Suing the Feds For Incinerating Forests
The residents of Yellow Pine, ID, are preparing to sue the US Forest Service for deliberately burning 1,250 square miles of National Forests in and around Yellow Pine. The devastation is incredible, and the forests, wildlife, businesses, residents, and visitors of Yellow Pine have received an environmental and economic blow that they will not recover from [here, here, here].
The lawsuit is in discovery mode; no claim has been filed yet. SOS Forests has been asked to ask you, our wise and experienced readers, if you might have any information that might be pertinent. Are you aware of any claims filed against the USFS that involve the negligent build up of fuels and/or their Let It Burn policies. Are you aware of (and do you have documents relating to) the fire planning that preceeded the 2007 fires? Do you have information regarding the fire control efforts (or lack thereof) made by the USFS in the Yellow Pine fires of 2007.
If so, please send them to me, and I will forward them to the proper parties.
by John M.
In my view, the article is propaganda, not science. It is another example of obsequious bureaucrats forcing destruction on American citizens who don’t want it. The USFS is jamming holocaust down America’s throat no matter what the cost to forests, lives, homes, property, taxpayers, and eventually to the Agency itself.
To be fair, look at who wrote this. I don’t want to get too irate at the fed employees quoted, because they were probably misquoted or quoted out of context.
The Rattlesnake Fire (one piece of the 750,000 acres burned on the Idaho Batholith last summer) was an environmental catastrophe that will leave a giant scar and negative environmental consequences for many decades. I can’t believe that USFS field personnel think that’s a good thing. Maybe they do, but I hesitate to accept that contention from the author of the article.
http://www.headwatersnews.org/p.rattlesnake092007.html
This article printed in Headwater News is not about the fire in the Yellow Pine area, but it does reflect the thinking of fire and resource people in many areas of Idaho and Montana. I noted the article did not discuss water, wildlife habitat, air quality, insect and disease issues or future fire potential. Maybe such issues were discussed but not included in article, but maybe they weren’t.