The efforts of Oklahoma US Sen. James Lankford and others to stop the President’s nomination of environmental extremist Tracy Stone-Manning from heading the Bureau of Land Management prompted other Senators to file legislation against the tree-spiking the woman was accused of doing in the 1980s.
Wyoming GOP Sen. John Barrasso, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and Idaho Republican Sen. JIm Risch filed S. 2506, the Tree Spiking Mitigation Act.
“Tree spiking is a disturbing and dangerous eco-terrorist tactic meant to intimidate, injure, or kill fellow Americans,” said Barrasso. “Many trees that were spiked decades ago remain standing on our public lands, including trees spiked in the 1989 Post Office timber sale on the Clearwater National Forest.”
That’s the forest where Stone-Manning and other alleged eco-terrorists spiked trees, decades before she was nominated by Biden to head the BLM, a nomination fought by Sen. Lankford and others on the committee.
“Eco-terrorists spiked trees in Idaho and across the West with the intent of injuring or killing people in the timber industry,” said Risch. “Some of these spiked trees remain standing today, posing a danger to firefighters, smoke jumpers, loggers, and mill workers.”
The Tree Spiking Mitigation Act will:
· Direct the Forest Service and the Department of the Interior (working through the Bureau of Land Management) to work together to detect, identify, and mitigate tree spikes on National Forests and public lands; and
· Direct these agencies to, where appropriate, update safety guidelines and safety protocols to include the awareness, detection, identification, and mitigation of tree spikes.
As for Stone-Manning, her nomination received a tie-vote in committee and this week, the full Senate narrowly approved a procedural vote to allow a full vote on her nomination.