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Tight federal budget prevents old-growth timber sales

The Oregonian today reports on an unexpected consequence of a tight federal budget: The U.S. Forest Service doesn't have enough money to prepare timber sales in old-growth forests.

From the article:

[T]he administration and Congress are starving the U.S. Forest Service of money to plan sales of the big trees, and fight the inevitable appeals and lawsuits by their defenders. Forest managers say they are no longer pouring their shrinking funds into thankless conflicts they rarely win.

"We can't afford expensive timber sales -- the kind where controversy is engendered," said Gary Larsen, supervisor of the Mount Hood National Forest. "We're trying to find those where people can agree on the benefits."

Nifty: We can save money and old-growth in one step. How come it took so long to figure this out?

Dept. of irony

This is hilarious. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Tex.) is holding a fundraiser for beleaguered ex-House Speaker Tom DeLay (R-Tex.). Where, you ask?

The Petroleum Club.

Poetry.

From Cracking Up to Cream Pie

Gloom and doom with a sense of … hey, wait a minute Some Grumpy Grumpersteins out there think environmentalism is never funny. TBS aims to prove ’em wrong with Earth to America! — an exclamation-pointed, star-studded night of comedy about the planet’s plight. That bit on new-source review is gonna kill. Turning Japanese, we really […]

Readers talk back about school choice, organic rules, bike commuting, and more

  Re: Storm Front and Center Dear Editor: If we could only make politicians and multinational firms understand the direct relation between forest clear-cutting and floods, we might be able to prevent — or at least reduce — the damage caused by tropical storms and hurricanes. Hurricane Katrina is one good example of many stupid […]

Civil servants quit or get canned for bucking bad environmental policy

In Nick Turse's astonishing list of Bush administration casualties -- civil servants who have quit or been fired for bucking administration policy -- are numerous entries of interest to greens. Here are a few:

The Dark Side of the Source

EPA issues draft rules that would gut air-pollution standard The U.S. EPA has issued draft regulations that would allow the nation’s dirtiest power plants to emit more air pollution. The proposed regs — anticipated and dreaded by clean-air advocates — would supersede new-source review (NSR), the Clean Air Act regulation requiring plants to upgrade their […]

Wet, Me Worry?

Wetlands protection has gone downhill under Bush administration The Bush administration has radically curtailed protection of wetlands and waterways in the past four years, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office. It found that prior to 2001, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asserted its jurisdiction over most waters if migratory birds […]

Take the Pinheads Polling

Poll says most Americans back ultra-strength environmental protections Nearly half of all U.S. adults think the government’s doing too little to protect the environment. Almost three-quarters say that eco-protections are important, and that standards cannot be too high. No, you’re not dreaming — it’s a fresh new Harris Interactive poll on attitudes of Americans toward […]

Poll: everyone supports us but no one really cares

All the sustainable bloggy folk are reporting on a new poll in the Wall Street Journal.

On the bright side, "nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults agree that protecting the environment is important and standards cannot be too high."

Then again, "Only 12% of U.S. adults describe themselves as active environmentalists."

There's a lot to be unpacked in this, but I gotta skeedaddle home. Read the whole thing. I'll just say: greens are rather obsessed with the idea that if they just get the facts out there, people will want action. (This is particularly true on global warming.)

But the facts are already out there. People already want action. But there's a difference between wanting action in the "I'd say so on a poll" way and wanting action on the "I'd make it a voting priority" way.

We don't need more facts and studies and "proof." We need to figure out how to motivate people. Those are separate undertakings, and it's the latter greens are failing at.

Sprol: still cool

Sprol seems to have redesigned since the last time I visited. Their RSS feed is a little fritzed, for me anyway, but as usual there's tons of fascinating stuff there. Just thought you'd like to know.