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US Forest Service Propaganda
July 14, 2004
By Gerald A. Ullery
During one of those terrible fire seasons that
burned throughout vast areas of the West, a single lightning
strike hit in the Gila National Forest about fifteen miles
southwest of the Town of Reserve, New Mexico. In June 2001, when this
forest burned due to one lightning strike, this was pristine forest
land that had been deliberately and poorly 'maintained' with
far too much undergrowth allowed to exist without responsible harvest
and management.
Reserve used to be a thriving logging town
with a healthy forest -- until Environmental Extremist
Organizations had the logging industry shut down in the County of
Catron. The logging/timber industry was the lifeblood of this remote
rural town that today continues its struggle to keep from
becoming a ghost town.
Why was the logging industry shut down, you ask?
The Environs stated that the Mexican Spotted Owl "might"
decide to migrate to the local area where the logging was taking
place. To this day I know of no one that has actually seen one of
these so called "Endangered" owls anywhere even near the
area.
Propaganda is just another word for lie,
misconception or to mislead ... away from the truth. The large amount
of timbered acreage that burned in June 2001 has been 'handled' in a
misleading way by the Forest Service, both before and after the fire.
This area was burnt as a result of a lightning
strike -- "NOT" a campfire, as this Forest Service
sign would have you believe. Sign viewed traveling East on New
Mexico Hwy. 180.
More propaganda, leading the public to believe that
fireworks were the cause of this burned forest area.
Sign viewed while traveling West on New
Mexico Hwy. 180.
For eighteen months, the U.S. Forest Service tried
to allow the salvage of burnt timber. Problems arose when the
Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Forest Guardians filed
a Lawsuit to stop the salvage. Hundreds of thousands of board
feet of lumber have been left to rot away ever since. Note the
undergrowth -- which initially helped the fire to burn
-- is again taking over. I noticed no new growth of any pine,
pinion, or juniper trees -- three years later.
This photo is looking west and shows the
devastation of a "Lightening strike" -- NOT a campfire
or fireworks, which the U.S. Forest Service would lead you
to believe, according to its sign. Although the distance is
difficult to determine in the photo, the small peak is approximately
3/4 mile away.
All photos by:
Gerald Ullery
Web Master
Dolphin Enterprises and www.PropertyRightsResearch.org
Permission to copy granted.
The photo below was submitted to me by Ric Frost on behalf of the photographer (Nick Ashcroft).
This is also out of the Gila coming back from Reserve. It was taken a year ago in March. |
