SOS Forests

The Largest Land Grab since the Louisiana Purchase

The US Forest Service has announced their Open Space Conservation Strategy. The Strategy involves the promotion of “wilderness values” on 400 million acres of private land.

“If people have an incentive to hold on to wildlands (rather than develop them), we as a society benefit from that,” she [Gail Kimbell] said in an interview. “We all benefit from keeping wildlands wild.”

That statement is absurd. The real motive underlying the USFS Open Space Strategy is to apply their newest and most favored wildland management tool, wildland fire, to private lands. The Strategy originated with the Nature Conservancy, the biggest international “non-governmental organization” in the world. The Strategy is in line TNC’s strategy of purchasing private land and converting it to public land at a hefty profit (in 2006 TNC’s non-taxable income was over a $1 billion). Burned out private properties can be had more cheaply.

And quite a few private lands, at that. Total USFS land is 192 million acres nationwide, including Alaska. The addition of 400 million more acres of private land more than triples their burning zones. Consider that Oregon is approximately 50 million acres total. The new Strategy will encompass an area 8 times the size of Oregon. It should be noted, however, that the Feds already own more than half of Oregon, and hold similar proportions of all western states. An additional 400 million acres encompasses almost all the land west of the Continental Divide.

The new Strategy is the largest land grab since the Louisiana Purchase.

Our vision for the 21st century is an interconnected network of open space across the landscape that supports healthy ecosystems…

That statement, taken from the USFS Open Space Conservation website [here] is in accord with the radical Wildlands Project originated by Earth First! [here].

Open space is… well, even the USFS can’t define it. Here is one of their attempts:

Open space means many different things to different people. For the purposes of the Open Space Conservation Strategy, the Forest Service defines open space as land that is valued for natural processes and wildlife, agricultural and forest production, aesthetic beauty, active and passive recreation, and other public benefits. Such lands include working and natural forests, rangelands and grasslands, farms, ranches, parks, stream and river corridors, and other natural lands within rural, suburban, and urban areas. Open space may be protected or unprotected, public or private.

Talk about vague; that could be any parcel of land anywhere. They also offer this shorty definition:

Open space — public land, private forests, tribal forests, ranches, farms, and other undeveloped lands.

“Undeveloped” is a key word in that. Land becomes “developed” by being “converted” to:

Conversion is the replacement of forests with houses, buildings, lawns, and pavement.

Houses, lawns, and pavement are attributes of human residency. In the eyes of the USFS, any property with a home on it is “developed.” Home occupancy (aka land tenancy or residency) is precisely what the USFS Open Space Conservation Strategy wishes to eliminate from 400 million acres of private land.

Elsewhere in the world this is known as “ethnic cleansing.” It has not been practiced in U.S. on such a large scale since the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries. It might be more accurate to term it “pan-ethnic cleansing” since all races and creeds are to be eliminated from the landscape this time.

The USFS made a bold start on the program by burning down 254 homes in South Lake Tahoe last summer, and then informing the victims that it was their own fault their homes burned down. Americans live too close to USFS land, and so must suffer chronic megafires that usher from there.

The USFS has also given ample indication of their forest management philosophy by incinerating millions of acres public forests every year. They claim that forest fires “benefit resources.” Indeed, they now call forest fires Wildland Fires Used For Resource Benefit.

Evidently they wish to spread those “benefits” to the western half of the U.S.A.

This week the USFS released the following in National Woodlands, the magazine of the National Woodland Owners Assoc. [here].

Open Space Conservation Strategy Unveiled

Forest Service Chief Abigail Kimbell recently announced the release of the Forest Service’s Open Space Conservation Strategy.

“Our vision for the 21st Century is an interconnected network of open space across the landscape-one that supports healthy ecosystems, renewable resources, and a high quality of life for Americans,” she said. “We plan to achieve this through collaboration and partnerships-by working with willing landowners, conservation groups, and state and local governments to promote voluntary land conservation.”

Open space-public land, private forests, tribal forests, ranches, farms, and other undeveloped lands-provide a multitude of public benefits, ecosystem services, and products we all need and enjoy such as water, economic prosperity, wildlife, recreation, and wildfire protection.

The Forest Service is concerned about the loss of open space, especially within private forests and around the National Forests and Grasslands. Development of open space affects the agency’s ability to manage the National Forests and Grasslands, as well as its ability to help private landowners and communities manage their land for public and ecosystem benefits.

The Open Space Conservation Strategy is the product of extensive public comment and collaboration, with over 22,000 comments received-nearly all supportive. The public also expressed strong support for open space conservation during USDA’s Farm Bill listening sessions.

The Strategy charts a path forward for the Forest Service to conserve forests, grasslands, farms, ranches, and urban greenspaces that provide vital ecosystem services and benefits forsociety. Open space benefitsAmerican citizens by providing clean air, abundant water, outdoor recreation, connected fish and wildlife habitat, scenic beauty, improved human health, renewable resource products, and quality of life.

USDA’s Farm Bill proposals would strengthen and enhance the agency’s ability to achieve the goals of the
Strategy. The USDA proposals would provide increased financial and technical assistance to willing landowners to conserve open space, advance ecosystem management, service private markets to compensate private landowners, enable states to work across boundaries to identify priority forest landscapes for conservation, and help communities protect working forests.

The loss of open space threatens the sustainability of the nation’s forests and grasslands. We lose approximately 6,000 acres of open space each day across the United States-a rate of four acres per minute. Land development is outpacing population growth, especially in rural areas where the trend is low density, dispersed growth. The new Forest Service report “National Forests on the Edge” projects that over 21 million acres of rural private lands near national forests and 44 million acres of private forest land will undergo increases in housing density by 2030.
Growth and development in wildlands increases the risk of wildfire for people and property, affects the Forest Service’s ability to manage the public lands for healthy forests and public enjoyment, and reduces the capacity of privately owned land to provide water, recreation, habitat, and other public benefits.

Following are four priorities of the Strategy that will guide future Forest Service actions to conserve open space are to:

1) Convene partners to identify and protect priority open space;

2) Promote national policies and markets to help private landowners conserve open space;

3) Provide resources and toolsto help communities expand and connect open spaces; and

4) Participate in community growth planning to reduce ecological impacts and wildfire risks.

The Strategy can be found at http://www.fs.fed. us/openspace. The site also shares research findings, success stories, and resources for open space conservation.