Oh, Christmas Tree, oh, Christmas Tree...

Cathy Giessel - a Republican member of the Alaska State Senate - writing an open letter to President Obama via NRO:

*  *  *

As an Alaskan, I am flattered that this year’s Capitol Christmas tree comes from our own Chugach National Forest.

Selected by the U.S. Forest Service for its perfect, conical shape and evenly dispersed branches, the 74-foot Lutz spruce is a statuesque symbol, for sure.

But it symbolizes much more than holiday cheer.

The handsome tree on the West Lawn was cut, ironically, from a forest that bans timber harvest.

(*GUFFAW*)

That’s due to the "roadless rule," which prohibits construction of new roads in harvest areas and makes most federal land inaccessible to a timber industry that, like our other responsible resource industries, helped build infrastructure and industry in Alaska. Yet, to reach this special tree, the Forest Service built a “path” (as a road would be illegal) and authorized that additional trees in its way be cut down.

* YA CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP, FOLKS!

This was all made possible by a categorical exclusion to bypass the National Environmental Policy Act, which would have included a standard environmental-impact statement. They are tedious and inexpedient, we know.

(*SMIRK*)

The Chugach National Forest, the second-largest in the United States, has a zero Allowable Sale Quantity as part of its management plan. Not one tree can be cut for commercial use.

* UNLESS ONE IS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ITSELF...

* OH, NO, NOT LEGALLY... BUT... WELL... WHO'S GONNA TELL 'EM THEY NEED TO ABIDE BY THE LAW TOO?

* OH... AND HERE'S A BIT OF TRIVIA:

Although the National Park Service includes a prohibition on harvesting trees in its current mission statement, the Forest Service was established in 1905 “with a sacred mission to provide wood to the world.”

* YEP! NOT SURPRISING! WE WERE A SANE COUNTRY BACK THEN!

Nonetheless, Washington has effectively shut down the timber industry on federally owned lands in Alaska, with the exception of small timber operations in Southeast, South-Central, and Interior Alaska.

(*SIGH*)

I understand that one U.S. Forest Service staffer spent nearly a month searching for this year’s Capitol Christmas tree. I respectfully suggest that those staff resources could have been better spent studying sustainable timber harvest in our forests.

Over the years, despite model management and safety records, we have seen ever more restrictions placed on Alaska’s resource development. Natural resources should provide economic opportunities for Alaskans, but our forests have become inaccessible for commercial use by our citizens, and the restrictions have jeopardized jobs and futures.

Furthermore, I find it hypocritical of the federal government to build a road to access a single tree, but not allow us to build a state-funded road that would give rural Alaskans access to emergency medical care. I am referring to the access road between King Cove and Cold Bay — the only community in the region with an airport that provides a reliable link between the East Aleutians and Anchorage.

Currently, the only way out of King Cove during inclement weather is via evacuation in a Coast Guard helicopter originating from Kodiak Island, more than 500 miles away. But the U.S. Interior Department has determined that an eleven-mile stretch of gravel would cause irreparable harm to species in the intersecting wildlife refuge, and it therefore refuses to negotiate with the State of Alaska, even for fair land exchange.

* TELL THE FEDS TO GO F--K THEMSELVES AND DO IT ANYWAY. INDEED... RECLAIM ALL "FEDERAL" LAND IN ALASKA. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS NO CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY TO SIMPLY TAKE STATE LAND.

Mr. President, as proud as we all are of the quality of Alaska’s resources and its wildlife, we must ask: Why the double standards? Your administration was willing to overlook environmental standards in the Chugach National Forest to allow the harvest of the Capitol Christmas tree, but it is unwilling to prioritize public health and safety over speculative environmental impact on local waterfowl in the Aleutian Islands.

The Capitol Christmas tree is a fine symbol of federal double standards — the government’s override of its own laws as soon as it is inconvenienced by so much as a Christmas tree.

Mr. President, as you admire “The People’s Tree” on the West Lawn this Christmas, I ask that you consider the people of southeast Alaska whose livelihoods depend on a sustainable timber industry.

I ask that you consider the people of King Cove, whose lives depend on an emergency access road.

Then I ask that you reconsider federal policies that keep those livelihoods and lives at risk.

Finally, Mr. President, in exchange for this “Gift from the Great Land,” I ask that you recognize the injustice (not merely inconvenience) of these policies, and give Alaskans a Christmas gift: reasonable access to our own land.

* NOTICE HOW SHE BEGS... AS IF OBAMA WERE A KING? DISGUSTING.