the land that they get to exploit. Many of these companies have good environmental records. But once the land is gone from public ownership we have lost any chance of getting it back again.

There is a concept of gradualism going on I think. First Bush changes the rules that the Bureau of Land Management uses to evaluate land for set aside. Recreation goes to the back of the bus while mining, logging, and oil extraction move forward. Once the land is stripped of its value in those areas will it have any residual value for recreation or wildlife? And further, if it is returned to the public trust, how much of your taxes will be needed to correct any bad acts done by companies who have the protection of bankruptcy to cover their rear ends as they bank the gold and walk away?

Where I live we are dealing with the problems of mining left by the Bunker Hill Company. We have heavy metals in our lakes that can never really be removed except by the forces of geologic time.

What is Bush Co.’s vision of the future of our country? If he has one, is it one that you share? It is a matter of values I think. He places value on the bottom line. He seems to feel that if something can not have a dollar value placed on it then it has no worth.

Tue, 22 Apr 2003 23:49:45 GMT

EARTH DAY PROTESTS TARGET BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S FOREST POLICIES

Environmental Groups Call on Bush to Protect, not Threaten National Forests

Contact: Andrew George, National Forest Protection Alliance- 919-933-2959
Carol Gregory, Greenpeace--- 202-319-2472

Washington- Environmental activists and community groups from more than
twenty cities around the nation held demonstrations, marches, sit-ins and
rallies to protest the Bush administration's attempts to weaken
environmental laws protecting public land, including endangered forests.
These Earth Day protests come just one week before the U.S. House will
consider legislation containing parts of President Bush's controversial,
"Healthy Forest Initiative." The cities included Atlanta, New York,
Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.

"The Bush administration assumes Americans are too distracted by global
politics to care about our national forests here at home," said Andrew
George, Campaign Coordinator for the National Forest Protection Alliance, a
coalition of 130 forest protection groups, including Greenpeace. "This
national day of protest serves to demonstrate how much the public cares
about national forests and signals the beginning of an escalating campaign
to expose, confront and prevent attempts to undermine our environmental laws
and the forests those laws safeguard."

In 2001, the Bush administration handpicked former logging lobbyist Mark Rey
to serve as the Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment, and
oversee the management of 192 million acres of national forest lands. A
industry lobbyist for 18 years, Rey has since initiated a series of
unprecedented rollbacks to the nation's environmental laws that protect
clean water and wildlife habitat and guarantee public oversight and
participation.

"The Bush administration knows that selling off our endangered national
forests to the logging industry is not going to fly with the public, so they
are trying to take away our rights to weigh in on decisions about our public
lands," said Scott Paul, Greenpeace Forest Campaigner. "This year's Earth
Day must be an Earth Day of Protest to warn the Bush administration that
Americans will not sit quietly and let their government endanger our forests
or our freedoms."

In June, the National Forest Protection Alliance along with Greenpeace will
release its latest findings on ten of the most endangered forests in the
United States.

KEY ACTIONS:
GEORGIA - Rally at THE USFS REGION 8 HEADQUARTERS IN ATLANTA, GA.
Lead organization: Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project
Tracy Davids
P.O. Box 3141
Asheville, NC 28801
(828) 258-2667
tracy@sabp.net">tracy@sabp.net>;tracy@sabp.net

MONTANA - RALLY and march to the regional Forest Service Headquarters.
Lead organization: National Forest Protection Alliance
Jeanette Russell
P.O. Box 8264
Missoula, MT 59807
(406) 542-7565

nfpa@forestadvocate.org

WISCONSIN - Rally at region 9 headquarters - April 25
Visuals include a 20 foot tall Paul Bunun. Also organizing a call in day.
Lead organization: American Lands Alliance
Lois Norgard
10368 Columbus Circle
Bloomington, MN 55420
(952) 881-7282
lnorrgard@americanlands.org

MISSOURI - Rally at Congressman Gephardt's St. Louis office
Lead organization: Missouri Forest Alliance
Jim Scheff
20 Crabapple
St. Louis, MO 63132
(314) 991-4190
guava13@juno.com

ARIZONA -Rally and march at the USFS office
Lead organization: Society of Environmental Communicators
Lisa Shelton, Prescott College
301 Grove St.
Prescott, AZ 86301
(928) 445-0379
lshelton@prescott.edu

KENTUCKY - Rally and banner hang.
Lead organization: Kentucky Heartwood
Perrin de Jong
P.O. Box 555
Lexington, KY 40588
(859) 335-9488
kyheartwood@alltel.net

NEW YORK - Tent-in at national fuel headquarters in Buffalo.
Lead organization: NFPA State Delegate
Jason Brady,
263 Richmond Ave. Upper
Buffalo, NY 14222
(716) 884-8179
jbrady@buffalo.com

WASHINGTON - Banner hang.
Lead organization: WWU Environmental Center
Trey Avery, Western Washington University
Viking Union MSA3 - 516 High Street
Bellingham, WA 98225
(360)650-6129

earth@cc.wwu.edu

OREGON - Rally / Critical bike ride at Zip-O-Log Mills - April 22, Earth day
Eugene OR
Lead organization: Cascadia Forest Defenders
Leeanne Siart
P.O. Box 11122
Eugene, OR 97440
(541) 684-8977
swef@efn.org

NEW MEXICO - Rally at USFS headquarters office.
Lead organization: Native Forest Network
Peter Neils
3136-2 Glenwood Drive NW
Albuquerque, NM 87107
(505) 259-2188
peasegrn@swcp.com

TENNESSEE - Earth day event on University of Tennessee campus.
Lead organization: Cherokee Forest Voices
Catherine Murray
1101 Antioch Road
Johnson City, TN 37604
(423) 929-8163
cfvcatherine@worldnet.att.net

WYOMING - Rally at conference where Mark Rey is appearing.
Lead organization: NFPA State Delegate
Steve Gil,
P.O. Box 26
Moose, WY 83012
(307) 690-3852
stevegil13@yahoo.com

PENNSYLVANIA - Rally at federal building in Pittsburgh
Lead organization: NFPA State Delegate
Becky Franz
1894 Beechford Ave.
Moon Twp, PA 15108
(412) 648-4214
thingrnline@msn.com

TEXAS - Rally at federal building. Letter writing effort to Sen. Hutchison
and Rep. Jackson Lee
Lead organization: Live Oak Alliance
Cameron Naficy
P.O. Box 66282
Houston, TX 77006
(713) 529-5147
cameron@ecoethics.org

SAMPLE ADMINSITRATION ROLLBACKS:

.. The Bush Administration continues to claim that its Healthy Forests
Initiative (HFI) will make our public lands more "healthy" or will help
protect communities from wildfires. However, the HFI is nothing more than a
green-washing campaign designed to give logging companies and other
extractive industries free reign over public lands at the expense of true
restoration, community protection and public participation.

· Allowing logging of up to 250 acres without environmental review or
public involvement. Incredibly, the Bush administration claims that cutting
down trees over an area the size of 226 football fields has no impact on the
environment!

· Increasing logging of ancient, old-growth forests while reducing
protections for salmon and ancient forest dependent species such as the
Northern Spotted Owl by gutting critical protections in the Northwest Forest
Plan.

· Reducing protections for threatened and endangered species when
conducting "fuel reduction" logging projects.

· Blocking the implementation of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.

· Eliminating critical wildlife and forest protections and public
participation in forest-wide planning by making the National Forest
Management Act (NFMA) regulations non-binding and voluntary.

· Exempting hazardous fuel reduction projects - including large
logging projects that could target ancient forests or roadless areas - from
environmental analysis and public review.

Andrew George
Campaign Coordinator
National Forest Protection Alliance
PO Box 215
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-0215
ph: 919 933 2959
cell: 828 280 6956
andrew@forestadvocate.org
http://www.forestadvocate.org

Tue, 22 Apr 2003 04:46:48 GMT

Reprint of this article:

10 Good Reasons to End Logging on Public Lands

1. Public Lands Belong to the People: Nearly 200 million acres of public forestland belong to all Americans and to future generations. 4% of America’s original forest cover remains, almost entirely on public land. Our natural heritage should not be liquidated for the profit of private corporations.

2. Public Support: Americans are strongly in favor of environmental protection. A nationwide poll conducted in 1998 concluded that 69% of Americans now oppose allowing timber companies to log our National Forests.

3. Native Forest and Habitat Protection: Native forests play an important role in creating soils and minimizing soil erosion, lessening flood and drought and maintaining clean air. Public forests contain over half of this nation’s remaining wildlife habitat.

4. Direct Subsidies and Indirect Costs: The public lands logging program operates at an increasing loss each year; in 1997, the US Forest Service lost $1.2 billion (source: John Muir Project, verified by Congressional Research Services). Taxpayers, not industry, pay for administrating the timber sale program, constructing logging roads, replanting and restoring degraded habitat. The costs of deforestation to biodiversity, clean water and air, fisheries, tourism and our spiritual well-being are incalculable.

5. Timber Supply: "Production of timber volume from the National Forests accounts for less than 5% of the total volume of timber produced in the United States" (US Forest Service). 72% of the timberland in the US, and most of the highly productive land, is in private ownership. The timber industry says it can meet domestic consumption from its own land.

6. Waste: Half of the trees cut in this country are wasted through inefficient utilization and lack of recycling.
Eliminating this waste would save more than 3 times the amount cut on public forests. Despite the existence of alternative pulp fibers, such as hemp and kenaf, about half of the trees cut each year are turned into paper products. 50% of the landfill waste in America is wood and paper fiber.

7. Automation and Exports: Between 1979 and 1988, while logging increased, more than 26,000 timber jobs disappeared due to automation. In the Southeast, new chip mills being built can consume 200 square miles of forests in 3-5 years, while employing as few as 4-12 workers per shift. In the Northwest, nearly half of all timber cut is exported raw or minimally processed. Every million board feet of lumber shipped overseas takes 7 direct jobs and 14 more indirect jobs with it.

8. Jobs: The billions of dollars currently spent subsidizing the logging of public lands could instead employ tens of thousands of people to restore forests rather than destroy them. In 1996, the Forest Service issued a report predicting that by the year 2000, recreation, hunting and fishing on National Forests will contribute over 30 times more to the national economy than the National Forest logging program.

9. Benefits to Private Timberland Owners: Subsidized public timber artificially lowers wood prices, providing an incentive for sustainable management of private timberlands. Government sale of cheap timber devalues all timberlands. It’s time for the Forest Service to abandon it’s role as a producer of commodities.

10. Lawlessness: In 1991, Federal Judge William Dwyer accused the federal land agencies of a "systematic and deliberate refusal" to comply with environmental laws. If the Forest Service cannot obey existing laws, why should we expect them to comply with "better logging" laws? The laws must be changed to stop the logging!

- Get involved with the National Forest Protection Campaign -

Local Contact:

Allegheny Defense Project (ADP)

P.O. Box 245

Clarion, PA 16214

(814) 764-5763, adp@envirolink.org

National Campaign Contact:

National Forest Protection Alliance

P.O. Box 8264

Missoula, MT 59807

(406) 542-7343, russell@wildrockies.org

Produced by: Protect Our Public Lands, P.O. Box 25431, Eugene, OR 97402; (541) 349-8733

Tue, 22 Apr 2003 00:13:02 GMT

I found this Site

That has lots of thought provoking articles. With my interest in the current rules that Bush signed that seem to have turned the forests I love into industrial sites, I found this one about the march to privatize all public lands particularly heartrending.

My Dad and I once stood on a forest road in the White Pass area of the Cascades. He pointed out the steep slopes and said confidently that I could expect to have my grandkids see the same trees. He said that the slope of the land was just too steep to warrant logging that old growth timber. He died in 1980.

I made the same trip several years ago. Those slopes were then denuded of trees. I saw the diagonal slashes of logging roads purchased with my tax dollars as they zigzagged up the mountain as though someone had hacked the land with a machete. And from each road hung the yellow traces of the erosion of the fragile forest soil. They looked like dead fingers. You can not count out the ingenuity of man when he has helicopters and the lumber is valuable due to scarcity so that the effort to log is worth it.

The fact is that I am a bleeding heart when it comes to being robbed, raped, and looted by my own government.

I do not hate America. I do not hate George Bush. I do however wish that people would open their eyes to see what is being snatched from them. And I do think that George Bush needs to be defeated.

Sat, 12 Apr 2003 18:56:19 GMT

Guns for Librarians

Or

Why I Love the Internet but like Books Better

Libraries are really remarkable when you think about it. When I first heard about DNA I thought about libraries. DNA holds the information about how we are organized as biological beings. Libraries hold all the information about how we are organized in our social relationships, how the body of knowledge that we got from that ‘tree’ somewhere in our past has grown and changed, and perhaps most importantly they store the record of our languages.

The evolution of languages is most like the actual strand of DNA I think. If we can ever have the sophisticated tools to break that down like we can with DNA we will be even more able to see how we are all related to each other. Maybe then we can break through this barrier that makes us think in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’.

I have been using libraries for research since I was a tot. Libraries are evolving too. When I was young for example I could go to our county library and look up things in the card catalog. If the library did not have the book I was interested in they would call another branch of the county library. If they did not have it, the city library might. They were able to assist me in locating the information, but I had to have my parents actually drive me to get the book.

Now, I can sit at my computer and look at the card catalog for the city library that I have a membership in. All of the holdings are there for me to browse. When I find the item I want, I check it off and tell them where I want to pick it up. When it is ready I get an email telling me it is there.

Librarians have even more access to information than I do yet. All libraries in this country are linked. They have not progressed to the stage where I can log on and find some obscure book that is in Hotchkiss New Mexico (fictional place I hope) for example and have it delivered to my local branch. But, I am thinking that this is within the realm of possibility in the next few years.

I don’t know exactly how much I pay in taxes towards the library system. I don’t think that it is very much at all. I bet that there is some neoconservative out there who thinks that government – who can not do anything right after all – should not be the ones to run libraries. I bet they figure that private enterprise can do it more better cheaper and all.

I don’t want the for-profit sector to get into libraries. I know that this would eventually destroy them. I know this intuitively for some reason. The privatization of our library system is something that I would take up arms to prevent.