Please note that all links
to the news stories below were accurate and working at the time
of posting and archiving, however, the Guardian has no control
on the length of time that a respective news source will
continue to maintain any story in its own archives, so be
advised that you may encounter non-working links - Bill
McKee - Editor
This site is best viewed with the Internet Explorer browser set
to medium fonts with
screen resolution of 800*600 or higher. Multimedia is presented
via the Windows Media Player 9
Thursday,
7-Aug-2003
Wildfires too complex for blame game
"... Westerners have a huge stake in the
proper maintenance of our forested wild lands. We
should encourage our members of Congress to codify
the intent of the thoughtful 10-year
fire-management proposal which had been adopted by
each of our western governors, Republicans and
Democrats, just two years ago and then abandoned
by the new chair of the governor's association,
Montana's Judy Martz, at the urging of the Bush
White House, in favor of its own Healthy Forests
initiative, a clever name for bad policy. It
is also clearly in our safety interest to heed the
valued 20-year study of the U.S. General
Accounting Office that found a solid connection
between areas that had been overly logged and
raging wildfires. The authors summarized the
report with this statement: "The assertion
has been made that we are getting more acres
burned because we have reduced the timber harvest;
the reverse, however, is true."
The
local overnight low temperature last night was
+47F and yesterday's afternoon high temp was +79F.
0.125" of precipitation has been recorded at
our location in the last 24-hour period ending at
6AM. Daily local min-max temp &
precip charts may be seen on our
PR Temp & Precip Data page
The
local overnight low temperature last night was
+46F and yesterday's afternoon high temp was +80F.
A trace amount precipitation has been recorded at
our location in the last 24-hour period ending at
6AM. Daily local min-max temp &
precip charts may be seen on our
PR Temp & Precip Data page
Forest
plan aims to improve ecosystem Payette,
Boise, Sawtooth areas to be restored [Restored from
what? Restored from way too much logging
allowed by the unfit stewards at the FS for way
too long - Ed.]
The
local overnight low temperature last night was
+66F and yesterday's afternoon high temp was +90F.
No measurable precipitation has been recorded at
our location in the last 24-hour period ending at
6AM. Daily local min-max temp &
precip charts may be seen on our
PR Temp & Precip Data page
Local note The DNRC had
a 9-1-1 emergency telephone installed yesterday on
the gatehouse on Painted Rocks dam. It is a
9-1-1 emergency contact phone ONLY and NOT a
general use telephone. Appropriate signage on
the phone box will be added later this week.
The
local overnight low temperature last night was
+42F and yesterday's afternoon high temp was +91F.
No measurable precipitation has been recorded at
our location in the last 24-hour period ending at
6AM. Daily local min-max temp &
precip charts may be seen on our
PR Temp & Precip Data page
News
Archives
In order to keep the news page loading time short, we
regularly archive the stories appearing on this page. You can see other News,
Links, & Commentary stories by selecting the appropriate
available archive period in the table below.
In accordance with
Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in the stories above is
distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit
research and educational purposes only.
About
the Painted Rocks Guardian's
News, Links, & Commentary Section
It is a
daily look at environmentally related stories from around the country,
many of which are illustrative of the high level of incompetence (and
worse) existing within most of the government entities currently charged
with administering our nation's parks, forests, other public lands,
waterways, and airsheds. As you read these news stories from many
different sources, you will note that almost all environmental
protection/preservation efforts and programs to save our nation's public
treasures originate from private environmental organizations, often
times via court order, and NOT through the respective governmental
agencies with primary administration responsibilities. Most of these
governmental entities (e.g., the Forest Service) have become top heavy
with many levels of career bureaucrats who, instead of protecting and
preserving the nation's priceless resources, are 'busy' catering to
consumptive/extractive industry interests in the course of administering
politically designed social welfare employment programs and wealth
redistributionist grant programs. While the current system is almost
hopelessly corrupt at many levels, it is being increasingly understood
as such by the general public. Increased general public awareness of the
problem is necessary to trigger environmentally informed political
actions that will eventually save the nation's public treasures.
Effective solutions to the current situation will most likely involve
the deconstruction of several bureaucratic agencies as they exist today
with a functional redesign that will shift major policy development and
administrative direction authority into the hands of environmental
groups/organizations (as contrasted with agency hand-picked and selected
'citizen groups' dominated by consumptionists) and out of the hands of
self-interested bureaucrats and extractive industry interests.
- Bill McKee - Editor.
