Before we proceed with our access alerts, the Warrior's Society offers its sympathy, best
wishes and prayers to all those individuals and families who were affected by the devastating
Southern California wildfires. Many lives and homes were lost as a result of this tragedy and
it is our hope that the conditions that fed these fires are addressed in the future.
This is a detailed update on important issues that not only affect your access, but more
importantly the health of our forests and protection of communities adjacent to them. Please
take the time to read this alert and share it with your friends and those affected by the
fires. It is important that the agenda and the ideology of the environmental industry are
exposed. We will be sending out an update this Thursday on the Healthy Forests Initiative,
which passed the Senate last week.
In this issue:
1. California Wilderness Bill Update
2. Dave Forman - the founder of the eco-terrorist group EarthFirst! and a key leader in the push for wilderness designations
3. IMBA - are they effectively opposing the wilderness designation?
In a previous update we informed you of Senator Boxer and the environmental industry's attempt
to push wilderness designations by breaking her statewide wilderness bill into smaller bills.
The first instance of this was Rep. Thompson's Northern California specific wilderness bill
introduced earlier this year.
Congresswoman Hilda Solis, D-El Monte, has joined Thompson in introducing wilderness
legislation. Her bill will cover Southern California and as we mentioned Thompson's bill will
cover Northern California. Together, the two bills cover about 2.7 million acres of
wilderness additions.
As the fires burn in our local forests, I wonder how many Californian's know of Senator Boxer,
Representative Solis, Representative Thompson and the environmental industry's push to worsen
the situation by declaring a large portion of these forests as wilderness, a designation that
will cripple our ability to use all methods possible to prevent the destruction we are
experiencing.
The wilderness designation prevents the use of any gas powered machinery, such as chain saws,
brush saws, motorized vehicles, and low flying aircraft within areas designated as wilderness.
Fire prevention measures such as fuel removal is extremely expensive; not being able to use
gas powered machinery only adds to the cost.
The Southern California Bill includes areas in the Angeles, San Bernardino, Cleveland and Los
Padres National Forests that are under the threat of the same devastating fires that have
resulted in the loss of many lives, destroyed millions of acres of forest, and destroyed
thousands of homes. This does not include billions of dollars in infrastructure losses and
fire fighting costs - money that Californian's do not have due to the near bankruptcy of our
state.
Several Forest Service officials from the Angeles National Forest and Palomar District in the
Cleveland National Forest have written that fire prevention and fighting are one of their main
concerns in a letter to wilderness advocates attained by the BRC using the Freedom of
Information Act as well as an internal memo released to the Warrior's Society. Democratic
Senator Feinstein has yet to support these bills because she shares the concerns of Forest
Service officials - and may also be concerned about the links of the current wilderness push
to Dave Forman, the founder of EarthFirst!.
Senator Feinstein was key to the success of the Healthy Forests Initiative and we'll have more
on this in our Healthy Forests Alert to be sent out later this week.
From the Angeles National Forest Supervisor's letter:
"My primary concern regarding the proposed wildernesses is for fire management issues.
Wilderness designation affects vegetation management and fire suppression capability. This
is of particular concern in the areas proposed closest to urban interface areas, such as the
area you delineated west, south and east of Placerita Canyon State Park, and the area you
delineated around Silver Mountain. In addition, the Pleasant View and Magic Mountain areas
are adjacent to private lands to the north posing fire risks to those lands.
Congress has tasked the USDA Forest Service, along with other agencies, to increase fire
management in high-risk areas by increasing fire suppression capability, by increasing
vegetation management and by working cooperatively with the communities at risk. The Forest
Service National Fire Plan addresses these three tasks. For example, the Placerita and Silver
Mountain areas both have vegetation management plans involving the use of mechanized
equipment.
Designation as wilderness would limit our ability to manage these areas to reduce risk.
Suppression techniques in these areas would also be limited, increasing risk to urban
interface areas."
To read the complete Letter click here.
From the Palomar District memo:
"Due to a variety of reasons, we are not managing these areas to the best of our ability as it
is; Wilderness Area designations will only limit our ability to manage these areas further.
Fire management is the single most important aspect to land management on the Cleveland
National Forest, Wilderness Area designations will only hinder or limit our ability to manage
for fire and suppression activities, regardless of what the Wilderness Act states."
To read the complete memo click here.
What if we had not defeated the wilderness proposals for the Trabuco District in the Cleveland
National Forest?
The communities of Modjeska, Silverado, Coto De Caza, Mission Viejo, Ladera, Corona, and Lake
Elsinore would be even more susceptible to devastating fires, or in the words of the Forest
Service: "Designation as wilderness would limit our ability to manage these areas to reduce
risk. Suppression techniques in these areas would also be limited...)
Senator Boxer and the environmental industry, led by the founder of EarthFirst! Dave Forman,
continue to ignore the concerns of forest managers, which have been confirmed by the recent
devastating fires.
To view all our alerts on the push for wilderness designated areas in California and their
detrimental effect on managing our forests click here.
The information posted in these alerts should be used as talking points to denounce the
wilderness bills being presented in California and across the nation.
It is time to free the management of our public lands from an ideology based on emotion to one
based on reason and sound science. Our freedom to recreationally access our public lands pales
in comparison with the threats this ideology and the wilderness designation presents to the
long-term health of our forests; we most expose the fallacy of it.
To do otherwise will be a devastating legacy to leave to our children. It is because of this
the Warrior's Society finds itself in deep disagreement with the environmental industry - and
we will make no excuses for this.
To quote Alston Chase Ph.D. man of letters and author of "Playing God in Yellowstone"
"The lesson in Playing God is that there is no such thing as leaving nature alone. People are part of creation. We do not have the option of choosing not to be stewards of the land. We must master the art and science of good stewardship. Unfortunately, a good many environmentalists still do not understand that the only way to preserve nature is to manage nature."
Although the environmental industry, including the Sierra Club, likes to portray their agenda
as mainstream and science based, very few people are aware that one of the main leaders in the
push for wilderness areas as well as the ideology it is based on is Dave Forman, the founder
of EarthFirst!, the radical eco-terrorist organization responsible for many acts of violence.
Do you doubt this? Read the following:
"One of America's best known and experienced conservation leaders, Dave Foreman has worked as a Washington lobbyist for the Wilderness Society, served on the Sierra Club Board of Directors, and co-founded Earth First! in 1980. During the 1990s, he has been publisher of Wild Earth journal and chairman of The Wildlands Project. He is author of The Big Outside (with Howie Wolke), Confessions of an Eco-Warrior, and a new novel, The Lobo Outback Funeral Home." [weblink]
"REWILDING NORTH AMERICA Tuesday, October 21, 7:00 PM
The indomitable DAVE FORMAN is coming! In his new position as director of the Rewilding Institute, an offshoot of the Wildlands Project he has been spearheading for some years, he will discuss his goal of continental conservation (all of North America), and how he hopes to achieve it. He is writing a book on this topic, to be published by Island Press in 2004. As you may remember, Dave was an original member of Earth First! He has been working on conservation issues his entire adult life, was a director of the Sierra Club some years ago, and has written three books: The Lobo Outback Funeral Home, Confessions of an Eco Warrior, and The Big Outside. He will have copies of Lobo Outback available for sale and signing." [weblink]
The key words in this Northern New Mexico Sierra Club Group announcement is: "he will discuss
his goal of continental conservation (all of North America)"
What does this mean? To quote Dave Forman:
"We must make this an insecure and inhospitable place for capitalists and their projects.... We
must reclaim the roads and plowed land, halt dam construction, tear down existing dams, free
shackled rivers and return to wilderness millions of tens of millions of acres of presently
settled land."
-David Foreman, Earth First!
To find out how intricately Dave Forman is involved in the mainstream environmental movement
do a google search of his name with other key words such as "Wildlands Project," "Wilderness,"
"EarthFirst!," "Sierra Club."
The Wildlands Project proposes to return most of North America to what Dave Forman and his
allies consider an untouched state. To get an idea of the true intentions and ideology of the
Wildlands Project and its ties to the current push for wilderness go to the
Earth First! web site
which will show you where this campaign has it's origins.
The California Wilderness Campaign touts its support of the Wildlands Project on its
web site
Do you think Dave Forman cares if the land management policies he pushes, based on a radical
ideology that espouses terrorist acts, results in the loss of homes and lives? I'll let you
make that assumption based on his words and the words of the Earth First! Newsletter:
"We advocate biodiversity for biodiversity's sake. It may take our extinction to set things
straight."
-David Foreman, Earth First!
"Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on earth, social and environmental."
-Dave Forman, Founder of Earth First!
"If radical environmentalists were to invent a disease to bring human populations back to
sanity, it would probably be something like AIDS"
-Earth First! Newsletter
Plus a quote from the co-founder of the Wildlands Project, Dr. Reed F. Noss:
"The collective needs of non-human species must take precedence over the needs and desires of
humans."
-Dr. Reed F. Noss, The Wildlands Project
Tens of thousands have had their livelihoods destroyed, their families ruined, lost their
homes, savings and retirements for no good reason other than the glorification of
environmental ignorance; an unscientific ideology that seeks to remove us from large areas of
the western United States and has its roots in the eco-terrorist organization EarthFirst!.
Environmental groups are receiving tax-deductible contributions to advocate for and against
legislation, to conduct their junk science to the detriment of public lands, and to enrich
their lawyers with our tax dollars. It is time for this to stop, not for the sake of our
access, but for the sake of our forests and the protection of the public.
Do you trust Dave Forman (and his allies in the Wildlands Project, including the Sierra Club)
to set public lands management policy considering their radical agenda?
Apparently California Senator Barbara Boxer does as she is their biggest supporter. Remember
this in 2004 when she comes up for re-election.
As far as the Wildlands Project here is some background:
All wilderness proposals are being coordinated by the environmental industry as part of the
Wildlands Project, which was initiated by
Reed Noss and Dave Forman, the founder of Earth first.
This site
provides information on the Wildlands Project using the words of the
founders of the movement, including Dave Forman, one of the founders of Earth First!
Gary Sprung, the legislative and policy representative for IMBA (in a conversation on the
phone with the Director of the Warrior's Society during our fight against the wilderness
designations here in the Cleveland National Forest), excused the environmental industry's push
for wilderness areas in Orange County that did not meet the criteria for wilderness by stating
"You can understand their concern now that the new administration (Bush) is going to mow down
the forests."
Hello Gary - there's nothing to log in the Trabuco District of the Cleveland National Forest!
I guess he and his environmental friends prefer the forests burn down - and take all the
endangered species with them. An article in the paper during the recent fires stated that the
California Condor recovery may be in jeopardy because of the threat of fire burning down their
habitat.
Of course if our forests do burn down they'll have to be closed to public access so the can be
rehabilitated. And if this rehabilitation is like others the environmental industry will take
the opportunity to remove as many trails and roads as possible to keep people out. Agencies
have often closed public lands and trails altogether for rehab, sometimes trails are forever
closed. This happened to an old county road on Palomar several years ago. The USFS denied
any responsibility to re open the trail/road even though a BackCountry Horseman's unit
had adopted it.
While our nation's forests burn, the environmental industry fiddles playing the tune of more
wilderness and "preservation" at the expense and destruction of our forests - and by their
silence and unwillingness to expose these issues to their members - IMBA's ability to
effectively protect our forests and preserve our access is severely limited - to our
detriment.
How has IMBA responded?
They ignored the "Mountain Bikers for Wilderness" fraud
that we brought to their attention and exposed.
They issued a "Joint Statement of Commitments" that stated they would encourage
"pro-wilderness perspectives" as stated in a quote from the "Joint Statement of Commitments":
"Wilderness and mountain biking enthusiasts will use their communication tools to share information about each other's views - e.g., we will encourage publication of pro-Wilderness perspectives in mountain biking media and pro-mountain biking perspectives in conservation media."
Click here to see the entire "Joint Statement of Commitments"
A 4 billion dollar environmental industry does not need the help of IMBA to push for
wilderness designations, especially considering their refusal to drop areas in the bill where
we have tremendous mountain biking opportunities.
IMBA is taken for a ride again, and it is not on a bike.
In the current Forest Plan process the Center for Biodiversity, the Wildlands Project, the
Sierra Club and their allies are pushing to restrict access including here in the Cleveland
National Forest. They are pushing to remove the Harding Truck Trail, a popular trail and fire
fighting/emergency access road open only to official vehicles.
During the fire rehabilitation process you can guarantee they will be pushing to close areas
off permanently.
The environmental movement's solution is to just thin out around communities. How will this
stop the destruction of our forests and the killing of millions of species? Will the
environmental industry then sue to close off all our forests because of the shrinking habitat
for the endangered species that are left?
IMBA's flawed strategy is they support the radical ideology of the environmental industry and
hope that in the future they can convince the environmental industry to allow mountain bikes
in wilderness areas. But in recent article posted on the Wild Earth web site, Dave Forman,
the Chairman of the Wildlands Project and Founder of EarthFirst! stated unequivocally that
this would never happen under his watch:
"Existing wilderness areas must remain completely closed to bicycles and other human-powered wheeled contraptions." [weblink]
We have seen only the beginning of the destruction that will befall our forests. The fires in
Southern California are only a taste of what is to come across our nation.
IMBA's biased support of the radical agenda of the environmental industry should not take
precedence over advocating sound forest management policy and fighting for our historical
access. IMBA must educate their supporters on the liabilities and the limitations presented
by the wilderness designation that far exceed the emotional evidence provided by the
environmental industry.
We have science to back us and the momentum of the proven failures of the policies of the
environmental industry, which has been vividly presented by these devastating fires. The
environmental industry and their political benefactors can no longer hide from the failures of
their policies.
IMBA must decide if their strategy will be biased in support of the radical agenda of the
environmental industry - or whether they will expose it and the threats it poses to protecting
our forests, communities and access.
Please take the time to call Senator Feinstein to thank her for her support of the Healthy Forests Initiative and for not supporting the current wilderness bills.
Contact Senator Boxer and let her know of your concern for her support of the agenda of Dave Forman of EarthFirst! and the environmental industry in pushing for wilderness designations.Honorable Senator Feinstein
One Post St., #2450
San Francisco, CA 94104
Phone: (415) 393-0707
Fax: (619) 231-1108
Fax: (310) 914-7318
Fax: (415) 989-3242
Fax: (202) 228-3954
Fax: (559) 485-9689Honorable Senator Boxer
1700 Montgomery St., #240
San Francisco, CA 94111
Phone: (415) 403-0100
Fax: (213) 894-5012
Fax: (909) 888-8613
Fax: (619) 239-5719
Fax: (559) 497-5111
Fax: (415) 956-6701
Fax: (916) 448-2563In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. [Ref. www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml]
Click here for a list of all the wilderness alerts
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