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

We offer our sincere congratulations to Eastern Oregon University in recruiting Dixie Lund to serve as interim president. But EOU's gain is our loss.

In the July 17 Observer story, Dixie said she had been enjoying her retirement. But we know that much of her "leisure" time was spent contributing to the health of Grande Ronde Hospital.

For the past six years Dixie has served on the Grande Ronde Hospital Board of Trustees. Between 2004 and 2006, she chaired the board, carrying us into our 100th year. Her leadership, vision and compassion inspired us as did her ability to work through challenging and complicated issues.

Governing a health care organization is not for the faint of heart. It takes passion, courage, flexibility and dedication. Dixie possesses these attributes and more. We have every confidence that as interim president she will elevate the statewide status of EOU.

Grande Ronde Hospital and the Board of Trustees will miss her leadership but we wish her all the best.

Jim Mattes, President/CEO

Grande Ronde Hospital

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How much public land has to close to make hikers and bikers happy? The 9,000 miles of roads in Wallowa-Whitman National Forest is less than 1 percent of 2.3 million total acres. The forests are 99 percent roadless. More than 1 percent of the users of the forest use a motorized vehicle. We should be allowed a fair share of land.

Hikers have wilderness and road-closed areas but think they need more. Mountain bikers seem to be able to bike anywhere without trail permits or user fees. OHV operators must buy trail permits and pay gas tax.

All users of motorized vehicles in national forests should take a serious look at these no-travel management plans the Forest Service intends to implement. Less than 1 percent (9,000 miles of roads) we now have will be reduced to 3,500 miles of roads (less than 1 percent of total land in our national forest). We have just as much right to our share of the national forests. Motorized vehicles are already restricted to less than 1 percent of the forest. How much more do we have to give up to make the minority of non-paying forest users happy?

How are people who cannot hike or bike (older, handicapped, etc.) able to enjoy their forests when access is closed because people want to hike without hearing or seeing anybody else? What are woodcutters, mushroom and huckleberry pickers supposed to do if all access is closed to forest land? Would hikers and mountain bikers be for these road closures if the roads were shut to them too? Why should a road be closed to motorized vehicles and left open to mountain bikes?

Call your district rangers, county commissioners, representatives or anyone involved in taking away our national forests and tell them how you feel.

Chris Hedden

La Grande

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ATVs make our work easier and leisure time more enjoyable. If a million ATVs ran through the same place for a month they would not do as much damage as one hot burning summer wildfire.

Each year thousands of these fires burn millions of acres, consuming billions of trees, animals, birds and whatever else are in their paths.

As you walk through the areas that burned the hottest, usually where the growth was most prolific and wild life most abundant, there is nothing left. Even the organic material is burned out of the soil. When you walk that area, it is silent, bleak and barren, and you sometimes sink up to your ankles in the gray-white powder that was once a forest floor.

Where the fire burned cooler, there are a few scarred trees and maybe a few green plants, and you discover it is a merciful thing if the larger animals die quickly. Many of the remaining animals have seared lungs and large patches of exposed flesh where hair and hide have been burned away. Due to lack of water and food they die a slow, painful, agonizing death. The smell of their decaying flesh permeates the air throughout the burn.

This is the problem we all should focusing our attention on.

John Petersen

La Grande

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This letter is in regards to the Wallowa Whitman National Forest Travel Plan proposed by the Forest Service. I prefer to call this the W-W Lock-up. I am a native Oregonian born in 1945. I have lived in Northeast Oregon most of my life and raised my family in La Grande.

We have used the W-W forest like our own backyard, for camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, ATV riding, woodcutting, etc. I owned a log truck for seven years and made my living from the W-W forest until the Forest Service took that away. I consider the W-W forest part of my family's culture and tradition. Now, they are trying to take that away.

My son Travis joined the 101st Airborne Infantry after graduating from high school. He wanted to spend some time serving his country, and also wanted to advance his education. After basic training, Sept. 11 happened and he was shipped to Iraq. He spent two years fighting a war for the purpose of preserving our culture and way of life in America. Folks, how can this be true when our own government is taking away this very purpose that my son has been risking his life for?

Travis called home about three weeks ago asking what was new at home. I explained that we were in a war here at home, with our own government. The Forest Service has proposed a new travel plan for the W-W forest, and if they get their way, the forest will be a lock-up. Travis responded, "What am I fighting this war for in Iraq?'' I said it was a very good question.

Folks, if this travel plan goes through, the W-W forest will be lost forever as we know it. The Forest Service will exploit this great resource of wealth for their own agenda. Look what they did in the Sedona National Forest in Arizona. Read more about Sedona at www.AZnofee.org.

Folks, I appeal to all users of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest to support, in any way, a stop to this action. Write your senators and representatives.

David Wegner

La Grande

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Thank you for the earlier article on lyme disease by Trish Yerges.

Fortunately, I have never been told by any of my physicians that "there is no Lyme Disease here." One of them did order a lyme test, which was done in the local vicinity. By local vicinity, I mean in Oregon. The results were negative, which happens in many cases, but you can still have lyme disease.

I found someone in Idaho who would order the extensive testing required to diagnose lyme disease, and tests for the co-infections were ordered as well. My blood had to be sent to a lab in Florida for the lyme test. I tested positive for lyme disease, plus three of the co-infections. I have been ill for well over two years.

The only diagnosis that physicians could come up with was Meniere's symptoms, which of course is only a symptom and not a disease itself, and they could only offer treatment to (hopefully) ease those symptoms.

It seems your article on lyme disease has generated quite a few responses. It's time the public was made aware of the very real dangers of lyme disease. There are many symptoms and you don't necessarily have to have the "standard" bulls-eye rash to have lyme disease. It can remain in your body for many years, causing havoc with your immune system, which leads to the co-infections.

When you have had the disease for a long period of time, as I have, it becomes chronic and is much harder to treat effectively.

Mary Jackson

Union

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Jeff Goodwin of Larimer County, Colo., pitched "premises registration" to county commissioners on July 3, describing it as "a disease-prevention need." Goodwin is director of youth programs and 4-H at Colorado State University. "Registration is the first phase of a National Animal Identification System being implemented by the U.S. Department of Agriculture," Goodwin said at the meeting. Colorado is the poster state; Oregon and the rest of America are also targeted.

Premises registration is not about animal identification any more than it is about a used car salesman trying to pawn off someone else's lemon, hoping he can make you think it's a plum. Animal identification already exists. Brand laws are proven effective in the 41 states where food animals are raised. This form of traceback is excellent.

Premises registration targets not disease prevention, but the control of private property. Questionable-at-best legality is sure to be argued in court. Colorado's youth, not legally old enough to subjugate real property, are being moved like pawns on a chessboard. The prize on which Goodwin and the USDA remain focused is your private property. Premises registration erases the word "private," enabling state and federal employees and their partners access to every square inch of your property at any time, ostensibly to check for the potential of disease.

Originally touted as voluntary, mandatory compliance stands at the gate of your property rights: the premises registration steamroller.

Speak up now — or become part of the pavement. Your property will be reduced to the equivalent of a rental property, which is always available for inspection by the landlord.

Julie K. Smithson

London, Ohio

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After reading the Community Comment by Dr. Robert Larison, I couldn't help but wonder what EOU would be like today if not for the shift of mission by President Creighton. It was described as "making Eastern an elite small liberal arts university with a very selective admission."

As a graduate of the university in 1999 who has stayed in the area, I have seen many striking changes at EOU, in grandeur and aesthetics. To name just two: the new science building and the Community Stadium. I am so enamored with its beauty each time I pass through.

I believe that the decline in enrollment is due to the increasingly high cost of a college education. Many students who want to stay in Eastern Oregon, I believe, don't want to borrow the huge amount of money it takes to get a four-year degree, only- to remain in debt for years trying to pay it back when secure, family-wage jobs are still a rarity in the region.

Making EOU more of an elite college with higher admission standards may have done the rural school districts a lot of good because the schools and the college-bound students may have had to really focus on doing their best. For this graduate, it has made me more proud. I believe that Eastern will resolve its financial difficulties while capitalizing on its more elite image.

Sharon K. Schiller

La Grande

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The national news recently had a brief focus on cuts at the FDA and America's increasing dependence on foreign food. People need to realize that food security is national security. If we are concerned about out dependence on foreign oil, we should be sleepless over the idea of dependence on foreign food.

This comes on the heels of the Oregon Legislature and environmental extremists' attempts to make it virtually impossible to profitably farm and ranch in this state. The life-blood of agriculture is water; however, several bills were proposed that would create even more roadblocks to accessing water for irrigation. Several measures were introduced that would have explored options for water storage during wetter months. Unfortunately, none of these bills made it out of committee.

The citizens of Oregon need to think carefully about where the food they purchase at the grocery store really comes from. They need to respect and support the industry that is working to feed them and protect their health.

If we were outraged about our pets dying from contaminated, imported food, how will we feel when it is our children?

Helen Moore,

Executive director, Water for Life

Portland

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Iraq, Afghanistan: Those countries and everybody in them are not worth the life of one American soldier.

Get our troops home immediately.

All the troops could be out of Iraq in three days, moved to Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, then moved home a little more slowly.

No more of this b.s. that it would take months or a year to bring our troops home.

We invaded Iraq in a couple of days, got 150,000 troops in. We can sure as heck get them out in the same time frame.

Nick, Mickey and Noretta Smith

La Grande

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As we try harder to recycle and mosquitoes become more dangerous, there is a collision. If we follow the recipes that came with the compost bin forms distributed by the city only a few years ago, we keep the compost moist. That breeds mosquitoes whether or not the lid is used.

Here is an organic, effective and inexpensive remedy: Use crushed garlic soaked overnight in any "brand X" vegetable oil. The recipe is forgiving, meaning the proportions are not critical. A guideline is a whole garlic bulb peeled and crushed and added to about a cup and a half of oil.

Strew the mixture over the compost surface. The garlic odor is gone in a few days, as far as humans can tell, but the mosquito repellent effect lasts three or more weeks even with material to be composted added on top.

Wanda Wixom

La Grande