Letters and comments for August 5, 2011

Good for people, too

To the Editor:

It was great to see a restoration project on the Upper Grande Ronde River featured on the front page of the Observer on July 21.

The La Grande Ranger District has the opportunity to play a key role in the local restoration economy and I applaud their efforts putting people to work restoring aquatic habitat for fish and wildlife that will in turn improve recreational opportunities on our national forests.

What I found most refreshing was the extremely positive feelings expressed by the people doing this work. Comments like “helping the environment and making a living,” and the strong preference expressed for this restoration work over anything else, all suggests that restoration work isn’t just good for the environment, it’s good for people too. That’s the kind of positive sentiment that feeds back to make an entire community a better place to live. 

The potential of the restoration economy has only just been touched on. Our politicians need to be educated about the incredible possibilities of the restoration economy and our desire to pursue them, as they are still heavily influenced by rear-view-mirror politics.

The Forest Service could play a very important future role in our local economies by focusing on projects that restore our national forests, and I think, restore our communities, to a better place than they’ve ever been.

David Mildrexler

La Grande

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