"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."

-- The Dalai Lama

Thursday, July 15, 2004

John Kerry's Forest Plan

I think this issue is representative of the differences between Kerry and Bush.  It was reported today that Kerry plans to take $100 million away from the timber industry and create a new "Forest Restoration Corps" that will create jobs by restoring forest areas. 
 
Compare to Bush's Healthy Forest Initiative which took the science (and the trees) out of forest management.  Instead of asking scientists and forest management technicians what the best options for "healthy forests" were the Bush administration jumped at the chance to hand our wilderness over to Big Lumber. 
 
The Sierra Club says, "The Healthy Forests Initiative (HFI) is President Bush’s response to the past year’s forest fires. The initiative is based on the false assumption that landscape-wide logging will decrease forest fires.   This premise is contradicted by the general scientific consensus, which has found that logging can increase fire risk."  Read more about the details of the Sierra Club's findings.  
 
While I have yet to find the text of Kerry's plan I have a lot of hope.  It sounds like policy for wilderness, and policy for job creation.  Who, besides Big Industry, is against that?





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