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Show THE ZEPHYR/ AUGUST-SEPTEMBER Taa BULLETS 2007 The Washington, DC office of the US Forest Service is bleeding the recreation budget to death. The Regional Offices are ensuring that money received from above DOES NOT get to the ground and IS NOT available to maintain public recreation facilities. Yes, it is true that the ideology of the Bush Administration is responsible for the cashing out of our American commons and yes, there is a massive and destructive privatization agenda in play on our public lands today that is based upon the old Reagan concept of “Starving the Beast”. : Yes, local forest managers on the Pinchot and on the Rogue and indeed upon all of America’s National Forests are having to make do with less. YES, the upshot will be the parting-out of our once proud traditional public lands. But the destroyers of the public lands do not all reside within the White House nor do they all serve within the Bush Administration as political appointees. Where Egan erred is in failing ‘o acknowledge that high-level career bureaucrats within the land management agencies, both in the Washington DC offices and within the Regional Offices, are largely responsible for executing an agenda presented to them by the Bush Administration and SM Coliae yg by certain elements within the recreation industry. I call the agenda “The Corporate Takeover of Nature and the Disneyfication of the Wild” and unless stopped, “This Land is Your Land, This Land is my Land” will only be hollow lyrics from a once-popular, once relevant, song. “We're going to have to do more with less until we do everything with nothing.” - Cid Morgan, USFS District Ranger, California, 2005 THE FOREST SERVICE IS BLEEDING ITSELF TO DEATH I can’t say exactly how many of my readers forwarded to me a copy of the wonderful piece written recently by Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Timothy Egan---but it was many. And while this excellent and important piece is right on the mark with respect to the sentiment it conveys, a’sentiment that explains how under the Bush Administration, our public lands are being stolen from us, it contains a large factual error that I'd like to correct. Egan writes that as he drove through the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington State, he observed that many of the roads were closed, trails were washed out, campgrounds were frayed and, in general, the place was in tatters. He compared what he experienced to “the forestry equivalent of a neighborhood crack house,” and on all these points Egan was correct. Egan concludes that the land management agencies are being run by industry lobbyists and that they are “cashing out” our publicly-owned heritage, and on this point he is as right as rain. His piece was wonderful. Let me repeat. The funding cut DID NOT come from either President Bush or Congress. The Washington, DC office of the US Forest Service is bleeding the recreation budget to death. So where did he go wrong? Egan erred when he blamed the cashing out of our public lands upon the miserly budgets coming from President Bush. That is only part of the problem and for some agencies, such as the Forest Service, there have been no actual budget cuts. Yes, the President would like to cut and has even proposed deep cuts in the Forest budget, but those cuts have not happened and as a result of recent Congressional action will not happen this year. Funding for outdoor recreation and resource management at the level of individual forests, such as the Gifford Pinchot, has indeed been cut to the bone but at least for the US Forest Service, declining allocations are not to blame. So what is going on? Consider the “64-percent loss in maintenance funds and a 20-percent cut in operational funding” for the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest Service. Local forest managers said that this funding cut caused them “to shutter 24 campgrounds, three picnic sites and related services.” Sixty-percent cuts are being reported by several forests around the nation. These are massive cuts, but they did not come from President Bush, nor did they come from Congress Let me repeat. The funding cut DID NOT come from either President Bush or Congress. 2008 SQUEEZING KIDS’ TRIGGERS One year ago the American Recreation Coalition came into the sights of the New York Times for their none-too-subtle efforts to re-write National Park Service policies and turn America’s Crown Jewels into motorized playgrounds. On June 10, 2006 the New York Times editorialized against the ARC in these words: What's most worrying about this last-minute lobbying - besides the fact that recreation seems limited to activities involving an internal combustion engine - is the suggestion, put forward by the American Recreation Coalition, that the Park Service revise the management policy regularly. There is only one reason for a suggestion like that: to give “recreation leaders” a regular chance to pressure the park system for increased motorized vehicle access. < Today, everything is suddenly different! While the American Recreation Coalition remains as committed as ever to their long-term goal of commercializing, privatizing and motorizing recreational opportunities upon our nation’s public lands, today they are using entirely new, and far more effective (and dangerous) messaging. That was last year. Today, everything is suddenly different! While the American Recreation Coalition remains as committed as ever to their long-term goal of commercializing, privatizing and motorizing recreational opportunities upon our nation’s public lands, today they are using entirely new, and far more effective (and dangerous) messaging. Today, the ARC has wrapped their agenda within a framework of children and using this frame they, and their agenda, are gaining incredible ground. Today you will not find the NY Times editorializing against the ARC’s efforts. On the contrary, today’s newspapers from coast to coast are lauding the ARC’s “Kids in the Woods” campaign as if it were anything other than simply another approach being taken by the same old recreation industry insiders. From an article published today, ARC’s President explains how it is now possible to use technology in order to lure kids to nature. Make special note of these words --- “at one time technology was seen as the enemy of outdoor activity. Now, he [Crandall] said, the goal is to make it a ‘friend.’ ” calendars are now available! GET YOURSAT’ BACK OF BEYOND BOOKS ORORDERONLINE: WWW.CALEN DARS.COM Doesn't it almost seem like yesterday when it was 2006? Soon it'll be next year... BUY NOW!!! |
