16
Wednesday, September 2, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
s
LETTERS
Continued from page 12
tarnish a diffuse movement that shares the slo-
gan <Black Lives Matter= with legal entities
within the movement, one of whose found-
ers has identified herself as a Marxist. For
nearly everyone who has expressed support
for Black Lives Matter (including Republican
Senators Mike Braun and Mitt Romney), the
slogan Black Lives Matter signifies opposition
to the violence with which George Floyd and
other Black people have been treated 4 to the
deaths and injuries that Black people are sub-
jected to because of the color of their skin.
I personally am well-acquainted with
Marxism. I studied it in school and spent con-
siderable time in the former Soviet Union. I
am not a Marxist. I do not support anarchy.
I oppose violence. I am a retired lawyer who
was in private practice, who worked as in-
house counsel at U.S. Bank, and who served
as general counsel for two international chari-
ties. I am a wife and a mother. I support Black
Lives Matter because until they do, all lives
cannot matter.
Mary Chaffin
s
s
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To the Editor:
Driving through Sisters this weekend on
beautiful summer evenings, I was appalled
to see the crowds gathered outside bars and
restaurants.
Of course, you can9t eat or drink with a
mask on. It is the large numbers of people in
close proximity to one another that was dis-
turbing. Also, some of our businesses are not
enforcing the wearing of masks in their estab-
lishments. It is easy to say we live in a small
town with only a few reported cases and we
don9t need to be inconvenienced by having to
follow state guidelines like the larger cities.
This is why we continue to see the spread
of the virus.
Inconvenienced by wearing a mask?
Uncomfortable? Can9t breathe as well? I saw
real inconvenience first hand recently in one
of our hospitals. Front-line workers are taking
so many steps to keep patients safe. Wearing
PPEs, using hand sanitizer before entering the
room, after entering the room, before leaving
the room and then outside the room, before
continuing on to the next task. By not doing
what we know helps prevent COVID-19, we
are contributing to the spread of this virus.
Sisters has so many out-of-town and out-
of-state visitors, we do not know where the
virus may be lurking. Please, we all want to
be able to return to a life that allows us to
move about. Doing simple things to prevent
more cases is essential.
Debbie Barnes
s
s
To the Editor:
I want to thank Commissioner Henderson
for his August 12 letter to the editor stating
that if the Deschutes National Forest needs
more funding to reduce hazardous fuels he
will advocate for it. The time for that advo-
cacy is now, and yesterday.
In 2009 a group of environmentalists, tim-
ber industry representatives, fire fighters, the
Forest Service, and other community partners
secured $10.1 million in a national competi-
tion to implement forest restoration and fuels
reduction work across 257,000 acres of for-
est stretching from Black Butte Ranch to
Sunriver, wrapping around the cities of Sisters
and Bend. I was one of three authors for the
proposal, so I am intimately familiar with the
package of work that became the Deschutes
Collaborative Forest Project.
Between 2009 and 2019, those $10.1 mil-
lion allowed the Deschutes National Forest
to complete over 120,000 acres of thinning,
mowing, and prescribed fire treatments. Some
of those treated acres became key anchor
points where fire fighters were able to stop the
Pole Creek and Milli fires from advancing into
Sisters area subdivisions. Those fires clearly
demonstrated that fuels reduction work helps
us contain fires, reduce their severity, and
protect our homes. This restoration work also
employed over 100 members of our commu-
nity over that 10-year period.
The 10 -year $10.1 million award expired in
2019 and there are still 30,000 acres within the
257,000-acre landscape at high or extreme risk
of wildfire. The Deschutes Collaborative and
the Forest Service have sought an extension of
their 10-year award and got a positive review
from the Collaborative Forest Landscape
Restoration Program advisory committee.
Unfortunately, the advisory committee gave
positive reviews to a total of $70.3 million
of projects nationally for 2021 and Congress
has only appropriated $40 million for the
Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration
Program in recent years. Congress will need to
be prodded to increase Appropriations for this
program which could provide sorely needed
wildfire protection, habitat improvement, and
employment for our community.
Despite holding a seat on the Steering
Committee of the Deschutes Collaborative,
Commissioner Henderson does not appear to
have listened well enough to understand the
need to advocate for these appropriations to
protect his constituents from wildfire. County
Commissioners can have a lot of influence on
forest management and funding when they
know what to ask for. I ask for your vote and
pledge to do better for our community and our
forests.
Phil Chang
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DO YOU HAVE A TEACHER THAT HELPS
YOU BETTER UNDERSTAND MATH? OR ONE
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Educator
Honor Roll
THANK
Hope for a child. Change for a nation.
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