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USFS rejoices as natural resources go up in flames

stanmanstanman Member Posts: 3,052
edited August 2002 in General Discussion
The rest of the country may not know it, but much of the state of Oregon is burning.
I listened to an interview on local radio friday and the man being interviewed was Mark Lindeboud (sp), Executive VP of Carson Helicoptors. I believe he said the company was based in Grants Pass OR. They are under contract to various state and federal agencies in WA, OR and ID to provide aircraft used in fighting forest fires.
He (not so subtly) accused some USFS employees of being less than diligent in their protection of your natural resources.
Apparently USFS and BLM policies are structured to make sure that, once a fire starts, it will not be moved upon until it reaches a respectable size, even when the assets are in place to contain the blaze immediately.
Mr. Lindeboud told of many occasions when aircraft and ground personnel were available at the scene of relatively small fires and were told to sit and watch the fire burn until a "Fire Boss" could arrive on scene. By the time this individual arrives, sometimes days later, many hundreds or thousands of acres are destroyed.
He also pointed out that even after the "Fire Boss" is on the job, the aircraft can't go to work until the "Aircraft Manager" (usually a 20 year old with a half degree in forestry) shows up to keep a log of the aircraft's time.
It seems the USFS regs call for 1 "manager" per aircraft, whereas, the various states' DNRs allow 1 manager per 15 aircraft.
While, on it's surface, this may seem to be just another case of the bureaucratic bungling and waste of taxpayer dollars that we have somehow been conditioned to accept, it could be even more criminal than that.
Mr. Lindeboud pointed out that the USFS budget is no longer tied to timber production, since the enviro-nazis have effectively shut down logging on public lands. Instead, it would seem there are lots of budget dollars connected to the number of acres DESTROYED BY FIRE!! He rather flatly stated his opinion that the USFS and the BLM were obviously more inclined to protect next year's budget than to protect this country's precious natural resources or the lives of the firefighters
I personally can't believe any of this nonsense. I mean ,if it were true, it would mean our government was conducting business in such a way that would put private property and innocent people in harms way!
Also, if it's true, of course the major networks would be reporting the facts and naming names. RIGHT?? ........ Yea ,,, sure!
I wonder though,,, in the last several years, it seems a dis-proportionate number of federal (USFS) employees have been accused of starting fires on your National Forests.
Hmmmmm,,,,, I wonder why????

Comments

  • MercuryMercury Member Posts: 7,842 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Stanman,
    The forest service budget isn't tied to logging any longer because THEY LOSE MONEY FOR EVERY TREE CUT! After they build roads, repair the damage, replant, etc......the taxpayer has lost money. :(

    Merc



    NO! You may not have my guns! Now go crawl back into your hole!

    ****************************************

    "Tolerating things you may not necessarily like is part of being free" - Larry Flynt
  • IconoclastIconoclast Member Posts: 10,515 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Merc, you're right about the red ink from logging, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if their budgets were dependent in some way on the amount of fire damage. "But Congressman, we need $2 Billion more than last year because of all those terrible fires." That sure sounds like a plausible scenario. I have a friend who worked for the USFS forty years ago and quit then because the employees were more interested in how much OT they could claim for fighting fires rather than in actually preventing / fighting them. Think things have improved since then?
  • MercuryMercury Member Posts: 7,842 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Icono,
    I wouldn't doubt it either.......makes me sick. The entire government has become "how can we protect our jobs"

    Just plain sad.

    Merc



    NO! You may not have my guns! Now go crawl back into your hole!

    ****************************************

    "Tolerating things you may not necessarily like is part of being free" - Larry Flynt
  • stanmanstanman Member Posts: 3,052
    edited November -1
    Geez Merc,
    I don't mind somebody presenting me with facts, but ya don't have to shout.
    Yes, I've heard that about forest service timber sales and I personally was never quite convinced. I'm not saying it's patently untrue, but it just always seemed hard to believe that private timber companies, Indian tribes and State Depts. of Natural Resources could figure out how to bring timber to the mills at a profit, but the USFS, with all their many forestry "experts", could never quite get their collective minds around that. Oh well, makes sense that the feds could take something simple and screw it up.
    Besides that, if they're even recouping the cost of the roadbuilding, at least those roads are in place for owner (taxpayer) access, recreation, AND firefighting equipment access.
    Now no more shouting please, those all caps sentences really hurt my ears!

    On a lighter note:
    Ya know how to get 4 elderly ladies to all say the F-word in church at the same time???



    Get a 5th one to holler ,,,,,,,,BINGO!!
  • gunpaqgunpaq Member Posts: 4,607 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Ever since Jimmy Carter the USFS has gone down hill.

    Pack slow, fall stable, pull high, hit dead center.
  • sodbustersodbuster Member Posts: 2,305 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Oregon is ablaze,,and the headlines are 'Stock market down 270 points'. Someone needs to put a bug in Bill O'Reilly's ear!

    "Just my opinion."
  • Judge DreadJudge Dread Member Posts: 2,372 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Ignis Natura Renovatur Integram.....

    FIRE RENOVATES NATURE... For new trees you need FIRE to activate life latency in pinecone seeds ...

    African birds nest are laced with fire proofinmg dung from the birds
    (finch birds) Ammonium triosulphate as to safeguard them against praire fires (common)in africa (NATURE PROVIDES) man alters , man prevents and puts out small fires that burn tree trass ,trass acumulates for years and It exprodes into a super fire of apocaliptic proportions (MAN IS THE CAUSE) antinatural ,Save the wales but let african children starve.... Save the trees ,but buy more gas to go shopping to the mart....

    NO wonder "primitive indians" call us SAVAGES .....

    They are not so primitive after all.....

    JD

    .


    400 million cows can't be wrong ( EAT GRASS !!! )
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