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

What a nice article by Trish Yerges about Summerville's and Imbler's Pleasant Grove Grange in the Observer of August 19th. I am one of the younger new members to join up and hope that others will follow suit.

After a couple of successful events this summer, we are looking forward to hosting other community events. It is great to meet new neighbors and have such fun getting to know one another in this very spread out area of North Union County. At present, we are meeting the third Saturday of the month at 5pm with a pot luck followed by a business meeting.

Thank you Trish for such an informative and good article.

Jennie Tucker, Summerville

_______________________

On Sept. 19 community and state leaders, library patrons and book lovers of all agea will gather at 1 p.m. at Max Square for the long-awaited grand opening of the beautiful new F. Maxine and Thomas W. Coolk Memorial Library, located at 2006 Fourth St.

Ceremonial speeches will be presented at Max Square before everyone treks across Fourth Street for the official ribbon cutting ceremony. Then the doors will open for your first glimpse of the new, 19,000-square foot facility complete with children and adult collections, an archive room, literacy center, the Colleen F. Johnson Community Room, and much more. Tours will be provided that day and for several months following the grand opening.

If your group, organization, classroom or club is interested in a guided tour, please call me at 963-3104 days or 963-5341 evenings and weekends, and we will. make the necessary arrangements.

The new Cook library was designed as a true community center, with ample seating and cozy chairs tucked in every available corner, window seats, valuted ceilings and an incredible children's storytelling area under the skylight. These amenities and more will draw area readers in and make it so comfortable that they won't want to leave for hours. Plans are in the works now for a broad range of programs and events in the community room and the small study room, with hopes of filling every available space with activities for everyone.

Our community worked so hard to make this dream of a new library a reality, and the effort has really paid off.

Please join us Sept. 19 to check out your new library.

Di Lynn Larsen-Hill, La Grande

_________________________

Take a look at the smoke plumes boiling up from our federal forests today.

There were fires early this year outside of Sisters. There are now fires burning on the Wallowa-Whitman and Malhuer National forests in the Jump-off Joe Roadless Area south of Ukiah.

As of last Monday that fire was more than 2,000 acres with zero containment.

The fire on Aldrich Mountain south east of Dayville in the Malheur National Forest exploded Wednesday.

Preventing the cutting of trees, letting them die and fall, and allowing fuel loads to accumulate on the forest floor for years is no way to manage our renewable resources, or to take care of our fresh water streams.

We need to be pro-active, not re-active in taking care of our federal lands.

Laws have been put into effect to manage timber operations in the woods to protect our streams and protect our environments.

Let's allow them back in the woods to do their jobs in a safe, sensible and balanced manner. That would actually reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires.

We all want what is best for the environment. We also are realists and see what is going on inside our federal forests.

If the federal government would manage their land in the same fashion that the private sector has, the catastrophic fire danger would be minimized while creating a manageable forest that would produce not only jobs, but produce a healthy forest that would suit each and everyone's needs on this planet.

When and whom in the government is going to be held accountable for the mismanagement of the federal forest?

Does it not make common sense to to be managing our renewable resource, creating jobs and taking care of our national forest for all?

Our local economies are becoming increasingly dependent upon federal lands, because the harvest volumes on the private sector have been gone through several times.

There will come a time when we will need to let the private lands rest.

The current situation and management practices on our federal forest spells disaster for our local communities, government and groups if we don't see change soon.

Don Bodewig, DR Johnson, Eastside Operations Manager