| | DEPUTY FOREST SERVICE CHIEF BLAMES WILDFIRES ON CLINTON/GORE ADMINISTRATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: August 29, 2000
OAKLEY, CA -- A 32 year career Forest Service employee sent a letter to
president Clinton on August 25 blaming his administration for the large
number of catastrophic wildfires that are plaguing the national forests in
the Western United States.
The Clinton/Gore forest polices were identified as a "risky scheme" because
the president had decimated the agency fire fighting force to only 50% of
1995 strength. Douglas Leisz, a retired deputy chief, stated that through
curtailment of logging the administration has allowed the accumulation of
dangerous levels of fuels.
Al Gore is criticized for only adding more fuel to the fire when the
presidential hopeful said that he would ban all logging in roadless areas
even if that material were to be removed by helicopter.
According to Douglas Leisz, "The loss of resources associated with
catastrophic fires is enormous. Precious old growth is destroyed, public
recreation opportunities are eliminated for many years, fish and wildlife
habitat is severely damaged, flood impacts are likely, and enough wood is
destroyed to build hundreds of thousands of homes for people."
Leisz concludes, "The recent 12 billion dollar proposal for Congress 'to
clean dense, fire prone-underbrush from 40 million acres' is ludicrous
without an overhaul of forest management and fire protection policies
coupled with a major rebuilding of Forest Service capabilities."
Don Amador, the western representative for the Blue Ribbon Coalition,
added, "I agree with Mr. Leisz that the Clinton/Gore administration's
forest policies have been an abysmal failure. Nobody talks much about how
nuclear wildfires impact the recreation infrastructure. Severely burned out
forests do not offer either the hiker or off-roader the type of quality
recreational experience that many of us seek. It's time for a change."
"Rather than working with forestry professionals to solve real issues, this
administration judges how successful its forest polices are by calculating
how many millions of acres have been closed off to the general public or
how many roads it has obliterated." Amador concludes.
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