The PBS program Friday night on Idaho's roadless areas and the issues facing wild areas in the state painted a bleak picture.
Industry will win out over protecting Idaho's vast roadless areas.
That's what I came away with from the program that aired on Idaho Public Television.
I was disappointed to see the phosphate mining operations tearing the tops off mountains in Southeast Idaho and the cutthroat trout streams that I used to fish being degraded with selenium from mining operations.
The Clinton Administration protected 9 million acres of roadless areas in Idaho in 2001.
The rule protects Idaho wilds from most road-building, mining and logging. The policy affects U.S. Forest Service-managed roadless lands, which are outside formally designated wilderness areas.
The Bush Administration's proposal basically will give Idaho's roadless areas away to industry or the highest bidder.
Idaho's wildlands are in danger.
I think industry will win out and Idahoans will be the losers under the Bush plan.
.
PBS program on Idaho roadless debate paints a bleak picture for Idaho wilds
Submitted by Zimo on Fri, 02/22/2008 - 8:42pm
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PBS?
FOX with pledge breaks.
Don't send the wrong message...
You are sending the message that all mining and logging is bad, ITS NOT. Mining and logging have their place, and when managed properly, can be beneficial. Go take a hike through the Forest Circus so called "managed" land, and you'll see some of the most unhealthy landscapes to be had. Most of it burned last year because its a poorly managed tinderbox. Stanley Idaho is a perfect example. Over half of the trees in the area are dead or dying from bugs. That place will be ugly as hell in 10 years when all of the trees are dead...It didn't have to be that way...had selective logging been put in place years ago when the infestations started, the mountains around Stanley would still be green, but now its too late. If that place ever catches fire, it will burn in less than a day, and the only people to blame will be people like yourself.
Why do the elk follow loggers around in the mountains of North Idaho? Because logging provides food that would otherwise be unreachable or would not grow if the forests were not opened up...