Property-rights extremists equate McMansions to 9/11 victims
BY TED RALL, a proud New Yorker who had to laugh
NEW YORK—The United States should not build housing. Whole neighborhoods in places like Chicago and Dayton and Oakland and Newark and Memphis are dominated by abandoned houses and apartment buildings. Ten percent of our national housing stock—more than 13 million homes, enough to put roofs over the homeless three times over—are vacant year-round. So why do we let developers bulldoze fields and forests to put up soulless monstrosities?
Several “model houses” at a development bearing the typically atrocious name of “Quinn’s Crossing at Yarrowbay Communities” at the edge of Seattle’s creeping suburban sprawl went up in flames, apparently torched by radical environmentalists. I had two reactions. First, I was reminded of my wonder that such things happen so infrequently.
Then I laughed. I wasn’t alone. Time magazine bemoaned “a notable lack of sympathy for the fate of the homes” among residents of Washington state.
Quinn’s Crossing, says its Web site, was “dedicated to the ethos of putting the earth first.” In this case, putting Mother Earth “first” led the developers in “energy efficient” 4,500-square-feet McMansions. “The houses are out in the middle of nowhere, on land that used to be occupied by beaver dams and environmentally sensitive wetlands; the site sits at the headwaters of Bear Creek, where endangered chinook salmon spawn,” reported Erica C. Barnett for the Seattle weekly newspaper The Stranger. … [more]
March 22, 2008 | 4 Comments | Topic: Latest Fire News
By DON THOMPSON Associated Press Writer [here]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Steps to prevent catastrophic wildfires in the Lake Tahoe basin, one of the country’s most treasured natural wonders, have been hampered for years by bureaucratic infighting among agencies that often work at cross-purposes, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press.
The failure of the agencies to adequately protect the basin was brought to light in June when a wildfire ripped through a thickly forested ravine and destroyed 254 homes near South Lake Tahoe.
Since then, blame has fallen on the overlapping agencies that have environmental and regulatory oversight of the Tahoe basin. A commission established after the fire was scheduled to vote Friday on a report recommending ways to heal the rifts.
The AP’s review showed just how glaring the problems have been over the years.
Using Freedom of Information laws, the AP obtained more than 4,000 pages of documents from local, regional, state and federal agencies involved in planning, environmental protection and fire prevention around Tahoe, the picturesque lake straddling the California-Nevada line.
Most of the documents covered the three years before the wildfire and reveal a tangle of agencies with competing agendas. Efforts to clear trees and brush were delayed - often for years - as agencies bickered over methods and jurisdictional disputes.
The documents also show that while the wildfire heightened the urgency to thin the forest, years of delay have left the basin ripe for a repeat calamity.
March 21, 2008 | 1 Comment | Topic: Latest Fire News
A six-year research project is underway in Woodson County, Kansas where Kansas State University scientists are working to determine how viable patch-burn grazing is for raising livestock.
Patch-burn grazing is a fairly new concept in rangeland management, but has been occurring naturally for hundreds of years, said Walt Fick, K-State Research and Extension range management specialist.
Historically, Native Americans purposely started prairie fires, and lightning did the same thing naturally. Bison and other native herbivores were attracted to the new growth that comes up after the land burned; consequently, these animals moved from grazing area to grazing area — searching out the most attractive areas of new growth, Fick said.
Some ranchers are mimicking that grazing pattern by sectioning a large pasture into three or more burn areas.
“Every year, one of those sections is prescribed burned, concentrating the grazing pressure in specific areas of the pasture,” he said. “The cattle are free-roaming over the entire pasture, but tend to gravitate toward the one-third area of the pasture that has been burned, because that is where the most attractive new growth has occurred.”
“When burning, producers may create burn boundaries (fire guards), but using natural breaks would be more efficient because of labor expenses,” he added.
The main purpose of patch-burn grazing is ecology-driven; it has a high potential to increase biodiversity and wildlife habitat. … [more]
March 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Latest Fire News
Jeff Munson, Tahoe Daily Tribune, March 18, 2008
Dozens of recommendations on how to avoid disasters such as last June’s Angora fire will come to a head this week when the California-Nevada Tahoe Basin Fire Commission meets at the South Shore.
With a looming Friday deadline imposed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons, the hand-picked, bi-state commission has met monthly and sometimes twice monthly since August to pore over thousands of documents and hundreds of public comments.
The end result of the commission’s work will be a report that provides recommendations for the protection of those in the Tahoe Basin while preserving the environment, said Todd Ferrara, spokesman for the commission.
At the heart of the matter are recommendations that could change policies or create new ones on how dead and dying trees are removed from the forest and place new responsibilities on homeowners.
The final meetings will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday and at 9 a.m. Friday in the Lake Tahoe Community College boardroom. Final recommendations will be made at Friday’s meeting.
Also at stake is how public agencies such as the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the U.S. Forest Service can put measures in place to remove fire fuels in the basin without causing environmental damage to Lake Tahoe.
Finally, the commission will recommend how both states should pay for these policies.
This week’s gathering represents the last set of formal meetings. After Friday, the 70 or so recommendations will go up for a 30-day public review before being sent to the governors for action. … [more]
March 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Latest Fire News, Latest Forest News
A new study has found that California wildfires emit more greenhouse gases than previously believed largely through the post-fire decay of dead wood, a finding that is raising questions about how effective the state’s forests are at storing carbon and slowing global warming.
The study by Thomas Bonnicksen, a retired forestry professor at Texas A&M University, found that four major wildfires – from the Fountain fire near Redding in 1992 to the Angora blaze at Lake Tahoe last year – are responsible for the release of 38 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, far more than the 2 million tons the state estimates that fires produce on average each year.
“Up until now, we have not fully appreciated the magnitude of the impact of wildfires on climate change,” Bonnicksen said. “This is a very important part of the problem.”
His study, which is not peer-reviewed and has been found lacking by some, is one of a flurry of reports that have begun to explore the critical role that forests play in regulating carbon dioxide, the principal atmospheric gas responsible for global warming. Traditionally, forests have been viewed as green reservoirs of landlocked carbon, soaking up and storing CO2 from the atmosphere in their leaves, needles, roots and soil.
Bonnicksen’s study casts that view into question. Forests today are so overcrowded with spindly, unhealthy trees – partly the result of decades of fire suppression – that as they burn and decay they are turning into an actual source of greenhouse gas pollution.
His study, for example, estimates emissions from just one blaze alone last year, the Moonlight fire in Plumas County, at more than 19.6 million tons, three-quarters of which are expected to occur over the next century as trees killed by the fire decay. That much carbon is roughly equivalent to the emissions from 3.6 million cars for a year.
Overall, California fires are producing so much CO2, he said, that they will defeat the state’s pioneering efforts to respond to climate change by reducing emissions elsewhere.
“No matter what anybody does in California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as long as these forests are burning, they are wasting their time,” Bonnicksen said. … [more]
For the full text of Dr. Bonnicksen’s reports, see W.I.S.E. Forest and Fire Science [here]
March 15, 2008 | 1 Comment | Topic: Latest Climate News, Latest Fire News, Latest Forest News
By Mike Carter and Hal Bernton, Seattle Times [here]
TACOMA — Jurors weighing the fate of Briana Waters struggled with a charge that would have sent the 32-year-old mother and violin teacher to prison for 30 years.
Their verdict, delivered Thursday in a packed federal courtroom, recognized her participation in the 2001 arson at a University of Washington research center, but also her limited role in the crime and the modest prison sentences expected to be given to others involved. The arson was committed in the name of the Earth Liberation Front.
While jurors convicted the Oakland, Calif., woman of two counts of arson, they deadlocked on three other charges, including the most serious, which would have sent her to prison for a minimum of 30 years. Afterward, some in the jury said they were sympathetic because Waters has a 3-year-old daughter.
“It’s fair to say that for a lot of us, it was very emotional,” said one male juror, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I mean, here was a mom with a kid. It certainly played into the deliberations.”
In convicting Waters of arson, the jury agreed with federal prosecutors who said she served as a lookout for a team of Earth Liberation Front saboteurs who firebombed the UW’s Center of Urban Horticulture because they believed, mistakenly, that a researcher was genetically engineering trees.
March 13, 2008 | 4 Comments | Topic: Latest Fire News, Latest Forest News
Republican Whip Press Office, Mar 11, 2008 [here]
WASHINGTON – House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) announced today that Rep. Thelma Drake (Va.), with the backing of Republican leadership, will introduce a discharge petition on bipartisan border enforcement legislation called the Secure America Through Verification and Enforcement (SAVE) Act:
“Our national and economic security is threatened by our outdated immigration enforcement laws and our porous borders. For far too long, the House Democratic Leadership has actively blocked sound bipartisan legislation addressing something that should be uncontroversial, like border security, from coming to a vote.
“We learned early on this year that the best way to pass legislation for the good of the American people is by forming a bipartisan consensus. The SAVE Act – with more than 140 cosponsors – is the type of bill that not only a broad swath of Members can support, but more importantly the type of legislation our constituents want enacted. … [more]
March 11, 2008 | 1 Comment | Topic: Latest Fire News
WASHINGTON — The federal government would revamp how it pays for firefighting and take some of the burden off the U.S. Forest Service by creating a permanent fund for devastating blazes, under legislation introduced Thursday by key House Democrats.
As wildfire seasons have grown increasingly expensive over the last decade, the cost of fighting fires has eaten an ever larger portion of the Forest Service budget — now about 48 percent of it. That has left the agency with less money for other programs and priorities.
The new fund would be used only for catastrophic, emergency wildland fire suppression. It would be separate from the money budgeted each year by Congress for anticipated and predicted fire suppression activities for the Forest Service and Interior Department; that allocation would continue.
The amount of money in the new fund would be appropriated annually and based on the average amounts spent by the Forest Service and Interior to suppress catastrophic fires over the preceding five fiscal years.
Last year, the Forest Service spent $741 million more than budgeted and Interior spent $249 million more than budgeted for emergency wildfire suppression, or a total of nearly $1 billion. … [more]
March 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Latest Fire News
WOODINVILLE, Wash. — The radical environmental group responsible for the 1998 fires at Vail’s Two Elks Lodge apparently has struck again — in the form of fires that gutted three multimillion-dollar show homes north of Seattle.
Crews battled fires early today at the homes in a suburb north of Seattle. A sign connected to the environmental group Earth Liberation Front was found at the scene, officials said.
The sign — with initials E.L.F. — mocked claims the luxury homes on the “Street of Dreams” were environmentally friendly, according to video images of the sign aired by KING-TV.
“Built Green? Nope black!” the sign said.
No injuries were reported in the fires, which began before dawn in the wooded subdivision and were still smoldering by midmorning. The Snohomish County sheriff’s office estimated damage at $7 million. In addition to the three homes destroyed, two sustained smoke damage. It was previously believed that four homes were destroyed. … [more]
March 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Latest Fire News
Some links and extracts:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [here]
Tre Arrow, (born Michael James Scarpitti in 1974), a Florida native, is an environmental activist and politician who gained prominence in the U.S. state of Oregon in the late 1990s.
Arrow was extradited from Canada to Portland Oregon in the United States Government on February 29, 2008 to face charges of arson and conspiracy claimed by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF).
Arrow is wanted by the FBI in connection with the April 15, 2001 arson at Ross Island Sand and Gravel in Portland. Three trucks were damaged in the amount of $200,000. The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) claimed this fire via a written communique. The U.S. Department of Justice says it considers ELF to be the worst “domestic terrorism group.”
Another arson occurred a month later at Ray Schoppert Logging Company in Estacada, Oregon, on June 1, 2001. Two logging trucks and a front loader were damaged, resulting in $50,000 worth of damage. The ELF did not claim responsibility, but the explosions were similarly created by milk jugs filled with gasoline, and a fuse made from incense and a pack of matches.
More links and extracts: Read more
March 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Latest Fire News
By JOHN CRAMER of the Missoulian [here]
A federal judge in Missoula cleared Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey and the U.S. Forest Service of a contempt threat Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy also ruled that the agency has finally completed his order to review the environmental impact of aerial fire retardant.
But a watchdog group whose lawsuit prompted the showdown said it planned to take new legal action to challenge the Forest Service’s finding that fire retardant causes little harm to fish, plants and other aquatic creatures.
Rey and other Forest Service officials apologized to Molloy for the agency’s tardiness in completing its environmental review, but they maintained they had acted in good faith.
Molloy accepted the apology but said it was “shameful” that it took a threat of contempt to make the Forest Service follow the law.
February 27, 2008 | 1 Comment | Topic: Latest Fire News
Waldron says Ninemile did not help with Black Cat structure protection
by John Q. Murray, The Clark Fork Chronicle, Feb. 20, 2008 [here]
Scott Waldron of Frenchtown Fire slammed the U.S. Forest Service Friday in an appearance before the Montana legislature’s interim study committee on fire policy.
Waldron, in Helena speaking for the Montana State Fire Chiefs’ Association and the Montana County Fire Wardens Association, said the Forest Service should pay for the problems resulting from the agency’s lack of forest management, and alleged that the Forest Service refused to engage in structure protection during the 2007 Black Cat Fire.
In response to questioning from Sen. John Cobb (R-Augusta), Waldron said the people he fights fire with every day from the Ninemile Ranger District “couldn’t engage in and around those structures” during the Black Cat Fire.
That is a problem for two reasons, he said.
First, forest landowners are paying for fire protection on those lands. In the Frenchtown Fire district, those assessments to the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) represent about $60,000 per year. Because the DNRC and the Forest Service share firefighting duties due to the checkerboard pattern of land ownership–the DNRC handles all public land east of Mill Creek, the Forest Service west of Mill Creek–Waldron said he felt the Forest Service had a responsibility to handle structure protection for those taxpayers.
The second issue is firefighter safety, Waldron said. You can’t have one agency pulling off and saying that it is not going to address structure protection. If the incident management team pulls its resources off the fire, the local fire departments will be going on, and that is not safe, he said.
Waldron said his understanding is that the Forest Service is fiscally challenged to fund its operations and has been forced to reduce its initial attack staff. The agency is now moving toward less initial attack on fires that are out of the way. Instead of creating a fire line around every single fire, they will let some burn. But some big fires will become uncontrollable when they get to communities, he said.
February 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Latest Fire News
Plenty of environmental groups, longtime critics of the Bush administration, would love to see high-level administration officials behind bars.
Now a small Eugene group is on the verge of putting one there, in a court case the group hopes will reshape the way the U.S. Forest Service fights wildfires across the West.
An irritated federal judge in Montana appears ready to go along with the request by Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, based in Eugene, to hold the Bush administration official who oversees the Forest Service in contempt of court for disobeying his orders.
The judge, Donald Molloy of Missoula, has said that at a hearing Tuesday, he could either jail Mark Rey, the undersecretary of agriculture, place him under house arrest or suspend all use of fire retardant, the red slurry dropped to slow wildfires.
“What the judge is saying is, ‘I’ve had it with these guys,’ ” said Jim Furnish, a former deputy chief of the Forest Service who is following the case.
Few cases have pointed such severe consequences at so high a level in government.
Molloy is overseeing a dispute between the government and the Eugene group that goes where no lawsuit has gone before. It centers around the millions of gallons of fire retardant aerial bombers dump on blazes every year, and what the employee group argues — and Molloy agrees — is the government’s disregard for the environmental impact of chemicals in the retardant… [more]
February 24, 2008 | 2 Comments | Topic: Latest Fire News
By Stephen Barr, Washington Post, Feb. 22, 2008
The Government Accountability Office faulted outsourcing projects at the Forest Service in a report released yesterday, prompting renewed calls for more scrutiny of the Bush administration’s effort to contract out federal jobs, a plan known as competitive sourcing.
The Forest Service does not have a realistic long-term plan for determining which agency jobs should be given to the private sector and does not have reliable data to back up claims of cost savings, the GAO said.
In addition, outsourcing substantial numbers of Forest Service jobs to the private sector could, over time, reduce the agency’s ability to fight fires in the wilderness and to respond to emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina.
“Congress needs to take a long, hard look at the administration’s competitive sourcing agenda after such a damning report,” Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) said. He released the report with Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), who said the administration “played fast and free with the facts in providing a different picture than the reality.”… [more]
February 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Latest Fire News
Lawmaker Calls Bush Forest Budget ‘Unmitigated Disaster’ [here]
A Bush administration spending plan that would slash money for the Forest Service could lead to massive layoffs at the agency charged with managing 193 million acres of national forests, Democratic lawmakers said Wednesday.
Spending for the Forest Service would be cut by nearly 8 percent next year, to $4.1 billion, in a budget plan submitted by President Bush.
The plan could mean the loss of more than 2,700 jobs — nearly 10 percent of the agency’s work force — as well as reductions in dozens of non-fire related programs, from road and trail maintenance to state assistance, land acquisition and recreation, lawmakers said.
Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., chairman of the House Appropriations Interior subcommittee, called the budget plan “an unmitigated disaster” that “would cause real harm to our 193-million acre national forest system.”
The only bright spot in the budget was a request to increase spending to fight wildfires by about $148 million to just under $1 billion, Dicks said.
The figure based on the 10-year average of firefighting costs and responds to a frequent complaint by lawmakers that firefighting costs typically exceed the amount budgeted. The Forest Service spent $1.4 billion fighting fires nationwide last year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The Interior Department spent an additional $450 million.
February 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment | Topic: Latest Fire News
