Dave Skinner

Perhaps the only good thing to come out of the real threats to our nation has been a reduction in the media coverage of the endless end-of-the-world scenarios put forth by the vast network of environmental organizations, the Greens.

With the U.S. Forest Service proposal for salvage of timber burned in 2000&s epic 302,000-acre Bitterroot fire now under injunction in federal judge Donald W. Molloy&s Missoula, Montana court, what can we expect? With the possible exception of professional ?environmentalists,? most folks expect very little. Everyone knows that the multiplicitous and conflicting stack of laws governing federal land management have already wasted the timber. The only hope now is that the judge will be fair, but that&s not likely, either.

Dear U.S. Forest Service: I am writing in response to the questions you posed regarding the intention of the Bush administration to modify the Roadless Area Conservation Rule your agency finalized in January 2001.

High Country News publisher Ed Marston reacted to Sacramento Bee reporter Tom Knudson&s unflattering ?Environment, Inc.? series on the fancy finances of the professional Green movement by declaring ?environmentalists must be led by relatively well-paid leaders backed by professional staffs,? just like their corporate PR enemies. Marston defended Sierra Club against Knudson by noting that Sierra Club is ?crammed into very modest offices in a seedy part of San Francisco.? But adding to the cramming is the Sierra Club Foundation (SCF), which exists only to support ?charitable activity of the Sierra Club through grants on a project by project basis,? a purpose for which it collected $23 million in 1999. The origin of those funds is known only to IRS inspectors, as are the reasons why SCF is allowed to forward tax-free funds to Sierra, which lost its tax-exempt nonprofit status way back in the Sixties.

Last November, hard-line Greens gathered in Reno to discuss the elimination of public lands ranching at their ?Rangenet 2000? conference. Of course, these ?conservationists? insisted, ?We are not radicals,? as retired physician Bob Witzeman declared to Associated Press reporters. While it is obvious that Rangenet&s members aren&t exactly mainstream in their thinking, they definitely have tapped into the ?money stream.? After all, the joke is -- ?What do you call an environmental group that can&t get grant funding? Night clerk at Fast Gas.? But Rangenet 2000 is not a joke.

This summer&s Western fire situation has also torched off a political flame war. On one hand, the views of Western politicians, community leaders and citizens can be summed up by Arizona Senator John McCain: ?It might have been not nearly as serious if it hadn&t been for radical environmental organizations and others that have kept us from cleaning out these forests.? On the other hand, the professional ?environmental community? is trying to deflect the flaming arrows of irate Westerners. Sierra Club&s Carl Pope piously stated: ?Sierra Club is deeply concerned for the people affected by giant fires [in the Southwest].? Bill Meadows of the Wilderness Society mirrored Pope&s piety by appealing to ?Americans& sense of community? and declaring ?much of the smoke in the West right now is coming from politicians.? Pope also condemned the ?disturbing display of cynical politics.?

Alamogordo, NM (PFNS) Another public land squabble is shaping up in "Bush Country" with the announcement that U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Pacific Northwest Regional Forester Harv Forsgren is being transferred from Portland to take the reins of USFS's Southwest Region.

Alamogordo, NM (PFNS) Like most people, I am concerned with the gradual, and sometimes not so gradual replacement of our wide-open spaces with housing. I've seen more than a few of my favorite hunting and fishing spots, and my favorite neighbors, disappear forever.

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX?Two personal watercraft users, along with the American Watercraft Association (AWA) and the Personal Watercraft Industry Association (PWIA), today filed suit against the National Park Service (NPS) for ignoring its own procedures in banning personal watercraft from a number of parks without first completing required environmental assessments.