Clinton's inferno rages in Montana

He and Gore Sided With the Powerful Environmental Extremists

Near Conner, in Montana's Bitterroot Valley, within miles of Idaho, stands a sign: `To the Fire Fighters: Thank; you for all your efforts. To the U.S. Forest Service: Everything that we love is gone ... up in smoke. The mismanagement of our forests has turned our beautiful valley into an ASH HEAP! To Bill Clinton & Al Gore: Because of your environmental policies, the jobs are GONE, the way of life is GONE, and now the beauty is GONE. What's next? Shame on you!"

As Clinton signs one national monument decree after another, closing millions of acres to economic and recreational activity, pursuing what the Washington Post calls an "environmental lands legacy," that sign in the Bitterroot Valley may be Clinton's real lands legacy, that sign and the fires throughout Montana, Idaho and the West to which it refers. For today, the West is facing the worst fire season in half a century. Before heavy snows fall in the Rocky Mountains-the only thing that will end this inferno-it could be the most destructive fire season ever!

Nearly 75,000 Fires, Millions of Acres Destroyed

Today, nearly 75,000 fires have destroyed 6.3 million acres, a third of that in Idaho and Montana. Montana is particularly hard hit; 200 fires are out of control on 712,000 acres, affecting all 56 counties and hundreds of communities. The number of fires will drop ominously as the fires bum together into more dangerous blazes, All national forests, affecting 20 million acres, are closed. Gov. Racicot (R.) declared a state of emergency and asked for and received a national disaster area designation. More than 11,000 fire fighters, not including volunteers, are involved, including the National Guard, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marines, and people from 27 states and three countries.

Westerners saw it coming. For example, the Forest Service and rural residents near the Kootenai National Forest in northwestern Montana, where 165 fires are now out of control, predicted catastrophic fires if fuel loads were not reduced by forest management. Environmental groups filed neverending appeals and noisy objections, demanding a return to "nature's way."

In response, the Clinton Administration cut timber harvesting across the west by 75%; in the Kootenai, timber harvesting has been all but stopped. As a result, says Bruce Vincent, third-generation logger from Libby, Mont., "we are a four-hour wind away from the fires that took out three million acres here in 1910."

Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and Secretary of the Interior Babbitt did- more than end thoughtful timber management-- they sought the obliteration of 6,000 miles of national forest roads annually, the roads that serve as fire breaks and access corridors for fire fighters. (Babbitt says helicopters take him to the fires. But Montana fire fighters ride school buses!) Babbitt says his goal of pre-settlement conditions requires burning five million acres annually!

Recently Clinton demonstrated his commitment to "nature's way"; when viewing the fires from a helicopter, he said, "Mother Nature will bum our forests one way or another." For the first boomer President, Clinton is remarkably anti-technology, as is Gore, who seeks to end timber harvesting on 40 to 65 million acres of the national forest. As Al Gore wrote in Earth in the Balance regarding technological solutions, such as forestry, "We are not that smart, we never have been."

Gore has been criticized for his "us against them, the people vs. the powerful" (quoting ABC's Cokie Roberts) Democratic Convention speech. But in Libby, Gore's statement, "Often powerful forces and powerful interests stand in your way and the odds seem stacked against you and your family," had special meaning, although not in the way Gore intended.

In Libby, the "powerful forces and powerful interests" include Gore and the environmental groups with which Gore aligns himself. Not surprisingly, Gore's promise, "I'll stand up for you," is not being heard above the sounds of hundreds of thousands of acres of Western land exploding into flame. Shame indeed.

Mr. Pendly is president and chief legal officer of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, under whose auspices this article was produced.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Sep 29, 2000
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