Retarded Firefighting

A group of radical Left eco-crazies are calling for the jailing of Agriculture Undersecretary for the USFS Mark Rey. The Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (FSEEE) wants Mark Rey slapped in the pokey because the USFS has not written an Environmental Impact Statement regarding the use of fire retardant on forest fires.

From an AP report last week (here):

Bush Official Faces Contempt Charge for Not Studying Environmental Impact of Fire Retardant

Jeff Barnard, Associated Press, August 21, 2007

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — A federal judge in Montana has ordered the Bush administration’s top forestry official to explain why he should not be held in contempt of court for the U.S. Forest Service’s failure to analyze the environmental impact of dropping fish-killing fire retardant on wildfires.

If found in contempt, Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service, could go to jail until the Forest Service complies with the court order to do the environmental review.

Noting that Rey had blocked implementation of an earlier review, U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy in Missoula, Mont., ordered Rey to appear in his court Oct. 15 unless the Forest Service completes the analysis before that time…

Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, an environmental group based in Eugene, filed the lawsuit in 2003, a year after more than 20,000 fish were killed when toxic retardant was dropped in Fall Creek in central Oregon…

Andy Stahl, the group’s executive director, said it asked the judge to specifically hold Rey responsible…

Stahl said the Forest Service appears to be immune legally from fines, but not from jail time to pressure them to complete the environmental review.

“You can throw them in jail to coerce future good behavior,” Stahl said.

Some background:  In 2003 Andy Stahl and the FSEEE sued the US Government to throw a monkey wrench into the use of fire retardant on forest fires. Stahl does not want the USFS to use fire retardant. In their briefs, the FSEEE claimed that fire retardant had been accidentally dropped on firefighters, and it might have caused a rash in some, although no evidence of that was presented.

Nor was evidence presented that fire retardant has saved the lives of thousands of firefighters as well as millions of acres of forest and hundreds of thousands of homes, although that evidence is ample to the point of overwhelming.

Also, the FSEEE claimed, there was the possibility that the availability of fire retardant might cause fire fighters to get too close to fires. If there was no available fire retardant, firefighters might stay a considerable distance away, and then they would be less likely to get hurt.

No one mentioned in the court documents that the safest place for a firefighter during a fire would be home in bed. Or that any and all firefighting equipment is an inducement to get closer rather than farther away. In this particular case the FSEEE only wished to exclude fire retardant, not pulaskis, pumper trucks, or Nomex shirts, for instance. But make no mistake about it, they don’t want those items of firefighting used either.

Also, the FSEEE claimed, fire retardant kills fish, and thereby ruins the fishing experiences for USFS employees. They needed to throw the fishing experience in to establish that they, as employees, were suffering from the actions of their employer. The fact that at the time, only one of the FSEEE Board was actually a USFS employee did not come up.

Nor did the fact that forest fires fill streams with ash  and soot, and sometimes boil the water in streams, killing all the fish right now. Nor was it pointed out that after forest fires increased erosion often fills streams with fish-choking mud.

The fact is, fire retardant saves the lives of fish as well as firefighters, and those effects last for years and years, whereas a little bit of soap in the stream does next to nothing and disappears almost immediately. That’s all that fire retardant is: soap, basically, a wetting agent, usually ammonium phosphate, otherwise known as fertilizer, applied in parts per million, and something that has little effect on anything but the fire.

U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy bought into the rad leftish anti-forest, pro-holocaust malarkey hook, line, and sinker. Surprised? Where have you been the last 40 years, Mars? Molloy is a Federal Judge. Of course he went for the Let It Burn political line.

His decision in FSEEE v.the USFS, CV 03-165-M-DWM is (here, 1,262KB). Some quotes:

Plaintiff FSEEE argues… 1) FSEEE members have had fire retardant dropped directly on them and the materials safety data sheets counsel against retardant contact with skin; 2) retardant drops in waterways can kill fish, resulting in adverse affects to FSEEE members’ fishing experiences; and 3) USFS’s decision not to consult NEPA has procedurally harmed them…

Plaintiff is not required to show actual environmental harm. To show that the agency violated its duty to prepare an EIS in the Ninth Circuit, a plaintiff need not show that a significant effect will in fact occur, only that substantial questions are raised as to whether a project may have a significant effect. Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, 161 F.3d at 1212…  [emphasis in original]

Based on the foregoing, Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment on Claims 1 and 3 are Granted. Defendant and Defendant-Intervenor’s motions for summary judgment on Claim 2 are Granted. USFS shall comply with NEPA and begin formal consultations with FWS as required by ESA…

Dated this 30th day of September, 2005

[signed]  Donald W. Molloy, Chief Judge, United States District Court

Now, almost two years later, the USFS has not come up with an EIS. Hence the call by FSEEE to throw somebody in jail. Their choice, and Judge Molloy’s choice, is Mark Rey.

We have to chuckle, a kind of morose and ironic chuckle, though.

The radical so-called “environmental” Left is mad because too much fire retardant is being used to control forest fires. The radical so-called “environmental” Left wants America’s forests to burn in raging holocausts. That is obvious. The USFS is dragging their heels. That is obvious, too.

The USFS is also engaged in a Let It Burn program propagandized by their radical so-called “environmental” Left partners in the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (Rey is a member) without any NEPA process, either. Whole National Forests have been dedicated to holocaust without public hearing number one, or any Environmental Impact Statement or Assessment. And the radical so-called “environmental” Left has NOT sued about that.

The radical so-called “environmental” Left has captured the USFS and are waging a terror war of forest destruction upon America, with the witting though witless assistance of their accomplices in the Federal Judiciary.

That’s just a fact. A horrible fact that we need to face. When former Earth First-ers are monkey wrenching our national firefighting apparatus, then that’s an act of war; no more, no less.