Compost Box: Behind the Healthy Forest Initiative
Contributed by Chris_Meyer on Sunday October 13, @ 10:57PM
While public rage over corporate fraud burned intensely last summer, real conflagrations were ripping through the western states. More than 6 million acres burned, making it one of the worst fire seasons this century.
The White House seized the opportunity to divert attention from its close ties to big business and corporate crime. In August, President Bush introduced a “new and common sense initiative” aimed at preventing catastrophic fires
The Healthy Forest Initiative (HFI) calls for increased logging as a means of fire prevention. By tailoring the bill to the timber industry, the White House satisfies a key campaign contributor. Logging companies had become disgruntled at their lack of rewards for funding Bush; their sole prize had been the revocation of former President Clinton’s executive order that designated 40 million acres of national forests to remain roadless. More than simply overturning new forest conservation laws, the HFI leads eager lumber companies on the offensive.
Bush’s final victory is the critical support of the people who dwell near national forests. Whether the HFI will actually protect their homes is debatable. Timber companies are mostly interested in remote stands of old growth trees , which are typically found in remote locations. The typical fuel for forest fires is small trees and brush, which commonly surrounds communities, not the large trees sought by industry.
There are many reasons to protect these virgin forests. Logging, especially clear-cutting old growth forest, destroys the habitat of many species that require old growth ecosystems for survival and threatens them with extinction. From an economic perspective, cutting old growth forest costs Americans millions of tax dollars to fund logging that otherwise would not be economically viable. Also, it is not a sustainable practice because the cleared land takes centuries to return to old growth status. Logging old growth forests leads to problems with water purity, soil erosion, and air quality. These high-cost factors contribute to respiratory health problems, lower returns for the fishing industry, and decreased tourism and recreational revenue.
* when it comes to forests, oceans and wildlife, color me green. |
