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U.S. Forest Service Says
Flags Not Allowed in
National Forest Areas
By Jake Easton
R A D O K N E W S
Posted: May 16, 2003
THE FOREST SERVICE sent out letters to California residents leasing forestry land, saying they must immediately remove flagpoles flying the American flag.
David Knickerbocker, an Army veteran and retired police officer, received one of the letters ordering him to remove a flag he has been flying on leased Eldorado National Forest grounds for more than 23 years.
"I feel it is at times like these our country needs to be showing our unity and patriotism, not promoting ill-thought decisions, which prohibit flagpoles on United States soil," Mr. Knickerbocker said in a letter to Representative Richard W. Pombo, Republican Congressman of the eleventh district in northern California.
The order came from Debbie Gaynor, recreation forester, who said in her letter that, "flagpoles are not authorized for recreation residences and must be removed."
Congressman Pombo is outraged over the incident, and has sent his own letter to Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth to overturn what he calls a "silly order."
"At a time when wildfires are burning up much of the West, and Americans throughout the country face terrorist threats, it would seem to me that USDA Forest Service employees would have better things to do than to tell our citizens not to use flagpoles," Congressman Pombo said in his letter to Mr. Bosworth.
"Are flagpoles more dangerous than forest fires? I urge you to rescind this silly order to remove flagpoles that fly our American flag and urge our field offices to return to more important matters," Mr. Pombo said.
According to an August 2002 fire report, the Congressman makes a strong point. The National Interagency Fire Center's wildland fire statistics show there have already been 55,758 fires that have burned 5,264,655 acres of U.S. forest during 2002 - more than twice the annual average over the past 10 years.
In a letter responding to Congressman Pombo, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said, "I think what happened here was a need to insert more sensitivity into our inspection process… We apologize for the misunderstanding."
Excerpts from the book:
Americans Behaving Badly
by Jake Easton
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