Updated with meeting video link, McClintock and Herger Expose the King's Forest Rules, thanks guys!

Yesterday our present Congressman and soon to be again Congressman held a hearing in Sacramento to expose the new Forest Service rules to constrain and manipulate the public's use of the public's land.  HERE is Tmac's opening statement which is right on.  Many of us thought America was not going to allow the same kinds of land policies and rules practiced by the Europeans and in particular Britain.  The forests of old Britain were the possession of the King and the folks that wanted to use them were either disallowed their use or under arrest for "trespassing" on them. 

The Forest Service has been taken over by college graduates trained by the left wing professors in "saving the planet" 101.  These people now populate the FS and have been trained quite well on how to "study" all the ways to keep humans from using their own lands for the betterment of the country.  The public lands  were to be used to enrich America by the use of the natural resources contained on and under those lands.  The FS has decided to make the lands a place to simply look at or in many cases, to keep those pesky humans off of them altogether.

Well, America contains a lot of people with different views about their public lands and their use. The FS doesn't care about anything but  some esoteric "values" and we see the results of those policies in the demise of the economies of our counties and the flight of jobs from them too.  Timber, mining and grazing are given a ration of crap and a huge number of rules to follow (for easy lawsuits by eco nut groups).  In its place are Wilderness and Wild and Scenic and many other wonderful sounding terms to lockdown the lands.  Of course, the revenues from the use of the natural resources is constrained and under relentless attack by the eco groups and the federal land managers (they even have rules for gold panning on the Yuba for goodness sakes).  The hearings were to discuss some of these things and try to steer the federal governments land management plans back to"multiple use" which is the common sense way to manage our lands.

The Sacramento Bee did a opinion piece and as we know the Bee hates Tom McClintock and does its best to denigrate him whenever they can.  The Editorial is crap of course and just reinforces why I canceled my 20 year subscription 15 years ago.  After the "Sierra in Peril" hit piece by Tom Knudson, I had had enough of their lying to their subscribers.

HERE is the opinion piece and when you read it, keep your laughing to a minimum or you may hurt yourself. The hearing was attended by many people but the Bee decided to try and denigrate it by stating it was Tea Party crowd, so it was in their pea-brains simply a pep rally.  Well, the Bee is always looking for ways to diss our Conservative representatives and they think people will agree with them!  Sorry Bee, we agree with the Congressmen and the Tea Party.  You urban editors are full of crap.  You need to travel around the district and interview people who have been screwed over by the federal and state bureaucrats and see the destruction they have wrought on rural counties.  But you won't.  If you do though we know you will find that one  supporter of the feds and give that person the bulk of your story (above the fold).  The forest are for everyone, not just an able bodied Sierra Club hiker (this will be the last paragraph on th back page).

The best quote in the editorial was from the Plumas County Sheriff.

"Incredibly, Sheriff Greg Hagwood of Plumas County testified his office "will not enforce the Travel Management Policy as it exists today." He sees the policy as creating "a new class of criminals" out of people simply "enjoying the forest." He said the Forest Service "will be placing their officers in situations with a high likelihood for confrontation" – at which point, the crowd in the hearing room shouted, "Yes!"

The Bee says it is incredible he would say this.  I and many others in the counties devastated by Federal Land Use policies are all screaming "YES", as did the meetings crowd (the Sheriff is a hero to all of us).  The Bee is way out of touch with the souls they claim to care about.  Many thousands of people lost their livelihoods after the stupid kids under the dome bought into the Knudson lies back in the 90's.  Where are the followup stories on that devastation suffered by timber, mining and grazing folks?  Oh, that doesn't fit the playbook of the professional stenographers employed by the Bee.  We support our Congressmen and women who support the multiple use of our public lands.  We pay the taxes and fees and all Americans should be able to benefit from those lands.  The Bee is simply a arrogant birdcage carpet and I am sad to say that.


UPDATED 9-21-2011.  HERE is the video link of the meeting, enjoy!