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