Old Growth Falls As "Healthy Forests" Reaches Grand Canyon's Rim - SacBee

[hatrack]

KAIBAB NATIONAL FOREST, Ariz. - The north rim of the Grand Canyon is ground zero in the battle between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry for the future care and handling of national forests.

Here, in a hunting preserve created by President Teddy Roose velt nearly a century ago, the Bush administration is cutting old-growth trees to improve wildlife habitat and, under Bush's Healthy Forests Act, plans to cut down even more to lessen the threat of catastrophic fire.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Under pressure from moderate Democrats such as U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California to cut a deal, the bill Bush signed was supposed to protect old growth while speeding the removal of brush that in Southern California had turned dry forests into ticking time bombs.

What few foresaw, according to environmentalists who have gone to court to stop the cut, is that in the arid Southwest, 100-year-old trees often are not much bigger than a foot in diameter, and thus within the harvest limits of the Healthy Forest Act."

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http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/10727877p-11646371c.html

[GHOSTDANCER]

1. You got to cut them down......to save them....Don't you know?

After all trees have been around for just a few million years... but we have the answer to save em.....by cutting them down.


Get me off of this ship of fools!

[phantom power]

2. And we all know that a logging company would *never*

take advantage of a loophole that violates the spirit of a law.

Have you noticed how the GOP loves to wax poetic about how the free market is *actually* environmentally friendly, since markets always function the best long-term interests of the public (invisible hand, and all that), but when you point out any of the several million obvious counter-examples to their theory, they immediately respond with something like "Hey, the only responsibility of a corporation is to maximize shareholder value, you naive tree-hugging marxist."

[amandabeech]

3. Why am I not surprised?

These jerks simply cannot be trusted to do anything other than exploit for profit today with absolutely no concern for tomorrow, even tomorrow's profits.

Kerry must win.

[theoceansnerves]

4. yeah

"What few foresaw"

when you are dealing with the bush administration, you should always foresee the worst possible outcome. you'd think people would have learned this by now...

[GAspnes]

5. 'scuse me, I gotta go hug a tree

before there aren't any left.

My grandfather is spinning in his grave.

[Xithras]

6. Are they old growth, or are they 100 years old?

I thought old growth forest was forest that has never been logged before?