The ugly Bush stain: Convert forests to housing subdivisions edition

By GottaLaff

This nauseating abomination aka BushCo's New Rule, makes the Healthy Forests Initiative seem environmentally friendly:

In yet another potential last minute rule change, “the Bush administration appears poised to push through a change in U.S. Forest Service agreements that would make it far easier for mountain forests to be converted to housing subdivisions.” Though President-elect Obama has opposed the move, Mark E. Rey, the former timber lobbyist who heads the Forest Service, has signaled that he intends to finalize the plan before Obama’s inauguration. [...]

Rey is pushing a technical change that it will have “large implications“:

The shift is technical but with large implications. It would allow Plum Creek Timber to pave roads passing through Forest Service land. For decades, such roads were little more than trails used by logging trucks to reach timber stands.

But as Plum Creek has moved into the real estate business, paving those roads became a necessary prelude to opening vast tracts of the company’s 8 million acres to the vacation homes that are transforming landscapes across the West.

Scenic western Montana, where Plum Creek owns 1.2 million acres, would be most affected, placing fresh burdens on county governments to provide services, and undoing efforts to cluster housing near towns.

[...] The GAO concluded that 900 miles of logging roads could be paved in Montana and that amending the long-held easements “could have a nationwide impact.”

Much more here.

It's heartwarming to witness BushCo's love and loyalty to this majestic land of ours.

Remember this?

“History,” Bush replied, when asked by Woodward how he would be judged over time. “We don’t know. We’ll all be dead.”

For once, after all these heartburn-inducing, penetrating stains he's leaving, Bush may be right.