And now:Sonja Keohane <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Seems to me that if the Montana Dept of Livestock (MDOL) is in fact
funded and run by the cattle industry, perhaps the Montana Dept of Natural
Resources (MDNR) might well be funded and run by the timber industry...and
they certainly don't want the feds "meddling" in state land management.
<http://www.gomontana.com/index.shtml>
Timber sale protest comes from unlikely quarters
By SCOTT McMILLION Chronicle Staff Writer
When a Gallatin National Forest official raised a long list of concerns about
a timber sale on state land south of Big Timber recently, she miffed the
timber industry, gladdened an environmentalist and caused the state agency
proposing the sale to thump its own chest.
Deborah Johnson, district ranger in Big Timber, wrote a June 2 letter to the
Montana Department of Natural Resources about a proposed timber sale on
a square-mile section of state land in the Deer Creek drainage.
She listed 11 concerns, ranging from impacts on Yellowstone cutthroat
trout to big game winter range to neotropical birds. She asked for specific
details on the "direct, indirect and cumulative effects of the timber sale" on
all of those resources.
"It sounds exactly like a letter the Friends of the Wild Gooey Duck would
send," said Cary Hegreberg, director of the Montana Wood Products
Association. "It seems pretty out of line for the Forest Service to be
meddling in state land management when they can't do a decent job of
managing their own."
----end of excerpt----
