King Fire restoration proposals being sought
Eldorado National Forest is seeking comments as it prepares an environmental impact statement for the King Fire Restoration Project
There will be an open house Jan. 13 at the Best Western Plus Placerville Inn, 6850 Green Leaf Drive, Placerville from 6-8pm. A presentation on the proposed action will be followed by questions and answers with the planning team, and an opportunity to talk to specialists about specific aspects of the project including fuel reduction, tree salvage, reforestation, wildlife, watershed protection, and research.
The forest is currently proposing to treat 14,000 acres of national forest that burned with high severity.
The objectives are:
- Reduce risk from falling dead, dying, and defective trees;
- Reduce long term fuel accumulation in strategic locations to improve control of future fires;
- Restore diverse vegetation including conifer forests in a manner that improves future resiliency;
- Expeditiously remove fire killed timber to generate funds for restoration and contribute to the societal need for wood products;
- Take advantage of research opportunities to increase knowledge regarding the environmental effects of large fires, how to reduce the risk of future fires, and how to restore resilient forests.
A complete description of the proposed action and project maps is online, then click on King Fire Restoration Project.
Issues or concerns identified during the current scoping phase will be used to develop project alternatives prior to releasing a draft EIS. There will also be another comment period when draft EIS is released in the spring.
For those who really want to find out something about the US Forest Service, and their policies on managing our public lands, please watch the following video series presented on YouTube. This series of three videos comprises a total of slightly less than 30 minutes and is informative in a most important way.
This series is very closely related to the core policy of the Forest Service, explaining the how and the why of issues similar to what the people of the South Shore have seen take place in the years since the Angora fire. They say it is about Restoration, about Forest Health, about Rehabilitation, but in truth it is about taking our national birth right and turning it into profit for large corporate industry.
We the People need real science based forest management, rather than the extractive based for profit based rape of what remains of our public lands. The language used these days by the US Forest Service is chosen to hide from view the real intent, getting volumes of timber to the mill behind a false front of doing good, protecting you from fire, and protecting the health of forests. It is actually something entirely different. It is a policy of taking from, We the People, and giving to the timber industry for its profit. This is all done with little actual cause and effect science. The industry knows that the general public are not involved in the process of caring for our public lands and they are exploiting our ignorance and lack of involvement. A fine example is quite evident post Angora fire, if one takes the time to look. They took out a majority of the trees that remained alive after the fire calling them hazard trees, needing to be thinned or other, yet they were healthy viable living organisms that contributed to what was remaining of a burnt over landscape. This action caused further damage to the land and slowed total recovery of our National Forest, adding fine sediment to the surrounding aquatic ecosystem and to the lake we all love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HHNeSWQkdUg
I have no affiliation with the group that made this video series. I am a concerned citizen who loves what remains of our National Forests, and public lands where ever they are.
TomP,You nailed it in regards to the US Forest Service and our public lands. In my view it’s the wholesale sell off of our forests for a profit. It’s merely presented in a different way by the USFS to make it look that logging is good for everyone including the health of the forest. Good one, TomP!!! OLS
I think the public is becoming less engaged and I think one of the main reasons for that is that the FS doesn’t care about the concerns of the public. Over the decades I have watched individuals and groups fight bad FS policy with not much effect.
I believe that the Pileated Woodpecker was on the FS list of important marker species and was removed perhaps to facilitate the huge basin-wide over-thinning project.
If you talk with FS staff about drastic thinning or ideas for the trails system or post fire policy, they will talk to you but what you get is an impenetrable wall of agency speak. People give up after a while and the FS does just what it wants to do.
Is there any way to fix this broken system of “protecting” public lands???
Hikerchick,
Yes there is a way, but it won’t be resolved on a Sunday afternoon. It takes dedicated commitment that shall take years to accomplish. Learn the laws that regulate the agency so that you can confront their tactics in and with the understanding of law. These laws are designed to provide the legal basis for all things that they do on the ground. That is done by reading them and studying their content. The laws are: the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), the National Forest Management Act (NFMA), the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act and the Wilderness Act to name a few. It is a bunch of difficult dry reading that would take any normal person into a state of craziness, but one can assimilate that information into their mind set if persistent. One can go to their meetings, such as the one spoken of above and actually participate by making your voice and opinion about their plans be heard. You can write your comments to them as they are required to allow for as a part of their planning process. Doing so will give you legal status to formally object to their eventual decision. You can question them, coming from a knowledge of what the law states, law that they as an Agency of the Federal Government, are bound to uphold. It is We the People whom actually can shape our democracy if we as individuals participate. Otherwise stay home, say you don’t like it, let it go, and watch your TV, while taking what they dish out. They will allow and shape the mass rape of our public lands, if we don’t participate!
Form or join an advocacy group, a grass roots organization that can as a group, cause change in the agency. Large numbers of people, united with a sincere and just cause, do hold a lot of power. Most don’t know that. It is hard work though, being an environmental activist, going against the flow. Also, remember there are some good people within the Forest Circus, though most loose there way due to the agencies internal politics and a personal will to have career advancement. Some of them may turn out to be your best advocates in private.
Another method is writing to all of your state and your federal representatives. Get your like minded friends to do the same. Write them all and write them often. Avoid using form letters though, they must be unique, individual and from the heart. You might catch Barbara Boxer’s ear and her attention. Then again you might not. The point is, try and then try some more. Or like I said watch your TV and let them do what they will.
There is a lot of information about the Forest Service and their actual ways, on this website: http://stopthinningforests.org/. You’ll be amazed if you go through all that eye opening information.
Hang in there, be strong, be tough and don’t bow to those who oppose your position. There are a lot of ignorant folks out there who listen to propagandized information spread by those who will personally gain by extracting our public resources. Remember they don’t have the best peer reviewed science on their side, and you do. The law states that the best science must be used by the agency in its determination of what they will do. We the People need to hold the agency to that standard.
Trying to fight the Forest Service using the law is an extremely daunting task. Their law books are thousands of pages long. They have hundreds of lawyers at their beck and call to make their case with unlimited government funds.
What do we have?
Dogula is right on this one. Over the years I have read many environmental documents, made comments and attended many meetings. It is my observation that only the most experienced and organized (Sierra Club, Earthjustice and a few individuals here who are almost professional level environmental watchdogs)are able to achieve modifications to FS proposals.
If TomP has any solid suggestions we can use or groups to join in an effort to make the FS responsive to citizen concerns, please share that information with us.
I think Tom P. pointed out several viable oppurtunities to make significant impact on UFS policies with community activism. Of course not everyone actually opposes the private sector rape and pillage of public lands for ‘free market’ profit.
‘dogula is right’ is the epitome of an oxymoron.
most of my home is made from wood products, how about yours?
Oh yea my wood was milled professionally, I didn’t have time to drop trees and mill my own, or stack logs for that matter.
TomP’s excellent comments about the United States Forest Service policy are spot on!
A much needed bit of disclosure. Tom and I have been good friends for about 45 years even tho we are presently separated by thousands of miles.
This man knows whereof he speaks in regards to forest health, wildlife and the decimation of habitat for wildlife and a healthy environment for all of us. Listen to Tom’s words. They speak volumes!!! OLS
Endless Pressure, Endlesly Applied….
Life is about trade offs. Look at your home and realize that everything that is not grown is mined. Which would you rather have.
To let a huge stand of burnt trees rot in our back yard can’t be the correct decision. Many of the roads that would be needed are already in place from prior logging operations and the construction and maintenance of power plants in the area.