http://www.everyweek.com/News/News.asp?no=3307

Ochenski: Rotten to the core
by George Ochenski

Burns, Bosworth Racicot and Martz (clockwise form upper left): The Montana
cabal at forest policy ground zero

How the Montana cabal fuels resource policy

When the same administration that preemptively unleashes devastating military
force on another nation “to make peace� says it wants the timber industry,
without environmental or public review, “to restore forest health,� you’d
best keep a close eye on what’s going down—because it’s most likely going
to be the big, profitable trees. Make no mistake: National fire policy under
Bush, Martz, and their cohorts is being driven by deception and politics, not
science. Unfortunately, when future historians write the tale, Montanans are
likely to be embarrassed by the roles our home-grown politicians played in this
rotten-to-the-core affair.

The Bush administration has become adept at using deception and fear to
accomplish its political goals. National forests, however, belong not to timber
or oil companies, but to each and every American. The problem, at least
according to the industry goons Bush appointed to his cabinet, is that pesky
citizens sometimes want a say in forest management. If you believe the goons,
this is causing unacceptable delays in “restoring forest health.�

Ironically, it was Democrat Gov. Ted Schwinden who proclaimed “The whole damn
state is on fire!� during the Yellowstone fires in 1988. In spite of the fact
that only a few buildings burned, the Republicans saw the opportunity to
exploit terrifying forest conflagrations for political purposes—and they took
it.

Montana’s Republican Congressman Ron Marlenee, a hard-bitten wilderness
opponent, wasted no time in blaming what he hated: “I believe that the
policies of wilderness lands, of ‘lock it up and let it burn,’ is, in fact,
a policy of ruin and ashes.� He was joined on the anti-wilderness bandwagon
by livestock auctioneer turned Senate candidate Conrad Burns, who exploited
Yellowstone’s fires to convince President Reagan to veto legislation
designating millions of acres of Montana wilderness.

Riding high on this “power,� Burns upset incumbent Senator John Melcher,
and the political value of anti-fire rhetoric was off and running. Just so
Montanans don’t forget, what we lost in the bargain that gave us Burns was
the last Montana wilderness bill to pass both houses of Congress.

As drought deepened, fire raged across much of the West. In 2000, Montana was
again visited by conflagration, this time in the Bitterroot Valley. Gov. Marc
Racicot jumped on national television and viciously blamed President Clinton
for the fires. Racicot had already signed on to the Bush campaign team, and
leaped at the opportunity to employ extremely negative campaigning to boost his
candidate’s chances.

Racicot’s rash and inflammatory statements were so out-of-line that the
Missoulian editorialized against them, writing: “What will emerge, as time
allows a more thoughtful analysis than Racicot’s finger-pointing, is that
some of the affected area is heavily logged and some not, that some fires were
caused by nature and others by human carelessness, that weather and wind and
nearly a century (not seven years) of forest policy and the natural cycle of
life are part of the formula for smoke and flames in the forest.�

The rest is history. Racicot, while still on the payroll as governor, headed to
Florida to help Bush obfuscate ballot recounts. Despite losing the popular
vote, Bush was then awarded the presidency by Supreme Court members appointed
by his father. Judy Martz became governor, and wildfire, that handy excuse for
political machination, grew in stature as those who employed it so
disingenuously rose to positions of power.

Bush filled his cabinet with timber, mining, and oil industry goons, not least
among them Helena mining attorney Rebecca Watson, who is now an undersecretary
of agriculture in charge of minerals. Dale Bosworth, meanwhile, was plucked
from the Missoula offices of the Forest Service to become its Chief. Racicot
was rewarded in typical Republican fashion, raking in big bucks lobbying for a
firm that represented such luminaries as Enron while simultaneously chairing
the Republican National Committee.

Gov. Martz, the self-proclaimed “lapdog of industry,� stepped in to carry
on the Racicot tradition of baselessly blaming environmentalists for the fires,
even going so far as to equate them with terrorists for opposing Republican
logging plans. As Chair of the Western Governors’ Association, Martz, abetted
by Sen. Burns and Rep. Rehberg, continues to turn Montanans against each other
while kow-towing to the timber industry.

Just last month, Martz was in D.C., posing with President Bush as he gleefully
announced new regulations to allow unlimited 1,000-acre clearcuts without
environmental review or the opportunity for administrative appeal. The clear
intent was to portray the Western Governors’ Association as backing
environmental and public exclusions. But that too is a deception, as pointed
out by Oregon’s former governor John Kitzhaber.

“As one of the authors of the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) 10-Year
Comprehensive Strategy, I feel compelled to correct the media reports that are
providing the public with a faulty understanding of the Healthy Forests
Restoration Act’s relationship to the WGA strategy,� wrote Kitzhaber in a
letter to Congress only days before the Martz-Bush charade. “The intent of
the strategy is to be as broad based and inclusive as possible in developing
forest management projects…in an effort to reduce the polarization that has
often surrounded forest management issues…I am very concerned that this
legislation will be perceived by the public as a way to reduce or avoid
legitimate public participation in and review of these important projects.�

There is little doubt that we can benefit from efforts to make areas
surrounding forest communities and homes less fire-prone. But turning the
timber industry loose on 190 million acres of woodlands the Forest Service
deems at “extreme risk� for wildfires (nearly the size of Montana, Wyoming,
and Idaho combined), without environmental review or public involvement is
sheer lunacy.

It is shameful that the natural process of fire—and the fear it
engenders—is being so grievously abused for political purposes. It is even
more shameful that some Montanans have played, and continue to play, such key
roles in the politicization.

When not lobbying the Montana Legislature, George Ochenski is rattling the cage
of the political establishment as a political analyst for the Missoula
Independent.