Dear Patriots,
I've never been so mystified by the ongoing madness as Idaho burns to read the dribble Lewiston's own Tribune newspaper prints for intelligent opinion by their very own opinion editor, Marty Trillhaase. This article, included below for your very own coronary experience, was sent to me by Jim Chmelik, Idaho County Commissioner. He's got a bit of an attitude too when it comes to the wholesale destruction of Idaho's once pristine forests and economy by lard heads too busy passing out liberal pabulum to the mindless masses to get a whiff of reality. Jim's rebuttal is below, followed by mine. Hope Marty finds a way to stop blowing smoke like Cheech and Chong and wise up.
You might find this commentary helpful while putting your thoughts together for the Town Hall meeting I have scheduled with Salmon Challis Forest Supervisor, Frank Guzman, Senator Crapo's staff, Representative Simpson's staff and the Governor's office for Monday, October 15th at the Challis Middle School auditorium. The newspaper advertisement is attached and will go to the Challis, Salmon and Arco papers. Those with written comment go first so dust off the pen. You know, some of the other side will be there. Bet you could guess, so I won't give her name away. I'll be contacting the TV folks too.
By the way, see you all in Lewiston next week for the Second Annual Idaho Liberty Summit. Hope the Lewiston Tribune sends a reporter. Sign up and "get her done" tonight!
Darr Moon
Taking charge of Idaho forests goes up in smoke
Posted: Saturday, September 22, 2012 12:00 am | Updated: 6:14 pm, Fri Sep 21, 2012.
Taking charge of Idaho forests goes up in smoke Marty Trillhaase The Lewiston Tribune | 0 comments
It's a staple of Idaho politics: Blame federal possession, regulation and coddling of environmentalists for the moribund logging industry.
Then assert the 10th Amendment and call for state ownership of the national forests in Idaho. Remind everybody how much more prosperous they'd be if the state were in control
Until, of course, the argument goes up in smoke. As it has this summer.
By the middle of this week, more than 980,000 acres within Idaho's eight national forests were burning.
Fighting those fires has cost the American taxpayer $135.5 million and counting.
What if Idaho had owned those lands?
It would have to cough up an amount equal to:
· 23 times what the state spent fighting fires last year on its own timber lands.
· A nickle of every tax dollar the state now collects.
· Every new dollar of tax revenues the expanding economy will generate - and then some. And that new money barely covers growing student enrollments and rising costs.
· Nearly 60 percent of Idaho's higher education budget.
The state can't borrow or print money to pay firefighting costs. It can't issue IOUs to staff. So it would have to pull dollars from ongoing state programs in mid-year - the most disruptive budget cuts imaginable. Or it could raise taxes. Lawmakers would need nearly a penny increase in the sales tax rate or a reversal of the income tax breaks they've engineered.
Nor would they find much of a respite. The current round of fires is larger than normal - but bigger, more expensive forest fires are becoming more common. Within the recent past, the state has lost 1.3 million acres in 2007 and nearly 950,000 acres in 2000.
Idaho's ideologically driven GOP won't tolerate a tax increase. They'd catch hell for cutting schools more deeply. So they'd take the path of least resistance - liquidating these erstwhile national forests and selling off the choicest lots to the highest bidders. Which explains why even when the GOP held the White House, the House and the Senate in the past decade, the idea of transferring control of federal forests to states stalled. But that hasn't deterred Congressman Raul Labrador, R-Idaho. His Self-Sufficient Community Lands Act would start small. It would give the states control over 200,000 acres of demonstration projects, with the receipts from logging funneled into timber communities.
Federal environmental laws - endangered species, clean water and environmental impact statements - would be watered down. But the feds would continue to pick up the tab for fighting fires.
Labrador is asking the feds to assume all the risk and give away all the profits - all the while allowing Idahoans to evade national environmental policies.
Hence he has rounded up only seven co-sponsors - including Washington's Cathy McMorris Rodgers. The House Resources Committee has yet to give the bill a hearing. And Labrador sits on that committee.- M.T.
Jim Chmelik's Rebuttal:
Marty Trillhaase either does not understand basic economic growth policies, has no respect for the environment or truly seeks no solutions to the caring for our natural resources. He only offers the old argument that only the federal government can provide the solutions we seek. And in typical fashion offers up the children and their education budget as a scare tactic to advance past policies, which have proven to be a failure.
Current policies are in direct violations of EPA clean air and clean water policies and are also endangering our wildlife populations. These policies cannot be allowed to continue. Mother nature is a cruel guardian left to her own devices. While we can never tame her actions we can assist to mitigate the disasters.
By definition of our surroundings we are a natural resource community. If we are to advance economically, the utilization of these natural resources need to be put into production and a new model based in experience and trust must be put forth. Local communities as well as tourist would benefit from the utilization of these great assets we call our national treasures, because letting them go up in smoke is to no ones benefit.
This model would consist by beginning to reduce fuel loads in the forest and developing markets for the dead and dying timber while at the same time allowing for the thinning and care of the current forest for manufacture of lumber at our local mills. Revenues generated from such a model would be divided up amongst the county and federal government to provide for funding education to our schools and maintaining the county budget for roads and general services the county provides to its citizens. The federal dollars would be used to mitigate fires and provide for fire suppression. These dollars could also be used to pay the Forest Service Budget and pay for proper management of the forest. This not only benefits our local communities but also preserves it for future generations. Such a plan provides good paying jobs to the community and does not rely on the American taxpayer to foot our bill. We need to recognize the value in the land. We are also part of nature. We are the top of the food chain and with that comes the responsibility to care for it, manage it and leave it better than we found it. Current policies do nothing to recognize these responsibilities.
A new model which looks to the future of not only extraction of timber and minerals, but one which also provides for the long-term health of the forest is the solution. The current policies are not working and the federal governments ability to continue to pay for our way of life through SRS and PILT payments will be coming to an end.
The Idaho County Commission
My Rant!
In Rebuttal to Marty Trillhaase’s “Taking charge of Idaho forests goes up in smoke” published September 21, 2012 in the Lewiston Tribune.
Dear Editor Trillhasse,
Your confused interpretation of the federal forests in Idaho and this year’s fire season took much less than a sophomoric understanding of the true disposition of Idaho’s interest in state sovereignty, hypocritical environmentalists and the federal’s campaign to turn 2x4’s into charcoal. Marty, your ignorance is unbearable so please let me help you understand the simple truth.
Idaho and the rest of the western United States are on fire due to an egg headed federal forest management policy that continues to lock out the once environmentally sound, habitat regenerating and profitable “Multiple Use” land management concept. For years now, logging, mining and grazing has given way to recreation and wilderness. This year’s fires gives greater clarity to the continued federal forest mismanagement with every smoke fill lung Idahoans breath. Over the last several decades, fire has consumed more and more of this nation’s forests. A ten year running average of national forest acres burned has trended upward since a low in 1992 of 2.7 million acres to today’s horrific 7.2 million acres. Fires are also increasing in size and intensity wiping out areas to forest re-growth and damaging habitat forever.
Not to worry it seems, the federal government has the money to manage such fire incidents. But does the federal government have enough money to willfully destroy Idaho’s resource economy, the once prolific big game herds, clean water and the outdoor heritage we have all come to love? Reality looks even smokier when we compare the federal’s 17.3 million acre forest in Idaho to Idaho’s paltry 1.5 million acres. This year, Idaho’s beloved schools will receive $31 million dollars from the endowment land trust. The federal forest managers inIdaho, as you mentioned, will send a bill to the taxpayer for $135.5 million, provide only fire fighting jobs and burn about a million acres of timber. Kind of makes you want to have a second look at that 10th Amendment doesn’t it.
In Liberty,
Darr Moon
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