We know for a fact when federal forest and national parks are patrolled by federal trained and armed rangers, the poaching and fires are averted. It is far more efficient to fully staff the federal agencies responsible for our forests than to allow fires to burn out of control endangering citizens and cities.
The poaching of our forests since the 2008 global financial collapse now includes trees and not just animals by cutting into major 'aged' forests such as the Sequoias and Redwoods for lumber. Unique lumber that demands higher prices than forests where federal authority allows PLANNED logging.
The American people value their forests and the wildlife within them. They need to demand full funding for these vital agencies. I remind there have been deaths of firefighters that cannot be forgotten. While Congress might be willing to fund firefighters as a separate agency, that does not place rangers in the forests to prevent those fires in the first place.
October 23, 2011
By "Times Picayune" staff
Dan Ashe, (click here) director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, tells it like it is concerning the fierce budget cuts some in Congress are aiming at fish and wildlife conservation programs: "This is not deficit reduction. These are policy and political objectives dressed up as deficit reduction by those who seek to get those pesky fish and wildlife agencies -- federal and state -- out of the way of development. Never mind that America's outdoor recreation economy generates 8.4 million, nonexportable U.S. jobs, most in rural areas, generating over $100 billion annually in federal, state and local taxes." Ashe also pointed out: "Now the legacy of a century of conservation -- indeed the future of the North American model of wildlife conservation -- is threatened by the prospect of draconian cuts to conservation programs. These programs, though only a sliver of a percentage of the federal budget and largely inconsequential for deficit reduction, have been disproportionately singled out by some in Congress and their supporters." You can read the entire piece at fieldandstream.com....
The poaching of our forests since the 2008 global financial collapse now includes trees and not just animals by cutting into major 'aged' forests such as the Sequoias and Redwoods for lumber. Unique lumber that demands higher prices than forests where federal authority allows PLANNED logging.
The American people value their forests and the wildlife within them. They need to demand full funding for these vital agencies. I remind there have been deaths of firefighters that cannot be forgotten. While Congress might be willing to fund firefighters as a separate agency, that does not place rangers in the forests to prevent those fires in the first place.
October 23, 2011
By "Times Picayune" staff
Dan Ashe, (click here) director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, tells it like it is concerning the fierce budget cuts some in Congress are aiming at fish and wildlife conservation programs: "This is not deficit reduction. These are policy and political objectives dressed up as deficit reduction by those who seek to get those pesky fish and wildlife agencies -- federal and state -- out of the way of development. Never mind that America's outdoor recreation economy generates 8.4 million, nonexportable U.S. jobs, most in rural areas, generating over $100 billion annually in federal, state and local taxes." Ashe also pointed out: "Now the legacy of a century of conservation -- indeed the future of the North American model of wildlife conservation -- is threatened by the prospect of draconian cuts to conservation programs. These programs, though only a sliver of a percentage of the federal budget and largely inconsequential for deficit reduction, have been disproportionately singled out by some in Congress and their supporters." You can read the entire piece at fieldandstream.com....
