TO THE EDITOR
BY MARY O’BRIEN
Member and a member of the AIA Education
Committee.
Richard Pettigrew, Exec. Dir.
Archaeological Legacy Institute
IT’S ABOUT TIME
All the letters of complaint and accusation
are evidence of how many people are frustrated
and upset at just about everything that is hap-
pening in this society. From my slightly skewed
perspective on things (poor, disillusioned and
somewhat right of far right, which is nearly left
of left), I see it all running down, like some old
clock that no one knows how to wind.
We have a government more interested in
extending its surveillance and control over
our personal lives (thank you, Dick) than in
dealing with critical social and environmen-
tal problems. We have witnessed massive
wealth transference from the public sector to
the wealthiest of the private sector, which has
resulted in the peculiar situation of George
spending millions in order to hold office so he
can continue to bankrupt the federal treasury,
turning our children and grandchildren into
permanent paupers.
Since the Republican Party is so adroit at
raising money, why don’t they raise money
for their country instead of just for them-
selves? Oh, sorry, what am I thinking?
Anybody out there remember Watergate,
Iran-Contra, the savings and loan debacle?
Why do we continue to allow any Republican
to hold high office?
If we don’t like the effects of George and
Dick in power, than we should cause them to
lose the power of their offices. Impeach
George for crimes against the Constitution
(officially lying as policy of state) and throw
Dick out of his bunker if he continues to re-
fuse to explain to the American people what
he is doing as their vice president.
These people only get away with this stuff
because we let them. Isn’t it about time to call
them to account to the American people
rather than to their corporate bosses?
D. McDougal
Eugene
ASKING FOR TRUTH
I have a lot of questions to ask George Bush.
First, what is the Bush administration hiding?
Why won’t the White House release the 28-
page section of the 9/11 Report? Are we to be-
lieve that it contains materials critical to “na-
tional security?” How can the administration
expect us to silently accept this refusal to reveal
the contained information? Who does it impli-
cate? Can we assume anything but the worst
from an administration now blatantly on a path
of one deception after another?
And my final question is for Americans
everywhere: What is more important to you,
learning the truth, or protecting the image of
the man we call our president?
Henry Snow
Eugene
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Livestock-Free
Hells Canyon finally gets some
relief. A tale of civic action.
S
ix of us were resting after a day and a half of
building a rock jack fence to keep cattle off the
Vance Knoll mounds in the Wallowa-Whitman
National Forest (W-WNF) of northeast Oregon. These
mounds are strange swellings in the ground, sporting
bunchgrasses on their tops and flanked by rock-strewn flats
that appear barren in the summer, but in springtime hold thou-
sands of colorful flowers. The mounds and their rocky necklaces are being
drowned in weeds, abetted by 1,000-pound cattle feeding and trampling on them.
Hence the fencing project.
Rick Smith, long-time Forest Service range conservationist for the area, and
chief designer/builder of this three-mile fence, was gazing into the gold-and-green
bunchgrass draw below us. “Indian, trapper, homesteader, rancher,” he said gently.
“When I’m out here, I look and wonder who all has passed through there. “
To Smith, I thought, this draw must seem lonely. The Indians, trappers and
homesteaders are gone, and in this economy and dry region, one seldom-seen
ranch hand will run cattle over thousands of acres.
I didn’t say it aloud, but the draw seemed lonely to me, too. The ghosts of
Grizzly, Beaver, and Wolf were passing before me.
Smith and I were aware that earlier in the week, something remarkable had
happened in this national forest: Almost a quarter million acres of designated
livestock rangeland were transformed into protected native bunchgrass lands.
These particular acres were currently “vacant” of livestock, but had been at risk
of being “reactivated” for cattle or sheep. That won’t happen now. With
Supervisor Karyn Wood’s July 22 decision on the new Hells Canyon
Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP), 100 years of marginal livestock grazing
came to an end on one-half of Hells Canyon’s steep, dry, spectacular, but bat-
tered, grasslands. For 10 years, I had worked for this day with the Hells Canyon
CMP Tracking Group and the Nez Perce Tribe. I hadn’t been sure we would suc-
ceed.
T
he saga “began” in 1994 when the W-WNF announced it would develop a
new CMP for the 662,000-acre Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, to
replace the then 12-year old plan. At the time a staff ecologist for the Hells
Canyon Preservation Council, I gathered individuals and representatives of two
tribes and 10 local, regional, and national conservation and hunting organizations
that were convinced we could, as a coalition, profoundly affect the future of Hells
Canyon. We submitted an 80-page “Native Ecosystem Alternative” for considera-
tion in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the new plan. We
knew the National Environmental Policy Act requires that “all reasonable alterna-
tives” be considered in an EIS. Our alternative proposed management for recre-
ation, roads, fire, forestry, livestock grazing, mining, aquatic and terrestrial wildlife
habitat, and European and non-European cultural features in Hells Canyon.
When the first Draft EIS came out, then-Supervisor Bob Richmond had left our
alternative out. Karyn Wood became the new supervisor, but she, too, refused to
consider our alternative, as did the regional forester. Six days before her hefty,
two-volume Final EIS was to go to the printer in 1998, I was granted a meeting
with Washington, D.C., Forest Service and White House representatives. I laid out
the case that our alternative was both reasonable and different from the W-
WNF’s alternatives, and shouldn’t have been ignored. That afternoon the Forest
Service phoned Supervisor Wood to say that her EIS would likely fail in court
because it had not considered our reasonable alternative. It was time to start all
over.
A
second Draft EIS was published in 2000, and the W-WNF then carefully
analyzed the more than 2,000 public responses to the Draft. Wood
assembled teams within her staff, and a multi-stakeholder group, to con-
sider the comments. Her July 2003 decisions on the final EIS were astounding,
including the following: Half of Hells Canyon is now designated grasslands free of
livestock; one-third of old logging roads will be closed; vehicles will no longer be
free to drive a football-field’s length out from either side of every open road for
purposes of camping; all roads will be closed unless posted open; and three ridge
roads key to wildlife will be closed to motorized vehicles from before August
archery season through late spring.
And so, on July 22, Hells Canyon got some relief — because citizens concerned
about their public lands had worked hard, because public land managers were
willing to consider changes in entrenched habits, and maybe, just maybe, because
Hells Canyon had so eloquently made her own case for healing.
Mary O’Brien of Eugene has worked as a public interest scientist for the past 22 years. She can be
reached at mob@efn.org
300 COUNTRY CLUB RD., STE. 290
EUGENE, OR 97401 • (541) 686-2441
AUGUST 7, 2003 7