Forest Service Misses Meaning of Memorial Day, Freedom By Mike Roselle

Like a lot of people in the good ol’ USA, Home of the Brave, Land of the Free, I was celebrating Memorial Day weekend with a bunch of friends, the Lochsa River and some big rubber boats. I can never remember what we are supposed to remember on Memorial Day anymore, because first it was Armistice Day, then VE Day, then the Viet Nam Vets got added to the list along with the new guys from Iraq, Afghanistan, Grenada, Panama and a couple of other countries. If we put all those wars together what the heck are we supposed to remember?  It seems the only thing they have in common are that people, mostly civilians, got killed. Also, the people who we kill hate freedom, looked like someone who hated freedom, or were standing near someone who looked like they hated freedom. We don’t have a day to remember the civilians who died or got maimed, so I guess we are just supposed to remember the dead soldiers and drink beer. It would be nice if we could remember the people who died hating freedom, because if they ever had gotten any freedom, they might have liked it as much as we say we do.

Speaking of people who hate freedom, I want to nominate Powell District Ranger Joni Packard of the United States Forest Service for the “People Who Hate Freedom The Most”Award. While most Americans were remembering the great sacrifices made in the name of freedom, Joni and her Freddies were out logging old growth on the historic Lewis and Clark Trail corridor. The reason they had chosen this particular weekend was no accident.  This was a stealthy attempt to preempt a lawsuit filed by the Spokane-based Lands Council and a number of other local conservation groups. The lawsuit argues that the proposed Wendover Salvage Sale is illegal.This was a blatant and illegal attempt to drop trees on the ground to make moot any decision by the court if the timber sale was found to have violated the many laws cited in The Land Council’s complaint.

The Wendover Timber Sale has been controversial since it was first proposed under the new categorical exclusion rule, which gave the Freddies broad powers to decide when old-growth forests posed a danger to the American public. In this case the forests in question had experienced a wildfire that failed to kill many of the large trees. In their wisdom, the Freddies decided to remove these large, live green trees to make the forest healthier. Since the Freddies cannot be challenged on their decisions, due to the categorical exclusion rule, The Lands Council was forced into court to assert that the Forest Service has misrepresented the facts in order to bypass the law and approve a commercial timber sale in a historic trail corridor.

The Wendover Timber Sale is just the latest example of the steps the Freddies will take in order to continue the commercial timber sale program under a new name. We have seen this over and over, first back in 1983 with New Perspectives, then later came New Forestry, then it was Sustainable Forestry, and later still Forest Health. Now it is Fire Management. Its funny that what all of these approaches have had in common is that they prescribe the removal of old-growth trees in roadless areas or any commercially valuable trees anywhere on the National Forest, including campgrounds, archeological sites and some of the most popular areas for recreation. The other interesting thing they all have in common is that the public is locked out of the decision making process. Instead of public hearings, comment periods, environmental assessments and keeping the public informed along the way, we now have to abide by the decisions made by Forest Service “experts” who know better than the public what is good for the forest. And, of course, the only good thing for a forest to is more logging, according to these so-called experts.

It is worse than ironic that while we are fighting several wars to make other people free, we are losing many of the freedoms we cherish the most here at home. I’m not just talking about the freedom to appeal a timber sale, although this is one on the most fundamental freedoms we have. As a nation we are responsible for taking care of the public lands which are held in trust for future generations. We can still hope to get those freedoms back. What is irreparable and irreversible is the loss of wilderness to be free in. Memorial Day weekend is an occasion for many folks to spend time with friends and family in the great outdoors. It’s hard to remember sometimes that these freedoms also came at a price, or how rooted the conservation of nature is in those freedoms.

Unless you worked on a farm, in 18^th century Europe enjoying the outdoors was a pursuit that only the wealthy could enjoy. By the late 19^th century workers in Europe organized and committed mass trespass to gain access for “rambling” on the large estates of the wealthy. In 1895 the Friends of Nature, in Germany and Austria, marched under the slogan “Free Mountains, Free World, Free People” and had thirty thousand members. Similar campaigns were underway in Britain and across Europe as working class people sought more access to the Great Outdoors. This experience of being locked out of the commons was shared by many of the immigrants who made the voyage to America, and helped to shape attitudes here about the public domain, and the freedom to hunt, fish or just to wonder on just public lands. Access to the great outdoors is a cherished freedom in America but what good is it if you have to enjoy it in a stumpfield?  Logging diminishes the quality of recreational activities like hunting, fishing, boating and hiking, which is what many normal people do on their days off. Nobody comes to see the Lewis and Clark Trail to see a clearcut! You’d think the boneheads at the Forest Service would know that by now.

It is hard to explain this stupidity. The global scientific consensus on deforestation is as strong as it is on climate change; it’s bad, and it’s getting worse. Logging, not fires, beetles, fungus or tourists are the cause. Timber Lackeys like Ranger Packard know this. That’s why they resort to lies and deception and operating in secret to get the cut out so they can impress their bosses who want to impress the politicians who are all on the timber industry payroll. The real question is why we tolerate such a centrally controlled, top-heavy, arrogant, corrupt Soviet-style bureaucracy, and sit back while they are butchering 220-million acres of public forests. We have soldiers serving overseas who are willing to die for freedom, but no one in the U.S. Forest Service will risk anything to stand up for our freedom to enjoy wild nature in the public domain.

Joni, you can come by Charlie’s to claim your award.

The Forest Service continues to blunder along the path the suitable stewardship practices, and Mike Roselle continues to remind the agency of that fact.