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

At our June Baker County Livestock Association meeting, we discussed the Wallowa-Whitman Travel Management Plan. Our members attended the Forest Service meetings and are aware that the service will only accept solicited citizen comments that identify individual road/trails with compelling/reasonable reasons why they should remain open. BCLA opposes the further restricting of access and the process that has been developed in implementing the closures.

The roads stated for closure constitute the majority of trails and roads that we use to access natural resources. This action severely impacts the concept of multiple-use that has supported economic as well as recreational opportunities. The handicapped and elderly would definitely have much less opportunity for enjoying the forestlands.

Another concern is the probability of fire that would destroy forests and watersheds. Once roads are decommissioned or overgrown, the road becomes impassable. With drought and with all the fuel loading that has occurred, logic would dictate better accessibility for management and fire suppression, not less.

We have not forgotten the problems that fire crews faced battling the Red Mountain fire in Baker County last year that came too close to our watershed. The plan failed us then and it'll fail us in the future.

The process the Forest Service used in meetings was deceitful and alienated the public. The plan seems to have been adopted with little or no comment from concerned citizens.

The BCLA requests that this plan, to restrict and close access to public lands, be eliminated. The solution, if one is needed, is starting over with all of the concerned stakeholders, groups, associations and individuals being involved to determine need and action.

We are forwarding this letter to all our federal, state and local elected officials, and to the media, with the hope of changing the direction of our public land use as well as this current Travel Management Plan.

Curtis W. Martin, BCLA president

Cal Ransom, BCLA vice president

North Powder

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I would like to commend The Observer for endorsing Measure 49. Land use planning is misunderstood by many who see it as an infringement on their rights as property owners. What they fail to see is the effect a decision by others may have on their own property.

No one would buy property and build a home next to an existing hog farm. However, if they buy property in a pristine area and their neighbor decides to start raising hogs, the effect is the same.

When you buy a piece of property, it's not just the four corners of dirt and rock that you buy, it's the view, the air quality, the neighborhood, the peace and quiet and the quality of life in the area. If a developer or land-owner decides to build a subdivision or create a mall or even that hog farm, that decision affects your quality of life as well as your property value.

Zoning and planning are necessary for orderly development. The Oregon economy is very dependent on agriculture; it would be detrimental to all citizens to lose large tracts of farm and forestland. The purpose of the urban growth boundaries is to encourage development in and around cities and towns and to discourage urban sprawl and loss of high-value farmland.

We are here on Earth for a very short time. It would be nice if we could leave it a little bit better for future generations; however, we are not doing a very good job as stewards of the land.

Jack Hunter

Cove

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The La Grande Optimist Football program has just finished another successful season. My wife and I have spent the past 11 football seasons watching at least one of our sons participating in this program.

We very much appreciate the leaders of the program — Bryan Ackley, Joel Hasse, Pete Caldwell and others — for their numerous hours volunteered for our community's children. Coaches, officials and sponsors also deserve credit for their generosity in time and money.

Included in this time period, the Optimist Club also ran the La Grande Middle School's football program for three years.

We do not know how many children have been through the program, but we do know that it has provided great memories and friendships that will never be forgotten. The program has taught them the fundamentals of the sport and provided a basis for the middle school and high school programs in the area. But most importantly it has given something positive for our children to do, and built character.

The program deserves credit for being a "village" that is helping to raise our children.

Kyle and Eva McKinney

La Grande

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No issue is more important to the future of the state than Measure 49 and everyone needs to weigh in.

Many attended the county commission hearing last year on the proposed housing development that would have extended from the foot of Mount Emily all the way down to Imbler. The anger of the audience was palpable since few had envisioned that Measure 37 had the potential to slice and dice farmland in this fashion.

We are not alone. Residents in places as diverse as rural Prineville and the fast-growing suburbs of Portland have all come to the realization that this horribly written measure had enormous financial support from large timber companies. Those giants see it, naturally, as an easy way to maximize the profit they'll get on their cutover timberlands. The potential costs of fire protection, soil erosion, groundwater depletion, schools, roads and all the other services which would be borne by taxpayers, did not enter into their thinking at all.

Measure 49 makes it clear that enormous subdivisions are not part of Measure 37, it's that simple. Landowners should be able to build additional homes to meet family needs without the worry that they'll find themselves adjacent to an endless vista of resource-consuming and water-polluting "ranchettes."

Measure 49 will ensure that's the case. Please vote for it.

Norm Cimon

La Grande

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I was wrong in stating in my previous letter that Jihad is one of the five pillars of the Moslem faith. It is not. I apologize to The Observer and its readers. Thanks to Bill Grigsby for catching my erroneous wording.

However, Jihad is a primary article of the Moslem faith taught in some form or other by all Moslem teachers on every continent of the world. Jihad is accomplished by struggling or striving against anything within yourself that does not agree with the doctrines of the Quran, at the same time struggling and striving or making war against anything or any entity that is opposed to Moslem dominance. If a follower dies while conducting his Jihad duties, that person is granted salvation and entry into heaven.

I would like to be friends with people of the Moslem faith, as I am sure all other Jews and Christians would, but the Quran states, in multiple places, that I, as a Christian, should be exterminated and that my mother, wife and daughters should have many of their rights stripped away and be forced to wear a burka. Sons either submit to Moslem doctrines of the Quran, or are eliminated along with me.

The Quran is well written, is very moral, has beautiful passages and, much of it, I do not disagree with. The U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, the right to assemble, free speech and hopefully by the moral rule of law, we can resolve this conflict between Jews, Christians and Moslems. If we can't, God certainly can, and will.

As far as Mr. Grigsby suggesting I get my information via e-mail, he is mistaken. I do not have e-mail nor do I do anything via the Internet.

John Petersen

La Grande

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I read with irony the statement Greg Walden made about SCHIP and that $35 billion was just too expensive for the American people. Then he turned around and gave the approval for the $190 billion that Bush asked for, for the war effort.

I'm sorry that his priorities are not for a program that actually works, despite all the propaganda against it, but for a war that is not working. Almost half of the money approved is going to the 140 mercenary groups like Blackwater. Where is this money coming from anyway?

I think "We the People" need to remind Mr. Walden that we are paying for his government health care and maybe we should make a change to that benefit for all our senators and representatives. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has been buying his own health care for the past year trying to make a point to his peers of how unfair it is that everyone isn't afforded the same privileges of reasonably priced health care.

I don't think much attention has been paid to the benefits of being in Congress. They don't have to worry about health care or Social Security because they vote their own programs into play. I always thought being a public servant was to serve the people first. I am learning the opposite daily.

Mr. Walden, I know you are not up for election soon, but you have lost my respect. I am interested in a representative who does represent the people, who have needs, and not the will of big business that has no heart.

Elizabeth Callison

Elgin

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I thank God every day for Measure 37. We are finally able to build where we should have been able to build many years ago. Thanks to 37, for the first time in years, ordinary families have been able to build their dream homes on the property they've owned, big or little.

We had battled the restrictions and red tape for years, but our children had grown and moved away before Measure 37 was initiated and passed by Oregon voters to right the wrongs that had been imposed.

Be very, very careful of Measure 49. It will take away the rights of your children and grandchildren, many of whom will be ordinary citizens just as we are.

On the surface, Measure 49 appears to be written for stopping commercial development. Below the surface, insidiously hidden, we find the dangers to the rights of common folk of Union County.

If government or agricultural interests (many of which are corporations) want to control all the land in Oregon — then they need to buy it (paying adequate compensation) and pay the taxes on it.

I will thank God every day for smart Oregon voters when Measure 49 is defeated!

Marvyl Powelson

Imbler

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With the Veterans Day Parade coming up, I wonder if the new rule of no parking on Adams Avenue during parades will keep some of our older citizens especially WWII veterans from attending, even though the parade is to honor all veterans.

We still have older veterans, but a lot of older people can't walk from a side street during the parade and that includes my husband who is a WWII veteran, and myself. Just a thought.

Grace Butler

Island City