Zinke the Troll speaks

mfb99

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From The Hill:

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is partially blaming “radical environmentalists” for the dozens of wildfires burning in California and elsewhere in the West.

I won't give credence to the diatribe that Zinke has been spewing about the fires in the West, you can go to The Hill to read the article.

Here is the main fact about the fires in the west - relentless drought. Regardless of what the cause of this drought is, it IS the main factor.

Should we have more prescribed burns, maybe. Should we clear more brush and deadwood, maybe. Should we reduce density of some forest land, probably.

But here is the thing, none of those preventative activities are going to stop the type of fires we are seeing in the West. In California for example, try having a prescribed burn in dense Chaparral and you are looking at a real possibility of a run away fire. Clear some dead wood; has Zinke even heard of the bark beetle and seen the devastation that it has caused in the forest? Do you really think that the understaffed and under funded BLM and NFS are going to have any impact on removing brush. Increase logging, well many of these burn areas are not logging timber. They are scrub, chaparral, scrub oak. And the conifers are mixed in with all the other growth. Much of this is not timber country.

Add on top of this, is the fact that the urban areas have pushed deeper and deeper into the wilderness. There are houses, people and yes arsonists in the zones that burn so fiercely.

Zinke would rather vilify environmentalists rather than trying to find solutions. If there is anyone agency and one person to blame for fires he should look in the mirror. He guts the Interiror Department, he underfunds the agencies that could help with fire fighting. He denies any connection to climate change and fires. He pushes for more extraction industry activity on Public Lands (Yes, dozer blades do cause fires, as does welding, as do high power lines)

Hey Zinke, how about funding some more air tankers, more helicopters? How about modernizing the logistics of firefighting? How about partnering with the High Tech companies to develop technical solutions of satellite mapping. Where are the drones that could spot dry conditions and potential danger areas? Have you talked with the environmentalists and asked for volunteers to help prevent fires? Have you added manpower to the BLM and NFS. Have you raised wages and improved benefits for your employees? Etc, etc.

Zinke, you are a troll. You spend your days in the boardrooms of the Extraction Industry. You gut the BLM and NFS. You push for more drill baby drill, dig baby dig.

And when YOUR lands start burning to the ground, you absolve any responsibility and try to blame others. Typical from this administration.

We need to vote these rascals out of office in November.

Cheers,

Mark

Ye Shall Be Free To Roam.....
 
Perhaps you should comment on the issues instead of just the man himself. Calling him a troll does not further your agenda, it alienates.

Aren't we past the time for this user to have his password changed?
 
We need to vote out an appointed official, appointed by someone that’s not up for re election.
Thanks for the tip.
 
Productive meeting in Hamilton yesterday on the topic. Most people around here are looking for solutions to the problems we face and reasonable discussion from people that have solid knowledge and experience. Most people around here a getting tired of all the political b s that gets tossed around by people that have no idea what they are talking about.

Hope Gianforte pursues more of this kind of dialog.

https://ravallirepublic.com/
 
Productive meeting in Hamilton yesterday on the topic.

Odd, I heard just the opposite from some very knowledgeable folks on the issue. They said it was a joke.

On the plus side no one got body slammed.
 
Odd, I heard just the opposite from some very knowledgeable folks on the issue. They said it was a joke.

On the plus side no one got body slammed.

Like Jim Rokosch? Like I said before, most people around here are getting tired of the political b s from folks like him. Apparently you like his b s Tony.
 
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Like Jim Rokosch? Like I said before, most people around here are getting tired of the political b s from folks like him. Apparently you like his b s Tony.

Don't assume Paul. Reread my post. It says very knowledge folks.
 
Can't say I disagree with anything in that... am I missing something Mark... kinda seems like on the fire/forest management side you just don't like Zinke because he is a republican I'm sure you would be singing his praises for the same statement under a different administration.

Personally, I think it's a glossy attempt to undermine the real causes of forest fires, and he's repeating some false information regarding pine beetle killed forests and fire. Regardless of that, it's one thing for a politician to say something we all can agree on, and there's a lot to agree on in his opinion piece, but it's another to actually advance policies that will enable better management of forests, while still protecting truly wild places. We get served all or nothing dishes from both extremes of the land management debate, and it creates a situation where we either want to end up managing our forests like Europeans (intensive, privatized management) or we end up with wilderness everywhere.
 
Perhaps you should comment on the issues instead of just the man himself. Calling him a troll does not further your agenda, it alienates.

Aren't we past the time for this user to have his password changed?

Just put him on Ignore. You'll probably get your wish one of these days!
 
How certain are we that mfb99 is not a bot? Dude has 95 comments, all of which have occurred on the 65 threads he has put up here. Outside of his first couple threads, there's little reason to believe he is a real person. These threads are sometimes interesting, but often incite, which is what some bots of a certain flavor would be designed for.

Hey Mark, are you real? Why don't you comment on your threads after you start them? You hunting this fall?
 
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Personally, I think it's a glossy attempt to undermine the real causes of forest fires, and he's repeating some false information regarding pine beetle killed forests and fire. Regardless of that, it's one thing for a politician to say something we all can agree on, and there's a lot to agree on in his opinion piece, but it's another to actually advance policies that will enable better management of forests, while still protecting truly wild places. We get served all or nothing dishes from both extremes of the land management debate, and it creates a situation where we either want to end up managing our forests like Europeans (intensive, privatized management) or we end up with wilderness everywhere.

I 100% agree, I was just commenting on the content of the USA today piece and wasn't making an overarching statement about my views on the secretary.
 
I 100% agree, I was just commenting on the content of the USA today piece and wasn't making an overarching statement about my views on the secretary.

Got it, and I hope it was clear I wasn't being critical of your post, just adding my opinion to yours.
 
To the articles point though... I'm hunting in Summit/Grand county CO this year where my father-n-law grew up and he has been giving me all his old spots, showing me pictures, etc. and man has that forest changed. Two of the spots he killed great bulls in you can't even walk into anymore the downed timber is so think. One drainage in particular, in a wilderness area, had down timber 5-6 feet high almost continuously... I don't think any deer/elk/bears have inhabited that area in decades.

Not sure what you do let it burn when a fire comes through? Suppression efforts are so intense because of the proximity to homes that I don't think that will ever happen, do you just write off that forest as habitat?
 
A one trick bot that has every reply'r on ignore..now that's irony.

Kudos Markatron.
 
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