Obama's Environmental Legacy: Destroying Pristine Tongass Habitats

Obama is not a Liberal

I am sick of hearing how liberal Obama is. I am very liberal and I can tell you he is no liberal.

His environmental policies suck. His Iraq, Afghanistan, and Gitmo policies suck.

His extending the Cheney secrecy policies sucks.

He is striving so much to be a centrist that he is alienating liberals.

Ivana and Franz

Good examples of intolerant Environmentalism - The Religion of the State - their motto, "Close it down and fence the public out!"

Way to go guys. Your Druid ancestors would be proud.

Ivana and Franz

Good examples of intolerant Environmentalists and the our Religion of the State - their motto, "Close it down and fence the public out!"

Way to go guys. Your Druid ancestors would be proud.

Will the Obama Administration "Support and Defend" the Roadless Rule?

Obama officials appear dangerously close to abandoning the President's key campaign promise to protect American wildlands. Candidate Obama said he would be "proud to support and defend" the landmark 2001 Roadless Rule. As President, he needs to move decisively to ensure his appointees follow through.

The 2001 Roadless Rule, the most popular federal regulation in history, halted virtually all logging and backcountry roadbuilding in 58.5 million acres of the United States' last best places. During the Bush years, though, the rule suffered from industry-inspired attacks and exemptions that weakened and limited its application.

President Obama's pledge raised hope the rule would be restored and enforced, and public wildlands would again be safe. However, on July 13th, with Agriculture Secretary Vilsack's blessing, the U.S. Forest Service approved a commercial timber sale in a pristine roadless area of the great Tongass rainforest. The Orion North sale will punch clearcuts and roads into an untouched old growth valley on the doorstep of Misty Fjords National Monument.

Technically, the Orion North timber sale does not violate the 2001 rule. The rule grandfathered it out, to help ease the region's transition away from wildland logging. But the transition period is long since over. The local economy is now centered on fishing, recreation, tourism, and other sustainable businesses that don't threaten old growth forests. And to add insult to injury, with timber prices in the doldrums globally, the federal government sold the sale for far less than the cost of preparing and supervising it.

Orion North is destructive and unnecessary in its own right, but even more alarming for what it portends. The Forest Service has several more Tongass timber sales teed up, ones that unequivocally violate the Roadless Rule. And the timber industry won't stop pushing for still more unless and until the federal government makes clear the Bush era is over and says no-enough is enough.

Disturbingly, no Obama appointee has publicly embraced, or committed to implement, the 2001 rule. Secretary Vilsack, who oversees the Forest Service, announced in May that he would personally review any development proposal for national forest roadless areas. That was a welcome intercession at the time. But review alone won't get the job done. Now the question looms whether he will enforce the President's pledge or not. It's high time he did so.

Deal with your own first

Why don't you good folks work on the environmental and conservation issues in your own tiny States first, and let us worry about Alaska?

Such a policy would have that advantage of addressing actual problems, improving your own unhealthy surroundings and helping you all to look far less intrusive, uniformed and hypocritical.

tongass

To the above about healthy vs. unhealthy. P*ss off...75% if this country will eat their way to sitting very soon. You will not be allowed to destroy the environment because you like to eat it.

Obama, I voted for you once but doubt I will again.

I AGREE with R.I. Schaefer

R.I. Schaefer is totally right. Every spot of our public lands should be accessible to everyone, regardless of their physical ability or the terrain. To heck with those discriminatory, insensitive environmentalists who say otherwise.

Put escalators in the Grand Canyon! Fill in Lake Superior for those who cannot swim! Subsidize helicopter flights to the top of Mount McKinley! Why should we "discriminate?"

I say, PAVE IT ALL!!! And let our grandchildren sort out whether what we left of America's natural heritage is something they're still proud of.

Some real Stimulus Spending???

I hope that no tree-huggers get hurt when 6.9 miles of road gets built.

Isn't this just stupid? But what else does the rock star have to do? Not much with all of his Czars running around doing all of the work, influencing policy, and writing legislation that no one reads but rushes to cast their affirmative, partisan "Aye" and create more debt.

So Far -- Disappointed

Never ceases to amaze me how money can influence, and it's been no different with this Administration. Where's the transparency? Where's the love for this Earth? Where's the protection for those who cannot speak for themselves? I so counted on this President, this man of change, to do just that....change the horrific practices of the previous administration. Environmentally, to date, I am sorely disappointed.

GATED ROADS, CLOSED CAMPGROUNDS, UNSTOCKED RIVERS AND "KEEP OUT"

This is the legacy of intolerant, imperious Environmentalism - which has become the State Religion.

Would we accept the disenfranchisement of the aged, infirm, handicapped or families with young children form any other area of our society? I think not.

But, keeping these groups (who can not hike many miles) out of the outdoors because of one dogmatic enviro-worry or another is simply a denial of access to all but the young, healthy and those unencumbered by small children. This situation is revolting to all but the neo-pantheist.

As always, remember, "Going Green Has Gone Too Far".