By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

Fire Suppression Bush Style: Cut Down the Trees!

"Perhaps our eyes need to be
washed by our tears once in a while,
so that we can see Life
with a clearer view again."
-- Alex Tan

Police in Portland, Oregon battled protesters on August 22 when President George W. Bush came to town to raise money for Republican Senator Gordon Smith and to announce his new forest policies. The scene looked like something from the futuristic movie “Robocop” where high-tech police constantly battle the population. Pepper spray filled the air and police looked ominous in their riot gear.

Police use pepper spray on protesters in Portland. (Photo courtesy IMC)

But the Portland Independent Media Center (IMC), a network of over 75 regional independent media centers offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of issues and events, reported that over 3,000 protesters were on hand. As usual, the corporate controlled media wants to minimize the fact that the policies of the Bush administration are generating large scale, systematic dissent throughout the nation.

Rubber bullets were used on the protesters, and eyewitnesses report seeing police use pepper spray on peaceful people at point-blank range. In one instance, police drenched a family of four, including a 10 month old baby, with pepper spray and refused to allow them to leave to seek medical attention.

What were these so-called environmentalists and radicals and extremists protesting? Surely things can’t be that bad, can they?

These radicals, who included mothers, children, and veterans from nearly every U.S. sponsored war, are angry about plans to go to war again for the sake of the few remaining barrels of oil in the Earth and President Bush’s newly announced policy to thin our forests to prevent fires.

Protesters in Portland August 22 (Photo courtesy IMC)

But the majority of the protesters were angry about Bush’s plans to implement rules that would thin our national forests to reduce fire risk. Cascadia Forest Alliance volunteer Carrie Taylor said Bush’s plan to log mature and old forests “will only increase fire risks while providing taxpayer subsidized logs to the timber industry.”

According to the Cascadia Forest Alliance, under the Bush proposal, “environmental laws and citizen involvement will be undermined or suspended so that federal land management agencies can increase logging and roadbuilding on public lands, one of the timber industry's highest priorities.”

President George W. Bush tours the Squires Peak Fire Area in Medford, Oregon, with Ron Wenker of the Medford Bureau of Land Management Properties District. (Photo courtesy The White House)

Fire also provides important nutrients in the soil from the burned material.

Environmental organizations agree that forest management practices are out of step with ecological reality, but they say increasing logging is the exact opposite of what should be done.

Bush is a well known supporter of the timber industry and many of his largest contributors come from timber company management. Bush broke Oregon fundraising records in May 2000 while accepting huge sums of money from wealthy timber company leaders.

Environmentalists accuse him of promoting misinformation about forest fires in order to capitalize on Oregon's wildfires and the public's fears to promote logging in order to benefit timber industry campaign contributors.

Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon (Photo courtesy Office of the Senator)

Last year, Bush appointed former timber industry lobbyist Mark Rey to the post of undersecretary for the environment and natural resources for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a post in which he really serves, the words of one conservationist, as "political boss of the Forest Service."

But doesn’t it make sense that if you cut the trees, there would be less to burn? If you take a look at fire suppression thinning projects that have taken place to date, you will see a few scattered trees surrounded by barren ground. The forest that was there is gone and the life that is left is severely impacted.

There is a difference between clearing small trees and underbrush to reduce fuels and the logging of large trees under the guise of fuels reduction.

The Biscuit Fire currently burning near Grants Pass, Oregon has blackened 492,342 acres since it started July 13. (Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service)

Well, it doesn't take much research to discover that a large number of the trees cut in the U.S. are not even used here in this country! In 1997, 1.6 billion board feet of softwood lumber were exported to other countries. Nearly 40 percent of that went to Japan alone.

In the same year, over two billion board feet of whole logs were shipped to other countries and 65 percent or 1.3 billion board feet of that went to Japan.

Japan is said to be hoarding uncut logs, storing them in hi-tech underwater storage containers. When the U.S. is out of harvestable trees, guess who will be selling them back to us?

It is understandable to want to think that everything is OK and that our leaders have our best interests at heart. Unfortunately, greed rules the land, and forests are under the control of a few powerful companies who do not have to work together or worry about the future. There only responsibility is to their shareholders who want the highest price for the trees.

A forest is a vibrant and mysterious place that gives us the air we breathe and nurtures the thin layer of soil that gives us our food. Every fallen tree in an untouched forest is not a wasted product or just fuel for fire. It is a vibrant birthplace for new trees. And every inch of moss on a forest floor is a mysterious universe unto itself.

We need to appreciate the importance of an intact forest and expose the mythology of the U.S. lumber industry and its partner, the Bush administration. We must prevent this industry from exporting our heritage and selling our future.

Don't let it happen.

RESOURCES

1. Check out the Portland Independent Media Center at: http://portland.indymedia.org/

2. Visit the Cascadia Forest Alliance at: http://www.cascadiaforestalliance.org/

3. Find out who is giving money to your elected representatives with the help of the Center for Responsive Politics at: http://www.opensecrets.org/

4. Check out Senator Gordon Smith’s 2002 campaign contributors at: http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?CID=N00007815&cycle=2002

5. Learn about forest issues from the American Lands Alliance at: http://www.americanlands.org/

6. Keep an eye on Northwest forest issues with the help of the Northcoast Environmental Center at: http://www.necandeconews.to/portal/index.php

7. Understand the importance of biodiversity from Biodiversity Northwest at: http://www.pcbp.org/

8. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Demand that they work to keep our forests safe and strong while protecting the communities around them. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html

{Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle and the author of "Healing Our World", A Journey from the Darkness Into the Light," available at: http://www.xlibris.com/HealingOurWorld.html or your local bookstore. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at: jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his website at: http://www.healingourworld.com}