Category: Wilderness

MWA dumps Wilderness

Wilderness has its detractors and its defenders. Mark and I have both had, let’s call it disappointing, experienced with the Montana Wilderness Association. That’s all over now, water under the bridge. The Montana Wilderness Association do longer exists, it’s been renamed: “Wild Montana.” https://wildmontana.org/

It’s a relief in many ways to see this unveiling of the true nature of this NGO (non-governmental organization). Most of the founding members have passed on. The new membership and leadership is made of folks who cherish wilderness in a post-card kind of way; something resembling a still image on the side of a refrigerator. Concrete, static, “beautiful,” but loved for its groomed trails and conversational value at the wine and cheese gatherings in urban settings — part of an identity, but quite separate and apart from the domesticated, sophisticated, plastic-fantastic day-to-day lives of most “Wild Montana” subscribers.

Ironically, as MWA sheds its “wilderness skin,” Subaru is embracing its new, rugged, re-branded image. Meet the “Wilderness” in the comfort of a 2022 model all-wheel vehicle.

Montana Wild, like it’s former self ( MWA) is a wing of the Montana Democratic Party and a hiking club, nothing more. Even its commitment to hiking takes a backseat to trail commerce. There’s money to be made with all the new machines ripping up and down forest trails lately. Government subsidies are beginning to flood into the mechanized trail-use industry’s playground. Sorry hikers, it’s all about “new markets.”

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Another small piece of paradise won’t be destroyed today.

A little good news for trees and critters in the upper Priest River area in northern Idaho. After years of battling the U.S. Forest Service and it’s work games, a federal judge wasn’t fooled by the “happy talk” and sent the agency back to the drawing board. This by no means is the end of this battle, but it does demonstrate, I believe, that the simple strategy of endless pressure, endlessly applied can produce positive results, even in the face of overwhelming odds against winning. The misuse of the “categorical exclusion” to NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) is one of the Forest Service’s favorite administrative maneuvers to further one of the primary neo-liberal economic principles: deregulation.

Always good to stay positive, even when the world seems like it’s crashing down upon us. This piece appeared first in CounterPunch, April 30, 2021. https://www.counterpunch.org/

APRIL 30, 2021

The Legal Showdown at Hanna Flats

BY MIKE GARRITYFacebookTwitterRedditEmail

Hanna Flats, Idaho Panhandle National Forest. Photo: Paul Sieracki.

The upper Priest River area in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest has the largest contiguous area of old-growth cedar, hemlock, and grand fir in the interior Western United States and the largest concentration of ancient cedar stands in northern Idaho.  Because of the bowl-shaped topography the high ridges on three sides capture cold air in the lower elevations and trap cool moist air in the summer.  The result is that the low-elevation winter snowpack is deeper and more persistent than elsewhere in northern Idaho and summertime conditions are relatively moist and cool compared to neighboring areas which makes the area less susceptible to wildfires.

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Notes from the field.

Gallatin Range South of Bozeman, Montana, USA

Yesterday, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) reintroduced our 23-million acre, 5-state ecosystem bill, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (S.1276) in the U.S. Senate (117th congress). First introduced in 1992 by Rep. Peter Kostmayer (D-PA), this legislation is the first of its kind to take a “beyond borders” (ecosystem) approach to public lands protection. Based on John and Frank Craighead’s work in Yellowstone National Park, primarily studying grizzly bears, we have tried to incorporate the most valuable fish and wildlife habitat in the “Wild Rockies bioregion” into legislative form to protect what’s left of “untrammeled nature” in the Lower 48.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1276/cosponsors?s=2&r=1&overview=closed&searchResultViewType=expanded

Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ]*		04/21/2021
Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT]*04/21/2021
Sen. Durbin, Richard J. [D-IL]*04/21/2021
Sen. Hassan, Margaret Wood [D-NH]*04/21/2021
Sen. Shaheen, Jeanne [D-NH]*04/21/2021
Sen. Markey, Edward J. [D-MA]*04/21/2021
Sen. Brown, Sherrod [D-OH]*04/21/2021
Sen. Warren, Elizabeth [D-MA]*04/21/2021
Sen. Hirono, Mazie K. [D-HI]*04/21/2021

Of course, not a single senator from the West signed on. But then again, not a single southern senator signed onto the Civil Rights Act. The (abusive) powers that be control the bills that pass through congress, lubed with big bags of money delivered by K Street lobbyists, so we’re not expecting passage in this congress. But what is life without vision?

In another newsy item, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and friends just stopped a burning project close to the western boundary of Yellowstone National Park. Rarely will the Jackson Hole News cover our small victories, no matter how big the impact on the landscape. This burning would have scorched some 1 million acres of national forest land for no good reason, except to gain more agency budget — they’re funded by annual acres “treated” — and a bigger staff. https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/environmental/forest-wide-prescribed-burn-plan-called-off-west-of-tetons/article_9215e3a5-d0f6-5b8b-aab1-93df00c07f32.html

Enjoy these small miracles, they don’t come often enough.

Yellowstone threatened by massive USFS-USDA logging/burning project

Sediment from logging roads kills native trout.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article247929860.html

More push-back from grassroots groups is on the way against the government’s killing machine, as the government again finds itself in federal district court trying to explain its serial lawbreaking. This scorched earth program attacks the public forest just West of Yellowstone National Park’s western boundary.

“The project is in “the watershed for the world-famous Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, and will harm grizzly bears, and log much of the remaining old-growth forest left in the Targhee National Forest,” Mike Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, said in a statement. “And that’s why we are taking them to court to either comply with the law or drop the project.””

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and two other grassroots groups filed a lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court bringing multiple claims that the U.S. Forest Service violated environmental laws.

The project involves logging, prescribed burning and riparian (stream-side) dithering using bulldozers and other heavy equipment on about 66 square miles on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in Idaho. Get this! The govt. says its needed “to maintain wildlife biodiversity with prescribed burning and logging.”

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Forests are being looted as the empire collapses around us.

Harder and harder to find a “blank spot on the map.”

Not much ever changes here in Montana. A few more stores have the mask cops at the front door of local supermarkets and retailers turning away those “selfish” non-essential people trying to buy a loaf of bread or a little something to eat during the week ahead. Out in the rural parts the mining, logging, grazing and other nature-destroying extractive industries are having a field day. It’s like in the Amazon rainforest here, with huge (300-acres and larger) clearcuts and heavy machinery logging right down to the edge of tributary streams that feed the “Blue Ribbon” fishing haunts so popular with out-of state tourists and locals alike. We’re full on “banana republic” these days. There are a few who fight on trying to minimize the damage. Too many enemies of nature and way too few defenders of Creator’s many gifts. The worship of Mammon has swept into power big time. May it be a short-lived mania. Below is an account of our latest lawsuit against federal government agencies run amok.

Conservation Groups Challenge Blackfoot River Timber Sale That Threatens Elk, Grizzly Bear, Bull Trout, and Lynx Habitat

Peace, brothers and sisters, and all forms of life on this tiny planet. Do not miss the solstice and Saturn-Jupiter conjunction sky watchers. Rare moment, with all its exceptionally deep, dark energy.

Deregulation of National Forests a Done Deal

Just another clearcut.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/11/18/forest-service-wilderness-trump/

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a bedrock procedural law signed by President Nixon, has just been gutted by the U.S. Forest Service-USDA. The logging industry, oil and gas industry and other industrial “rapers and scrapers” have successfully lobbied for one giant free-fire development zone on any and all of the 193 million acres of nation forest system land under federal agency management.

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“If it bleeds, it leads.” Media vampires: Merchants of Death

I’m posting this article about mistreatment and lies told by the media about grizzly bears and wildlife in general to make a connection. The connection is: We are part of nature. Grizzlies are a metaphor for all life on this planet. All life is threatened with extinction at the hands of evil men who can’t accept their proper role in the natural system; they believe they can improve Creator’s works with “science” and technology (machines). If you choose to read the linked article by Louisa Willcox, imagine yourself as a grizzly bear trying to survive in an ever-shrinking, insecure habitat with lots of crazy two-legged creatures with guns out to kill you — just for sport.

https://www.grizzlytimes.org/single-post/60-minutes-toothy-porn

Love to have anyone join us to help defend grizzlies and their habitat from all the deranged wanton killers out to exterminate them. You and I are on their hit list too, in case you haven’t noticed.

GMO Plantations are NOT Forests

I cannot play the video without the link to the organization(s) who produced it — so they can use it to make more money, grow more staff and send emails to unsuspecting contributors. They probably sell their mailing list to Democrats too. It’s a good video if one can ignore all the crap surrounding it. https://globaljusticeecology.org/

More evil from the evil bastards.

There’s not much more that needs to be said. This video has all the important points covered in triplicate. Evil exists in most forms of commerce and trade. The planet, and everything living on it is under attack. This is how far it has come. How far it goes is up to all of us.

Do not consent. Do not remain silent. Do something, however small to thwart these evil bastards.

Blue and Yellow make Green

‘Green’ billionaires behind professional activist network that led suppression of ‘Planet of the Humans’ documentary

Green New Deal

Wall Street Democrats (“Blue”) and “Environmental NGOs” who act green in name only (“Yellow”) have been conspiring to kick-start the 4th Industrial Revolution for decades now. Nothing has changed. Global mega-banks continue to trade “green stocks” just like any other stock, bond, commodity or synthetic instrument.

A pic is worth 1,000 words.

Any organization with a large annual budget — let’s use $1 million as a rough figure — is in on the scam. Most, if not all, of these fake environmental corporations, fake hunting advocacy groups, fake “conservation” organizations, are extensions of the Democratic Party. They all collaborate with the destroyers of planet earth. They all have made their “deal with the Devil.”

Climate is the umbrella under which most of the new propaganda is generated. Fear is the emotional touch-tone used to dupe the goyim into another frenzy, another round of consumer purchases that will end up in the landfill just like the last newer, better models that are now outdated and cast aside for the latest in technology and “science.”

Anyway, not much of this is new to most of our savvy readers. The article linked above is comprehensive in that it links the faces and major players in the latest global roundup and con — going green. Bigger the mass number of duped souls, the bigger the ecological catastrophe when the wrapper comes off and things go to shit, yet once again. Nothing changes but the sales pitch.

ps. Stephers (thank you) sent me this: http://www.wrongkindofgreen.org/2020/09/11/comments-on-green-billionaires-behind-professional-activist-network-that-led-suppression-of-planet-of-the-humans-documentary/

Cory Morningstar, IMO, is the most informed journalist/writer on this (faux-green) subject. Her reflections on the article I posted are more important to understanding all the twists and turns in the “Green” stampede than all of Blumenthal’s. His focus on Moore’s movie LIMITS (limited hangout) our view.

National Parks: Conflicting Objectives

“National Parks” is a large concept, and my exposure is limited. For instance, when in Kawaii  Kauai a few years back, we walked out on a peninsula to see some birds and a light house. Much to my disappointment,  I had to pay to enter, as I had left my Golden Age passport at home. The tiny enclave is a national park.

When I think of NPs I think big, sweeping, massive complexes like the Great Smoky Mountains, Yellowstone/Grand Teton, Yosemite/Sequoia, and Glacier/Waterton Lakes, places I have experienced, the Smokies only for a day. Since that is my experience, that is how I will write this.

OF
Waiting for Old Faithful to blow

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