Press release issued in 2007. After 60 buildings burn.

This was released after the fire along the Gunflint trail torched 60 buildings, many old historic and sentimental log cabins and homes.

May 9, 2007
PRESS RELEASE: Sierra Club Agenda proves costly again.


Statement by: Forrest C. Wilkinson. FCWilkinson@hotmail.com
Editor of “The Warren Report”; official newspaper of...
The River Warren Research Committee, RWRC.
Go www.riverwarren.org for more info.


Statement: Here in Minnesota we have great pride in the outdoors. There are basically two ways to discuss items concerning the territory that is Minnesota.

A) Assume a heavily regulated people – prevent potential harms and hazards to people through State agencies.
B) Assume a lightly regulated people – deal with harms and hazards to people as they arise through courts and juries.


In "A" we tend to trust the data from the agencies of the State and severely question the facts and motives of anyone suggesting less regulation.


This is what I refer to as “The Sierra Club Way”.


In "B" we tend to trust the data from a free-people and severely question the facts and motives of anyone suggesting more regulation.


This is what I refer to as “The American Way”.


We as a people through our elected representatives here in Saint Paul have chosen "A" …”The Sierra Club Way”.


We did this through long debate and with our eyes wide open over decades. So we must accept the natural results of our political decisions.


As we continue to follow the Sierra Club Agenda for Minnesota we must stoically admit and accept that there will be costs to be paid by individual people. By our fellow Minnesotans.


When we accept that dams are; as Sierra Club Hero David Foreman puts it, “At the center of environmental hell”, we must accept all the facts resulting from these positions. We must expect that places on unique rivers like the Red and the Minnesota will experience wild fluctuation of water level. If we refuse to use dams for “Flood Flattening”; towns like Ada, and Breckenridge and Granite Falls will have regular floods, with the resulting destruction to people and their property.


When we say that we must stop some odd concept like “sprawl” we should expect less roadwork and bridge building. Stillwater has been waiting for a new bridge for over fifty years. We will; and have seen, not only loss of productivity, but also human life, to the Sierra Club Agenda directing our transportation infrastructure.


And when we say all logging should stop in all National Forests, it is only rational to expect the conditions the people of Cook County are experiencing right now. With the resulting property loss and atmospheric contaminants. Why is a burned stump better than a logged one?


The Sierra Club Agenda is not necessarily worse for the “environment”, but it is most certainly very hard on People.

Forrest C Wilkinson. FCWilkinson@hotmail.com