letters
TO THE EDITOR
we stop blowing up peoples’ homes with
fl ying robots. We could even launch a new
WPA, provide jobs, build green energy
infrastructure, truly reduce CO2 emissions,
and stimulate the entire economy.
Are these ideas too utopian, too
impractical, or too much to expect right now?
Then it’s time for something bigger. It’s
likely already begun in Wisconsin.
Todd D. Johnson
Eugene
GROW UP
I found Kathryn Mason’s opinions as
stated in her letter Feb. 17 to be offensive. I
take issue with her statement that declared the
cover Feb. 10 to be “obscene by any standards”
— not by my standards, nor by the dozen or so
individuals unfamiliar to me whom I quizzed
about the cover. I found no one who objected.
I also found her thinly veiled threats of loss of
advertisers and the folding of the publications
to be unacceptable. The whole letter read like
a childish temper tantrum. I say kudos to EW
for a tasteful representation of the human
form and an interesting article. I view EW’s
advertisers as open and supportive of diverse
opinions, and I will continue to support them
with my business. I would say to Ms. Mason,
“Grow up!”
Sandra Legaard
Springfi eld
JOBS TO CHINA
At a time when the main political focus
is on jobs, jobs, jobs, I would like to talk
about where all the jobs went, and why.
Why is everything we use made in China,
when millions of Americans are out of
work? Because all the famous “American”
corporations, the backbone of the American
economy (i.e. stock market) have made an end
run around all the human rights laws, labor
standards, and environmental protections
that democracy has made possible here, by
moving millions of once-American jobs to
(often unrepentantly) undemocratic countries
like China. In the process, they have increased
their personal profi ts tenfold, while fl ooding
the country (and its landfi lls) with cheap, low
quality junk, designed to break and be thrown
away. What is very good for China and
huge corporations is very bad for American
workers, democracy, and the planet.
And thanks to the Supreme Court, the
same corporations who have bypassed
all that democracy has accomplished for
We the People, have now gained virtually
unlimited, anonymous power to infl uence our
“democratic” elections, fl ooding the airwaves
with carefully devious misinformation.
Multinational corporations are the enemy
of real democracy; global capitalism is the
engine of disaster!
P.S. Can anyone tell me why there aren’t
hundreds of banking executives in jail right
now? Instead they’re back to record bonuses
and fraudulent behavior. And We the People,
in our tens of millions, continue to do ...
nothing?
Rick Moser
Eugene
HARMFUL ALTERNATIVE
Tar sands oil contains more harmful
chemicals than conventional crude, including
fi ve to 10 times as much sulfur, and more
chloride salts. Both substances can weaken
viewpoint
pipelines and make them more likely to break
during a pressure spike.
Kelly Rasmussen
Junction City
WTF?
The Weekly began to cover a story that
sounds like high profi le money laundering
(“Pat Kilkenny Invested in Courtside?”1/6 )
in the controversial Walnut Station mixed-
use development area. Why is the Weekly
failing to follow up on that important story?
The Weekly is now promoting instead of
reporting on proposed EmX expansions.
Why the change?
The Emerald now reports UO is selling
legacy arena parking garage spots for one
million dollars each.
In other news: UO is buying land in
Glenwood and faces two hearings next
month (5 pm March 16 in the Sloat Room of
the Atrium Building) related to a proposed
sprawling riverfront Nike complex and
museum. The outcomes of the two hearings
are subject to appeal.
In other words: What the F is going on
over there at the Weekly?
Zachary Vishanoff
Eugene
IMPACT ON FAMILIES
Violence, drug use, homelessness, and
an increase of adolescents within Lane
County’s juvenile system is what closing our
communities’ schools can lead to. The young
need organizations and institutions that
provide positive, supportive environments.
For most of our adolescents, this comes from
local schools they have attended throughout
their early education years. Taking this
away can certainly be a crisis for most
young children and adolescents within our
community.
Eugene 4J School Board and local public
and city offi cials held a meeting on Feb. 2. A
decision was made to close four of our local
elementary schools, Crest Drive, Parker,
Meadowlark and Coburg Elementary;
students, families, and teachers are all now
being critically impacted throughout their
communities. Parents and children have to
adjust to new schools or even new districts,
which can cause a huge damper economically
for each family. Teachers are facing layoffs
with no guarantee to have any work in
their fi eld of expertise; in return, Oregon’s
unemployment rates will dramatically
increase.
Giving children what they need to succeed
is not removing the place of education where
they have already adapted a strong routine.
Young people need constructive, enriching
opportunities for growth through creative
activities, youth programs and congregational
involvement, all which are best provided
at our local schools. Our youth also need a
strong sense of their own power, purpose,
worth, and promise which is removed when
they are forced to start over and pushed into a
different community.
Tiffany Cloud
Springfi eld
LETTERS POLICY: We welcome letters on all topics and
will print as many as space allows, with priority given to
timely local issues. Please limit length to 200 words, keep
submissions to once a month, and include your address and
phone number for our files. E-mail to letters@eugeneweekly.
com fax to 484-4044, or mail to 1251 Lincoln, Eugene 97401.
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
BY ROY KEENE
Restorative
Logging?
More rarity than reality
B
eginning with Bush’s 2003 Healthy Forests Restoration Act, there have
been a number of politically powered, scientifi cally justifi ed proposals
to log more federal forests. These efforts to increase logging assert
that our forests are unhealthy and, therefore, in need of “restoration.“
Sen. Wyden’s Eastside Forest Restoration and Jobs Act, proposing to triple
logging in three million acres of already over-logged forests, brought in a new
twist: Environmental organizations are working with the timber industry to
promote this latest round of logging.
Jack Ward Thomas, ex-chief the Forest Service and a forger of the Northwest
Forest Plan, publicly challenged this collaborative logging proposal. In an
Oregonian op-ed, he questioned special interest groups dictating national
forest policy, undercutting existing forest management laws, and expediting
logging by reducing appeals and public participation.
Politically and scientifi cally driven logging to “restore“ our forests
precedes the Bush and Wyden efforts by 40 years. In the early 1970s, massive
clear-cut logging, called “regeneration harvesting,“ was sold as a way to bring
decadent ancient forests back to health. Liquidating these “overly mature”
forests was supposed to create more wildlife habitat, increase water fl ows
and salmon runs, foster more diversity, and help prevent fi re. It’s done just
the opposite.
A Forest Service silviculturalist I worked with during that period
jeopardized his career by calling “regeneration harvesting“ what it really was
... deforestry. Wikipedia says using buzzwords is “stating goals with opaque
words of unclear meaning; their positive connotations prevent questioning
of intent.” In a Register-Guard opinion, Tom Partin of the American Forest
Resource Council cloaked this latest logging scam in buzzwords without ever
saying the “L“ word.
Fear of wildfi re is heavily used to sell these forest “restoration” schemes.
Logging has not been proven, in practice, to reduce fi re frequency or
intensity. Historically, the largest, most destructive blazes, like the Tillamook
confl agration, were caused from logging or fueled by slash. Unlogged forests,
cool and shaded, are typically more fi re resistant than cut over, dried-up
stands choked with slash and weeds.
Large-scale logging (by any name) has devalued our forests, degraded our
waters, damaged soils, and endangered a wide variety of plants and animals.
How will the current round of politically and environmentally propelled
“restorative” logging proposals differ, in practice, from past logging regimes?
It’s a bad time for environmentalists to promote more logging even if it
were truly “restorative.” In this historically low market, federal timber is sold
very cheaply. Timber purchasers already sit on huge logging contracts in
order to make windfall profi ts when markets rise. Selling more timber in a
low market further devalues our forest and encourages industry to clamor
for more.
Practicing forestry for 35 years, I’ve worked with federal and private
foresters, tribal elders, citizen groups, and even industry to design many
successful forest restoration projects that don’t involve logging. Fact is, when
site and soil impacts are considered, “restorative logging” in federal forests
is a rarity ... more of an oxymoron than a reality.
Roy Keene is a local real estate broker and private timberland restoration specialist.
Cutting and burning a crowded understory
releases a larch stand without logging
EUGENE WEEKLY MARCH 3, 2011 7