Here come the chainsaws
When taking reporters on tours of his
Texas ranch, President Bush sometimes takes a chainsaw to whatever growth is
handy.
How symbolic. The Bush vacation hobby
parallels what he’s doing to America’s natural beauty.
This week, his Agriculture Secretary, Ann
Veneman, came to Boise to chainsaw the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, a
meticulously crafted law protecting 58 million acres of U.S. forests. An
approving Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne was at her side, savoring his control over
the fate of 9.3 million acres of roadless forests, 17 percent of Idaho’s land
area.
This invitation for extraction industries
to carve into forests and begin logging and exploring for petroleum will
inevitably shatter the beauty and quiet prized by sportsmen and hikers and once
preserved for the future.
As is customary with wreck-and-ruin
decisions, this gambit was made to sound appetizing: Governors may decide
whether to open roadless areas or petition the Forest Service to continue
roadlessness.
Surprise. There’s a ringer: The Forest
Service (a.k.a. Bush Inc.) can reject petitions and ignore state appeals.
President Bush’s fixation for stripping
protections from the environment has a common theme: He repeals regulations with
the misfortune of being Bill Clinton policies.
Imagine the condition of the West’s
forests in another four years of Bush Inc. opening the doors to rampant digging,
drilling and cutting, the public’s opinion be damned.