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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 1978)
opinion theirs Newspaper errs on RARE need Reprinted from (Salem) Capitol Journal The Eugene Register-Guard has taken us to task editori ally for accusing the U.S. Forest Service of caving in to the timber industry on the issue of new wilderness areas. The Register-Guard says the Forest Service hasn't made a final determination of its position. Furthermore, the news paper says, the federal agency isn’t likely to go nearly as far as we said in recommending the opening of additional lands to logging. The Eugene paper has much more faith in the Forest Service than we do. It is not true that a final decision hasn't been made on how much, if any, roadless land in national forests should be opened to logging. Indeed, such a decision is far off. It is not too early, however, to recognize that the Forest Service is substantially sympathetic if not wholly committed to the industry viewpoint of log, log, log until the trees are gone. The agency’s Roadless Area Review and Evaluation (RARE II), a study initiated by Congress, involves 62 million acres of national forest land where permanent roads have not been constructed. Of that total, approximately 3 million acres are in uregon. RARE II is intended to settle the long-standing debate over how many of those acres should be prepared as wilder ness and how many opened to logging. We do not contend that every acre of the 62 million ought to be locked up. Perhaps some of it should be logged. But we agree with environmentalists that the bulk of the acreage under study ought to be kept in its primitive status. The nation got into its fix because the timber industry bought up the most productive forest lands and ravaged them. Now, the industry wants to get its daws into as much national forest land as possible. The cry, of course, is that there is no feasible alternative because of the nation's need for lumber and the economic needs of areas heavily dependent on the timber industry. It makes no sense to us to allow the rape of the national forests. If that is done, we eventually will face a timber shor tage we cannot overcome for decades. The industry itself would be ruined along with everyone dependent upon it. The solution is the kind of vigorous reforestation pro gram advocated by Oregon Sens. Bob Packwood and Mark Hatfield, among others. The Forest Service never has come within cannon-firing distance of the goal of planting one tree for every one har vested. And the industry’s record on reforestation is an abomi nation. We would have more confidence in the Forest Service if it would be as diligent in pursuing a realistic program of refores tation as it is in catering to the timber industry. A Forest Service official in Portland was quoted early in September as saying Oregon and Washington national forests could meet their timber sale goals even if most road less areas in the two states were added to the national wilder iicdd dydicm. The forest products industry nearly went into convulsions over that. The Forest Service said afterwards the information was incorrect. A month later, the Forest Sen/ice said at least 60 percent of the 5.1 million roadless acres in the two states will be needed to meet timber harvest goals of the Resources Plan ninq Act. Nationally, the Forest Service said it wili need 27.2 million roadless acres of the 62 million total to meet lumber demands from now until the year 2015. What that means to us is that the Forest Service is getting its statistics into line with industry contentions that the nation cannot afford any more wilderness areas. The Register-Guard counsels compromise with these words: “There is a lot of leeway in some of the RARE II findings. Despite contentions of hard-liners on both sides, there is no need for Congress to come down with absolute finality in all cases. For one thing, the Forest Service would be financially unable to build roads overnight into ali or even most of the huge acreages that RARE II has identified as suited for timber production. “Congress should combat obstructionism that has un reasonably hampered proper Forest Service management of the national forests by classifying roadless areas for multiple use management wherever that is patently wise. Similarly, it should set aside all remaining areas where wilderness values clearly outweigh any others. "But where there are legitimate questions there should be no special haste. Tomorrow's value judgments should rule in these cases because today s apply to them uncertainly.’’ Tomorrow s value judgments? The certainty is that if the government yields to the values advocated by the timber industry, our tomorrow will be charac terized by naked hillsides where green forests once stood. And we can’t believe that the Register-Guard's editors view "multiple-use' as anything but a license to log. Pnrv 4 greg wesson tabled indefinitely The spread of pro cheerleaders from football to basketball causes conjecture on what’s the proper mix of asses and athletics. What consti tutes valid use of lust is a sticky ques tion for the Curt Gowdy School of Sports Morality. None would argue the whole someness of using high school rally squads to excite enthusiasm in the crowd, but what about exploiting the call of the loins to increase gate re ceipts? The discussion of what’s legitimate use of beauty, and the de sire it creates, is filled with conflicts. It’s also filled with hypocricy. The epitome of that hypocrisy came last month, when, after posing for Playboy Magazine, often letting their ample bosoms escape the confines of clothing, a number of pro cheer leaders were dropped from their squads. The firings suggest the pictures aren’t legitimate while prancing around with little on, is. C'mon. Bouncing breasts barely contained send the mind to the gutter much quicker than the sterile image of a photograph. To argue that the difference between prancing and posing is one of philosophy, rather than degree, is preposterous. Playboy and the Cnicago Honey Bears rely on the same attraction. By embracing the existence of the latter while castigating those lured to the former, those responsible for the ex istence of pro cheerleaders are being transparently inconsistent. Owners are translating cheerlead ers bodies into bucks—according to the Associated Press, “Of the seven (NBA) teams with cheerleaders, this year only one—Indiana—ranked among the top dozen in home atten dance last year. Four placed in the bottom five. To deny the women the right to use the same formula isn't fair. Either gazing at bodies is consis tent with crunching them, or it isn't. The NFL seems to make that distinc tion depending on where the money ends up. vars Times are a-changin’ I was amazed at the one-sided, shallow perception of the perfor mance given last Thursday (ODE re view 11/9) at the Coliseum in Port land by Bob Dylan and Ns band. I really felt like a part of the entire ex perience and was filled with joy. At the end of the performance, far from being disappointed as the "criti cal' essay assumed we were, the en tire hall and I applauded with high held hands and voices: finally, the lights hesitatingly tried to usher us along by brightening, but the roar of approval didn't cease for several minutes. The lights at last dimmed again and all around, every 10th or 20th person was holding a small "star” of lighter fire. It was as if the constella tions had come inside the building. Bob Dylan is a poet, a musician, and a warrior on the path with heart. In 10 years he has changed, we have changed The introspective, hedonist calm of the 70s can change to a new time. Perhaps there is an answer All these feelings came to me from the concert, the music, the presence of such a man. You must hear the music without comparison and with out judgement of the biased, emo tional self. He never sang with us or for us" or at us. He is a vigilante, a man with his own experience. He gives me inspira tion and shows me light and power. Joan Crowe-Rochester secretary, faculty personnel office Vets story ‘accurate’ I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Emerald for its Veterans' Day coverage last week The editor ial and featured section on vets, and vets' problems, were intellectually stimulating, emotionally rendering and tastefully produced. Reporter Kathy McManus accu rately and concisely captured the emotional problems Vietnam Vet erans have been experiencing since* the war. Through this exemplary kind of responsible, succinct, and precise journalism our society is becoming more aware of our readjustment problems. Russ Linebarger 1668 Moss Meteorite misses Trivial Complaints department. Your recent article on the appear ance of the Willamette Meteorite re plica on Pres. Boyd's driveway was like a scene out of "Animal House." However, the story had one small in accuracy which is understandable in light of the information that was avail able to your reporter. The largest meteorite ever dis covered in the United States didn't fall in Oregon City as your story states, but "near Oregon City" as the plaque on the meteorite's pedestal in front of Science II says. Specifically, the meteorite fell in West Linn — across the river from Oregon City — in an area known as Willamette. No one knows when it fell, as only Indians were around to witness the event, but it was found in 1902 and, after a series of legal battles over ownership, was spirited off to New York’s Museum of Natural History where a building was constructed around it with doors too small to ever let it out again. No doubt the plaque on the real meteor says "near Oregon City too. We West Linners have gotten used to that. At any rate, Pres. Boyd can take some comfort in knowing that the real meteor's history is as strange as the replica's. Steve Dodge senior, journalism
