You've heard of the Aristocracy. Well, meet the Hypocracy (I just made it up). It is the elite collection of individuals in positions of power who say one thing for public consumption and quietly do just the opposite when it suits their purpose. Exhibit A for this month is the people who manage roadless areas on our national forests (here he goes again).

The public line from the Bush administration is that it is protecting all roadless areas until the state petition process runs its course, which will take a good long time yet. How then to explain these two items:

On August 10, nearly 20,000 acres of land in inventoried roadless areas in Colorado were auctioned to companies that will explore them for possible oil and gas deposits. Colorado's democratic Senator Ken Salazar bluntly asked the Bureau of Land Management, which is in charge of these leases, not to hold the sale. BLM didn't even bother to get back to him. Meanwhile, a 13-member committee appointed by republican Governor Bill Owens to advise him on preparing his petition concerning roadless areas released its recommendations the previous day. They call for protection of most roadless areas with a few exceptions; at least some of the committee's members also criticized the BLM for going ahead with leases in the remote backcountry roadless areas until the petition process plays out. They worry about a 'land rush' by energy speculators while the administration considers Colorado's proposal, which may take years.
Also in early August, the Forest Service rejected pleas from Oregon's Governor Ted Kulongoski, and allowed the Silver Creek Timber Company to begin felling trees in Mike's Gulch, in Oregon's largest roadless area, the South Kalmiopsis. Outside of Alaska, these are the first trees to be cut down in a roadless area since the original rule went into effect in January 2001. Protests were mounted in Salem, but the logging continues. A second sale, known as Blackberry, has been held and logging is expected to begin there presently.

The Hypocracy offers tepid excuses: The Mike's Gulch sale can go forward because the decision to log there was made when the 2001 rule was enjoined, despite the fact that that injunction has since been vacated. The Colorado leases were anticipated in previous management plans. It's all balderdash. Once again, the administration says one thing and does precisely the opposite, sort of the way the president cooks up signing statements, where he signs a bill into law, at the same time saying that he won't obey it if he doesn't feel like it.

Makes you wonder.

Finally, a late entrant to the initial list of Hypocrats: CropLife America, whose spokesdude slammed this organization in a wrongheaded opinion piece in the Washington Times, which was ably refuted by three of our esteemed clients.

Mailbag is empty. Please refill it. tomturner@earthjustice.org.

Tom Turner, Senior Editor
yourturn@earthjustice.org