New West Network

My Page: Bryan Bird

Bush Administration opts to pull fire plans rather than obey environmental laws. [more]

A dozen scientists from Arizona and New Mexico suggest changing conditions affect fire plans
http://www.fguardians.org/support_docs/letter_scientists_fire_biodiversity_11-29-07.pdf [more]

The goal of the lawsuit is to improve fire management plans to facilitate more use of natural fire under safe conditions to control the buildup of fuels and increase community and firefighter safety while encouraging healthier forests. The lawsuit will compel the Forest Service to meet the terms of the NEPA and the ESA in regards to Fire Management Plans. As a practical matter better FMPs will include scientific justification, public participation, and environmental analysis (e.g. different mix of fire v. mechanical fuel reduction treatments and full suppression v. the option for managed wildland fire use). Forest Guardians strongly believes that the actions described above will result in democratic and transparent national fire management policy and plans and increased human safety as well as improved ecological conditions. [more]

In the rush to solve our nation’s energy supply predicament, Congress is considering legislation which would promote logging our national forests and other public lands for electricity and other biofuels generation. The Energy Policy Reform and Revitalization Act of 2007 and the Biofuels for Energy Security and Transportation Act of 2007 both consider our national forest heritage as “renewable” biomass. [more]

There’s a train leaving the station, and it may be hauling your chipped-up national forest away to a power plant. The biomass express is gaining steam from politicians, private industry, alternative fuel advocates and even some in the conservation community. http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/solar.renewables/page/biomass/biomass.gif
Someone had better pull the emergency brakes quickly before our shared forest heritage is sacrificed to the modern consumer lifestyle. [more]

New West Unfiltered

Devastation, Charred; these are the media's terms of choice so far to describe the 17,000 acre Ojo Feliz fire in northern New Mexico. The human-caused fire has been growing in hot and windy conditions over the last three days.

But can anyone say people were not forewarned? And is the fire really "devastating" for the grasslands and forests that have evolved for millennium with wildfire? I would argue that it's desperately needed and refreshing for these fire-dependent ecosystems. The problem in this situation is people are in the way. [more]