Bears Aren?EUR??,,????'???t Dangerous?EUR??,,????'??+People Are

 

The Forest Service requested a $12 million increase for law enforcement in the budget year that begins Oct. 1, as recognition of the increased crime in national forests?EUR??,,????'??+but it?EUR??,,????'???s not bears that are the problem, it?EUR??,,????'???s the people.

For America?EUR??,,????'???s forest rangers, the serenity of the woods increasingly is giving way to confrontations with unruly visitors. Attacks, threats and lesser altercations involving Forest Service workers reached an all-time high last year, according to government documents obtained by a public employees advocacy group. Incidents ranged from gunshots to stalking and verbal abuse. The agency tally shows 477 such reports in 2005, compared with 88 logged a year earlier. The total in 2003 was 104; in 1995, it was 34. Among the more serious incidents, a Forest Service worker was run down by a man in a snowmobile in California?EUR??,,????'???s Lake Tahoe Basin Management area. Also, Forest Service workers were shot at while trying to confiscate a marijuana plantation in California?EUR??,,????'???s Angeles National Forest. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request. The nonprofit environmental advocacy group said the government?EUR??,,????'???s methods for collecting the data have not changed over the years. It said some of the blame for the growing violence in the woods is due to greater access to remote lands and waterways by motorized equipment. Forest Service officials also put some of the blame for the growing violence on increasing border enforcement and drug-related activity. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility also warned about a steady decline in Forest Service security officers, which the group said is endangering employees and the public. Last year, the group said, there were about 660 rangers, investigators and special agents in the nation?EUR??,,????'???s 155 national forests and 20 grasslands?EUR??,,????'??+down by nearly one-third from 1993. The figure translates into one position for every 291,000 acres of forest land in the 192 million acre forest system. The Forest Service spends less than 2 percent of its total budget on law enforcement, a figure that is lower than other federal land management agencies such as the National Park Service or the Bureau of Land Management, the group said. Source: Associated Press