Comments on U.S. Forest Service land management

This article is a classic example of why we need state contrrol over public lands, in the 70's the USFS generated 2 dollars in revenue for every dollar spent in management.. Today, depending on which numbers you use, they spend between 4, and 7 dollars for every dollar of revenue brought in. Basically it has become a huge organization shuffling papers back and forth from Washington to your hometown, with a minority of the people engaged in the field.. In contrast, the state of Montana gains 4 dollars of revenue, for every one dollar spent in management of its public lands. We need to do it locally!!!

Craig Neal

Livingston, MT

U.S. Forest Service rejecting purpose of wood harvest causing fire.

Consider this

The Forest Reserve Act of 1891, which allowed the president to establish forest reserves from timber covered public domain land. Several early leaders and visionaries, along with willing presidents (especially Teddy Roosevelt), scientific and conservation organizations, and newly trained forestry professionals, led the successful effort in retaining millions of acres of Federal forest land for future generations.

The United States currently has a system of 155 national forests, 20 national grasslands, and 222 research and experimental forests, as well as other special areas, covering more than 192 million acres of public land. The Forest Service has evolved into a 30,000 employee agency that manages the national forests for a number of multiple uses, including recreation, timber, wilderness, minerals, water, grazing, fish, and wildlife.

And instead of harvesting timber to continue the healthy forest management the current administration simply eliminate timber harvest and buy more land. Case and point here

Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said the Forest Service's $4.9 billion budget request for fiscal 2014 would be a "huge blow" to forest health and would counteract the agency's restoration goal of harvesting 3 billion board feet of timber a year.

The administration's budget seeks full funding for a popular collaborative restoration program and seeks increased funding for land acquisitions and private land easements

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Oh Farmers Grain Co now that's cool dig in.

Always love speaking at farmer coop meetings. Like this Farmer's Grain Co tonight because I convince myself big crowd is about me not patronage check they are about to get. This check is really really good.

I love this photo but does anybody know where my meeting is by seeing it?

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Quck human blood facts

• Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood.
• More than 41,000 blood donations are needed every day.
• A total of 30 million blood components are transfused each year in the U.S.
• The average red blood cell transfusion is approximately 3 pints.
• The blood type most often requested by hospitals is Type O.

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Blood Facts and Statistics

Dogs are not humans but gaining preference

Last fall ABC news reports:

A critical shortage of blood has forced the cancellation of elective surgeries in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Atlanta, the American Red Cross said today.

The Nation Has a Major Blood Shortage

Meanwhile today in Pennsylvania people are worried about canine blood donation.

HARLEYSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - If man's best friend is a dog, then who is a dog's best friend? That would be Rover. Or Glow. Or Ivan or Raina.

The four canines recently donated precious pints of blood to their fellow pooches. And they did it without having to travel far from home: They visited an animal bloodmobile.

Similar to the Red Cross vehicles for humans, the University of Pennsylvania's traveling veterinary lab goes to where the donors are to make it easier to give.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/living/pets/20140514_ap_eb8dfc69dd7d4557b32c38d285c9e7de.html#o3A5PCpGlotSgO4f.99

Yes I spent the night as O'Hare refugee. It was quite interesting actually as they rolled out 500 cots.

A calf never stands up on it first attempt but keeps going until job is complete. Love calving season.

What are the environmental benefits of GM crops?

What are the environmental benefits of GM crops?

One of the significant environmental benefits of GM crops is the dramatic reduction in pesticide use, with the size of the reduction varying between crops and introduced trait.

• A study assessing the global economic and environmental impacts of biotech crops for the first 16 years (1996-2011) of adoption showed that the technology has reduced pesticide spraying by 474 million kg and has reduced environmental footprint associated with pesticide use by 18.1%. The technology has also significantly reduced the release of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture equivalent to removing 10 million cars from the roads.²
• In the USA, adoption of GM crops resulted in pesticide use reduction of 46.4 million pounds in 2003.³
• The use of Bt cotton in China resulted in pesticide use reduction of 78,000 tons of formulated pesticides in 2001. This corresponds to about a quarter of all the pesticides sprayed in China in the mid-1990s.⁴Additionally, the use of Bt cotton can substantially reduce the risk and incidence of pesticide poisonings to farmers.⁵
• Herbicide tolerant crops have facilitated the continued expansion of conservation tillage, especially no-till cultivation system, in the USA. The adoption of conservation and no-till cultivation practices saved nearly 1 billion tons of soil per year.⁶
• Biotech cotton has been documented to have a positive effect on the number and diversity of beneficial insects in the US and Australian cotton fields.⁷
• Adoption of Bt corn in the Philippines did not show an indication that Bt corn had negative effect on insect abundance and diversity.¹⁵

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In Wyoming I say HELL YEAH