Can't See the Forest for the Bush

This has got to stop! President Bush has decided to yield up my share of the national forests (YOUR share, too) to logging industries. There are articles in papers all over the place today, but one in the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" hits home to AT folks.

The article by Charles Seabrook, titled "Bush Opens Forest Roads; Governors Get Say in Logging, Mining Access," shares this information:

"In the southern Appalachians, the rule could affect 756,000 acres in nine national forests.

"One of the Chattahoochee Forest tracts is the 8,350-acre Kelly Ridge roadless area straddling the Appalachian Trail near the Georgia mountain town of Helen, about 120 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. A high, wild and rugged area, it is adjacent to the 9,700-acre Tray Mountain Wilderness Area and harbors one of North Georgia's largest old-growth forests. Swallow Creek, an important trout stream, flows out of the Kelly Ridge area."

What I want to know (don't we all) is whether any governors will have the gumption to move against the loggers in their states and make an appeal for preserving roadless areas. President Bush has turned things completely upside down in making the status quo position "okay for roads." To protect areas under his new rules, the so-often sluggish political machinery will need to gear itself up and ask for it. Before yesterday's announcement on this issue, the status quo was that forests were protected; governments and industry had to ask before they could disrupt the carefully balanced ecosystems of these forests by putting in roads and taking out trees.

Better get out there and hike Georgia's AT through Kelly Ridge while you still can!