The intense media attack on President Bush and his plans for the national forests brings front and center the wide gulf between the beliefs of America's "greens", that is the intellectual environmentalists, and the common sense conservationists who may not be as elitist in their thinking, but who love nature and want to preserve it just as much as environmentalists ... maybe more.
Intellectual environmentalists want the government to have absolute control over everything in nature. For the most part they live in urban areas and on campuses, and earn their living from intellectual pursuits. Although they generally live outside natural areas, where they have access to more modern conveniences, they want pristine natural lands available for their use. The more extreme "greens" want government to enforce their will so no other beliefs about conservation of nature will even be considered, let alone put into practice. Thus the attack on President Bush and the Republicans.
Politically, these environmental radicals have teamed with the liberals and have been able to get an extremist, hands-off approach to forest management adopted by our federal government. So now, in the Western United States, this year, more than 6-million acres of forest land has burned, 2,000 buildings lie in ashes, 20 firefighters are dead. And the real fire season is just beginning.
We all have a big stake in insuring the national forests in our area have a solid, common sense management program rather than the radical programs proposed by urban environmentalists.
This is Gordon Sawyer, and may the wind always be at your back.
Monday
August 4th, 2025
8:28AM
