Sawmills in Hulett, Wyoming and Spearditch, South Dakota will slow operations as Republican donor Jim Neiman threatens to close the mills after increases in sales of timber were deprioritized in the Black Hills National Forest's revised plan. Neiman will reduce production at the Spearditch mill and end one shift in Hulett according to a press release.
Neiman waited until Donald Trump was forced from the White House then shuttered his sawmill in Hill City, South Dakota and blamed the Forest Service. One needs to look no further than the BHNF for how politics has completely altered a landscape but there are plenty other public lands examples that illustrate the red state, blue state divide. According to former BHNF timber cruiser, Dave Mertz there haven’t been any litigators to sue the Forest Service allowing Republicans to infiltrate management of the BHNF.
The operation in Hulett employs a third of that community’s population and the Biden administration is anxious to reward US Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) for her efforts to bring the Trump Organization to justice.
It’s entirely likely Neiman refuses to pay competitive wages but chooses to blame others for worker shortages instead. There are far, far better life choices than working in a sawmill for ten years let alone living in states where workers are commodities.
Neiman bought mills in blue states Colorado and Oregon that expanded Medicaid, so go figure.
Nearly every national forest in at least 11 western states should be remanded to the tribal nations they were seized from including the Black Hills National Forest.
The US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management should be merged in the Department of Interior as the Forest and Land Management Service.
ip photo: native wild turkeys cavort in an aspen community returning after the 2000 Jasper Fire.
A snippet from my research on July wildfires in the Black Hills. This is the exact pattern we are entering into and it looks to continue through July. Full July 2022 outlook here: https://t.co/9VJe8dc72B #sdfire pic.twitter.com/Q164jNmhMI
— Darren Clabo (@SDFireWeather) July 11, 2022
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