SOS Forests

Roadless Madness

In the waning days of the Clinton Administration, Slick Willy promulgated the “Roadless Rule” that condemned 58.5 million acres to unmanagement, zero stewardship, and catastrophic megafire.

Since then “roadlessness” has become the rallying cry of the holocauster crowd. The US Forest Service has dutifully ripped out roads, gated them off, and burned 30,000,000 acres of putative “roadless” areas. The roads wiped off the map include many county roads, private roads, and roads that have been in continuous use for over 100 years. Some are ancient Indian roads whose use dates back millennia.

Despite repeated rulings from Federal courts that the Roadless Rule is unconstitutional, the Federal Government (through 2 subsequent administrations) has persisted in locking the public out of public lands (for the express purpose of incinerating those lands).

Friday, the Obama Administration extended the Roadless Rule for another year, a brazen rejection of public sentiment and judicial rulings [here].

Yesterday Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons sent a useless letter to the USFS begging that agency to “work with” local communities before shutting their roads off [here]:

Mr. Tom Montoya, Mountain City District Ranger
Mr. Garr Abbas, Jarbidge & Ruby Mountains District Ranger
United States Forest Service
2035 Last Chance Road
Elko, NV 89801

Dear Sirs:

This letter is written regarding the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) prepared by the United States Forest Service for the Mountain City, Ruby Mountains and Jarbidge combined Travel Management Plan in Elko County and a portion of northern White Pine County. Under the DEIS, many miles of rural roads in northern Nevada would be closed resulting in many “roadless” areas in Elko and White Pine counties. This plan could have a devastating economic, cultural and social impact to these areas. Nevada has been one of the hardest hit by the current recession and we must do everything in our power to preserve and rebuild our fragile economy. Mass road closures would impede the progress we are making at economic recovery, and may also endanger the life and safety of those who live in these rural areas or who enjoy hunting, fishing, and recreation in rural Nevada. Without roads, how is law enforcement to reach those in need?

Therefore, I respectfully request you grant the request of the Elko County Board of Commissioners for a six (6) month extension of the comment period to address the proposed Travel Management Plan DEIS as it is currently written. Please allow our local government officials sufficient time to review and evaluate the DEIS and prepare detailed written comments and alternative proposals from those closest to the issue.

Sincerely,
Jim Gibbons
Governor

Gibbon’s too-late pleas to the wrong people (underlings, not masterminds) relate to the USFS Travel Management Plan, an outgrowth of the Roadless Rule in which “roadlessness” is inflicted on areas with roads. The course that the USFS has chosen is more than set-aside of untracked ground — it is to deliberately tear out existing roads in order to “create” roadless conditions.

Meanwhile, the USFS has promulgated Let It Burn fire plans across the Nation, claiming that firefighters might be endangered fighting fire where there are no roads. The Biscuit Fire (2002) burned 500,000 acres because the roads that went to the ignition point had been blocked off and ripped up. Firefighters were held away from initial attack because of that (and smokejumpers were also held back). Numerous other megafires since then have had the same M.O.

The connection between “roadless” and Let It Burn megafires is clear, obvious, and deliberate. The Federal Government, regardless of party in power, has been hell bent on destroying America’s forests for 20 years. During that time span nearly 110 million acres have been burned in wildfires.

Old-growth forests have been wiped out, watersheds reduced to moonscapes, wildlife and wildlife habitat incinerated, and local economies crippled. And it has not occurred by accident. The incineration of America’s forests has been the deliberate, stated objective of the Federal Government and its land management agencies.

The Powers That Be wish to extend their holocauster ways to hundreds of millions of acres of private lands as well. The latest indications are that every acre within 30 miles of Federal land has been slated for incineration [here]. The Federal fire leadership has adopted the “Leave Early Or Stay And Defend” policy — better stated as the “Run For Your Life Or Put The Fire Out Yourself Because the Feds Are Not Going To Lift A Finger” policy.

They don’t care how many citizens are killed, how many homes are burned, how much destruction they wreak. In fact, killing and destroying is the policy, the stated objective, the overt mission of a Federal Government that is more or less waging war on the citizenry of this country.

We pay them to kill us, to destroy our forests, landscapes, towns, and homes. They take our money and then inflict conflagrations upon us.

Don’t hold your breath for the Limousine Jet Set to rip the roads up in front of their own mansions. That’s not the plan. The elite get fire protection — the rest of us can burn, baby, burn. The elite helicopter into our lands for their private adventures — the rest of us are to stay out, stay away, and keep our low class selves far, far away from the public playgrounds of the Rich and Powerful.

Voting for an incumbent in this day and age is the same thing as putting a gun to your own head and pulling the trigger. The elite are not on your side. They despise you and will do whatever it takes to steal and/or destroy everything you own, including tearing out public roads and burning your watersheds and homes to ashes.