Aug. 23, 2006 - 21:21 MDT

MONEY YOU KNOW

The Spotted Owl and the Leaping Lizard seems to have the dais now. But our silent native citizens have little voice other than a gentle breeze driven sigh. An article in this morning's Rocky Mountain News by Terence Chea of The Associated Press gives the lowdown on what is being blocked -- at least temporarily. Herewith it is quoted in full:

JUDGE BLOCKS BUSH SEQUOIA LOGGING PLAN

SAN FRANCISCO -- "A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a Bush administration plan to allow commercial logging in Giant Sequoia National Monument, home to two-thirds the world's largest trees."

"U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer sided with state Attorney General Bill Lockyer and environmental groups that sued the U.S. Forest Service over plans to permit timber cuts on up to 3,2000 acres each year in the 328,000-acre preserve, home to 38 sequoia groves in central California."

"The Forest Service's interest in harvesting timber has trampled the applicable environmental laws," Breyer wrote, calling the agency's forest management plan "incomprehensible."

"In lawsuits filed last year, Lockyer and conservation groups said the agency's plan, issued in January 2004, violated the proclamation signed by President Clinton in 2000."

"The proclamation established the national monument to protect sequoias, which can grow up to 270 feet tall and 30 feet in diameter."

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The timber industry has fallen on hard times, some of which they deserve, I think. The clear cutting of vast acres of forest, leaving nothing but stumps has been inexcuseable to my mind. And then, as a sop, replanting cut over ground with slop trees that will never have any value as lumber is almost as bad.

I remember riding around in Oregon, noticing the nice trees alongside the highway, but on cruising around it was easy to see that these were just a strip of trees, hiding the bare ground of harvested forest.

It also reminded me that when I was in Japan, the mountains were tree covered, but it was noticible that what had been harvested had been replanted with the same kind of tree.

I have read of and have seen personally the forests of trees in our south that are being farmed for paper pulp. Now that makes sense.

Of course there is no money in Preebles Jumping Mouse or the Spotted Owl, if there were I would expect the present administration would give the corporations as much of a shot at it as they could get by with.

So there are corporations in our country, businesses with honor and honesty that grow forests to harvest and plant as they harvest.

How many centuries would it take to regrow those beautiful, giant Sequoias ? And I think to regrow Sequoias it would take larger sums than the lumber business would wish to spend.

But with the present administration, it's all about "reaping" MONEY YOU KNOW . . . . . . . . . . .

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