"Secret deal may open prime forestland in Mont. for residences" by Karl Vick, Washington Post | July 5, 2008
MISSOULA, Mont. - The Bush administration is preparing to ease the way for the nation's largest private landowner to convert hundreds of thousands of acres of mountain forestland to residential subdivisions.
The deal was struck behind closed doors between Mark Rey, the former timber lobbyist who oversees the US Forest Service, and
Who the hell cares about them, anyway (Sig Heil)?
"We have 40 years of Forest Service history that has been reversed in the last three months," said Pat O'Herren, an official in Missoula County, which is threatening to sue the Forest Service for forgoing environmental assessments and other procedures that would have given the public a voice in the matter.
The deal, which Rey said he expects to formalize next month, threatens to dramatically accelerate trends already transforming the region. Plum Creek's shift from logging to real estate reflects a broader shift in the Western economy, from one long grounded in the industrial-scale extraction of natural resources to one based on accommodating the new residents who have made the region the fastest-growing in the nation.
Environmentalists, to their surprise, found that timber and mining were easier on the countryside.
"Now that Plum Creek is getting out of the timber business, we're kind of missing the loggers," said Ray Rasker, executive director of Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit that studies land management in the West. "It's kind of the ugly face of the new economy."
You environmentalists!!
I'm going to STOP LISTENING to YOU FOOLS!!!
First ethanol, and now this!!!!
Under the new agreement, logging roads running into areas controlled by Plum Creek could be paved - and would thrum with the traffic of eight to 12 vehicle trips per day to and from each home, according to O'Herren. Critics say that will further imperil grizzly bears, lynxes, and other endangered species in the Crown of the Continent ecosystem, a region of rugged peaks, glacier-carved valleys, and sparkling rivers and lakes that straddles the border between Montana and Canada - and that in parts remains as Lewis and Clark found it.
Hey, when environment and development meet, development wins -- unless it is YOUR INDIVIDUAL PROPERTY, readers!!!!
Then you got eminent domain making way for Wal-Marts (Sig Heil)!
"For us, this is kind of an arterial bleed, and we're either going to get a handle on it or not," said Melanie Parker, executive director of Northwest Connections, an environmental group in the Swan Valley. Parker recently eased a sport utility vehicle through Glacier Ridge, a nascent subdivision marked by freshly scraped lots and sumptuous views of the Mission Range on one side, the Swan Range on the other, and the still-sparsely populated valley in between. Most are the second, third, or even fourth homes of wealthy newcomers who have transformed the local economy - 40 percent of income in Missoula County is now "unearned," from, say, dividends - and typically visit only in the summer.
Oh, it is RICHERS getting PAMPERED, isn't it?
Yup, they tell us to cut down our carbon fartprint while they go and destroy forests!
GOT A CLUE FINALLY, shit-eating 'murkns?
"I wanted to own land out there because I was always very interested in the concept of restoration, conservation," Paul Gurinas, the hedge fund partner, said by phone from Chicago. "The fact that it's almost become kind of a housing subdivision, that isn't what I was looking for. I guess I wish I had bought the whole thing up, and then I wouldn't have to worry about it."
Listen to this rip-off artist: I shoulda bought the whole thing!
HANG 'EM!
So environmentalism only matters when it impacts wealthy elites, doesn't it?
Sigh.
I'm tired of the propaganda and agenda-pushing, let me tell you!
