>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Some of us heat our homes with wood and not oil, gas or electricity. We go out in the national forest and gather dead wood that, if not used, would most likely be left to rot or burn in a forest fire. Our electric rates have gone up 20 percent in the last year.

Without access to our forests, fewer people would come and visit our community. We would lose a lot of money that folks from out of town spend here. We must start using our renewable resources and not let them be destroyed by fire or bugs.

We need our sawmills for jobs. We need timber sales for our schools and road departments. We don't need more taxes. We need access, not more lock-up.

Our families enjoy spending the weekends in our forests that are open to all. If we lock up more forest, we will just get a bigger TV that's made in China.

Mike Lowery

Union

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My husband and I were in La Grande visiting family the week of July 2. While shopping at your local Wal-Mart, I lost envelopes out of my purse that were addressed and stamped. All contained checks for bill payments.

I said a prayer and hoped for the best that a good, honest person had found them. Being from a ranching community in southwestern Montana, smaller but much the same as La Grande, kept me hopeful.

After arriving home, I discovered that the envelopes had been mailed, the bills were paid and all was right with the world.

Our thanks to the kind, honest citizen of La Grande who went out of their way to do the right thing.

We are sincerely grateful.

John and Katherine Schuler

Dillon, Mont.

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In response to the Forest Management Plan, in a few days I will be 79 years old and I like to go up into the mountains to pick mushrooms and huckleberrys. The route I usually take is set to be closed and I would have to walk four to six miles in on an alternate route. In my opinion, the Forest Service is discriminating against senior citizens. We can't walk that far.

I have a four-wheel drive pick-up and an ATV. I just spent five days out on the Forest Service land and I did a lot of riding around looking for all the damage the Forest Service and others claim the off-road people do in the forest and I couldn't find any in the area I was in. But I sure saw a lot of damage the Forest Service has let happen to our environment.

There are noxious weeds growing everywhere. I have never seen the Forest Service spray them. All the farmers have to spray and the county sprays the ditches. I also saw dead snags standing everywhere just waiting for a lightning strike.

In my opinion, I think the main reason the Forest Service wants to close all of these roads is because they are ashamed of the mess they have let our forests get into and they don't want anyone to see it.

Also, I have read two letters in the newspaper by Cathy Trochlell and Courtney Loomis who wrote that ATVs frighten, flush and scare game. I would like to know where they get their facts about this.

On July 5, a group of five including me was riding down the road when we saw two large buck deer. They were about 300 feet from the road. We stopped to look at them. They walked about 25 feet further away, stopped and looked at us. We sat there for three or four minutes. They just stood there, then we drove off. If what Loomis and Trochlell say is true, those two large bucks must have been exceptions.

Ralph Simonson

Elgin

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Over the years that I have read Jim Bovard's letters to the editor, I never thought I would agree with any of his sentiments. But it has finally happened to this 79-year-old Democrat. This is a new era for political bipartisanship. Here are some of the areas of my agreement.

Bush Administration is controlled by bi-partisan neocons, corrupt politicians, free-trade fanatics, un-elected bureaucrats, internationalists, Constitution trashers.

They encourage an open-door approach to Mexico. Bush is preparing to invade Iran while still fighting a futile war in Iraq. Cheney puts himself and the president above the law and voters and then says, "You can't stop us," which leads us to a police state.

The good thing about an aging Republican and an aging Democrat agreeing on anything shows that there is hope for this country's survival. After all, our founders believed in discourse and discussion in a healthy republic.

Ula Pendleton

Los Angeles

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Last week our county commissioners declared a local State of Emergency for the damage caused by frost and drought to local crops. How can we possibly be in a drought when at any time of any day irrigation pipes are spraying water on crops out in the valley?

Wells are being drilled deeper and deeper into the aquifer, depleting this vital resource. Here in the city, lawns (including municipal grounds, business and residential properties) are being watered for hours every day sometimes during the hottest parts of the day.

The City of La Grande only imposes watering restrictions during drought and there are currently no restrictions in place. There is no doubt that farmers in our county have suffered losses due to weather conditions as climate change has affected everyone, everywhere. What we, as a community, should be concerned about is that there is no plan to modify, curtail or restrict water consumption.

There is no excuse for watering lawns during the hottest parts of the day. At 80 degrees, 50 percent of the water leaving your sprinkler never touches the grass. Timed irrigation systems can be set for the middle of the night or early morning hours. Alternately, water-needy lawns can be replaced with drought-tolerant plantings or hardscapes.

How can our county commissioners be asking the governor for aid when we are not doing anything ourselves to alleviate the situation?

Millions of people on our planet lack access to safe drinking water. The next time you fill a glass with cool, clean water from your kitchen sink in your air conditioned house as you look out the window at your lush green lawn, ask yourself if you are helping to sustain life on this planet or aiding in its early demise.

Josey Fast

La Grande

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In response to many letters to the editor regarding ATV usage in the forests and the need to limit the ATV access in the proposed areas, we would like to bring it to people's attention that with this travel management plan proposal, it will also close roads to woodcutters, berry pickers, mushroom pickers, hunters, fishermen and sightseers. This proposed plan would also limit access for the handicapped to enjoy the national forest and get to many of their favorite areas.

With this proposed travel management plan it would limit access to those areas by all motorized vehicles not just ATVs. An example would be the road from Cove to Moss Springs. That is the only road that would be accessible to any motorized vehicle. All side roads would be closed for recreational use including camping.

I would encourage anyone who uses our national forests for any form of recreation to contact the forest service or go to their web site and research the areas you like to travel for recreation. Maps can be seen at the forest service office. Ask about your favorite areas to travel there. This is not just an ATV issue it is a forest access issue.

George Aldrich and Gail Hescock

Cove and La Grande

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I would like to comment on the folly of the top-down, no-use biases for a "plan" that has been already decided and having the Forest Service charged with making the plan appear fair to all users.

Winston Churchill commented on American follies in 1929, "No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.'' He was referring to the 18th Amendment (Prohibition), but I feel the environmental movement has the same characteristics.

According to the proposed action plan, 57 percent of the forest is now off limits to ATV use consideration.

I visited the district office and asked for a current transportation plan. They don't have any available. I have one copy just like them. The above acres do not include Starkey Experiment Station (27,051 acres) and various area closures and road restrictions to ATV travel. Among those are Map Code A, a yearlong closure to reduce wildlife disturbance in the La Grande Watershed; Map Code O, Dec. 15 to April 30 closure to protect winter range at Spring Creek; Map Code P, closure during archery and rifle season to provide nonmotorized hunting at Ladd Canyon, to name a few.

If this is unmanaged recreation, as ex-Chief Bosworth has suggested, I can understand the Wallowa-Whitman proposal of 3,570 miles of open ATV roads. This is roughly 1 percent of the forest in acres. This is not management, it is thoughtless closure.

The USFS is not the Park Service. It was established as a working forest to provide timber products, clean water and stable communities. Spending $90 million a year for decommissioning roads while claiming no maintenance monies, not allowing timber management because of not challenging ridiculous rules and lawsuits, throwing money at burning practices and fires, not allowing reasonable fire salvage and now not allowing recreation on roads built by past USFS managers for resource management and fire prevention, is wrong.

It is time to get back to balanced management.

Vince Naughton

La Grande

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I would like to take the time to comment on letters to the editor from the July 12 Observer. To Mr. Schroeder, thanks for writing such a well thought out position. You put forth an intelligent position with the numbers to back it up. I appreciate your honest approach.

To Mr. Tipperman, I wish I could say the same to you, sir. First, which is more "horrific," the snowmobiles or the big game hunters? If I were to choose the word horrific, I'd at least only use it for one subject and not dilute the word by repeating it. Horrific is a word reserved for mass tragedies in life, the V-Tech Massacre, or maybe, your lack of understanding for what it takes to live in Eastern Oregon, which is a truly horrific event.

I have one suggestion sir, go back to where you came from if you don't like how we do things in Eastern Oregon, or if you are originally from here and you've found an area you like better than here — go there. Obviously, they do things with a great deal more efficiency than we do here.

I will grant you one point — the littering is an annoyance and I will not argue that point. However, whenever I'm out in my "pick-up truck" or "off-road vehicle" as you referred to them, I stop to pick up the mess.

As a matter of fact, I just picked up a heck of mess two weeks ago that someone left at a trail head, and I'll guarantee those folks came in for the "opportunity for travel on foot, horseback or cross country skiing" that you hold so dear to your heart.

Maybe what we need is for the government to start dictating a little common courtesy and not lock us out of the woods altogether.

Management by non-management is not the answer.

John George

Wallowa

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In response to Mary McCracken's July 10 letter: Mary said, "Lane's letter became a diatribe opposing abortion…" She went on to say, "I assume he speaks from religious, societal and corporate indoctrination. Minds marinated in those juices are stunningly impervious to present and projected conditions or consequences."

Webster's unabridged dictionary says diatribe means "a bitter, abusive and usually lengthy speech."

"Minds marinated in those juices" is disrespectful and insulting. "Marinate" alludes to dead meat and I, and many others, do not consider our brains "dead meat." It is time for those who do not search for God to stop abusing those of us who do.

What I have noticed over the years is that almost everyone considers those who don't agree with them stupid. This kind of close-minded approach destroys any chance for discussion. It certainly is not respectful. Additionally, to be "impervious to present and projected conditions and consequences" is so alien to my religious mindset that it is hard to even know where to begin.

"What is good for the children," and the children's children, ad infinitum and what is good for a strong, healthy, wholesome society is the underpinning of how I look at life and the decisions I make. That's what my religious beliefs teach me to ask in a constant, determined and compassionate way. I believe that is what God is asking of us all.

There are other issues that Ms. McCracken brought up but there is not room to address them all. I will close by asking how "early infanticide" cannot be considered "destructive to life?" Because tens of thousands of people die from starvation every day, it does not justify infanticide (abortion).

How we as society got to the place where our thinking is so skewed as to come to that conclusion only points out the necessity of a consistent ethic of life and the moral obligation to protect and promote the sanctity of life.

Vicki Correll

Summerville