Eugene weekly., May 17, 2012, Page 7, Image 7

letters
TO THE EDITOR
should be carefully considered to provide
the greatest benefi t for all. It should not
be used simply as a commodity for profi t
through speculation.
Susan Tavakolian & Suzanne Boyd
Co-Presidents, LWV of Lane County
MORE LIES AND LOGGING
Rep. Peter DeFazio’s plan to privatize
and liquidate half the federally managed
O&C forest is really just a huge re-election
gift to corporate timber without securing
future old growth or future generations
— a gift to the same corporations who are
already allowed to export jobs and a third
of Oregon’s annual timber harvest while
paying a pittance in taxes.
Very little of the profi t from logging the
public’s high-value O&C timber would
return to the public. Most of it would go
to the timber corporations who control
our elected offi cials and, indirectly, the
agencies. This latest giveaway of valuable
public forest smacks of the Oregon land
fraud scandal in the early 1900s. Subject of
the famous Looters of the Public Domain,
Oregon’s elected offi cials granted millions
of federal acres to some of the same timber
companies returning for seconds and thirds
today.
Greedy timber barons and their hirelings
won’t stop with half the O&C forests.
They’ll peck away at the other half and
then what’s left of the high-value Forest
Service forests. Oregon is the last stop in
the timber industry’s systematic looting of
America’s public domain. Will Oregonians
wise up or continue to be duped and lose
their great forest inheritance?
Samantha Chirillo
Eugene
LOSING PROPOSITION
Regarding “Goosed,” Roy Keene’s
commentary (4/12) on one of the timber
sales in McKenzie Bridge, there’s another
lesser known dark horse riding out of the
Forest Service’s McKenzie District stable:
Summer 2012
Registration
is Open!
the Horse Creek Timber Sale, of huge and
equal or greater concern to the residents of
Horse Creek Road, McKenzie Bridge and
Lane County.
Log trucks are already pounding the
pavement this spring, from the private
sale that has clear-cut a large section of
the north side of King Road and one has
to wonder how this private company is
making money on this sale considering the
current price of gas and board feet. But,
clearly, given the price the Forest Service
fi nds acceptable, it’s a losing proposition
for everyone: Forest Service, taxpayers,
local residents and not least, the trees.
A notice was sent out on May 19, 2011
announcing a 30-day review and comment
period of the Horse Creek Sale, though
where and who saw it is anyone’s guess. I
only discovered it recently while perusing
the Save the McKenzie website.
The Horse Creek Project intends to cut
2,043 acres comprising 27 million board
feet (another 7,000 trucks) and includes
940 acres of “heavy” commercial thinning.
Anyone who has had the good fortune
and pleasure of exploring the Horse Creek
drainage knows what an incredible place
this is. When most of the pristine rainforests
on the planet are being decimated on a
daily basis, do we have an even greater
responsibility to protect this amazing life
sustaining forest intact.
Lia Gladstone
McKenzie Bridge
OCCUPY PARVIN
Summer at the University
rsi
rs
s of Oregon
offers admitted and nonadmitted
students a wide choice of courses,
workshops, seminars, and institutes,
lasting from two days to eight weeks.
Visit the summer session website for
the official class schedule.
Classes are filling up quickly,
so register soon.
Developer Greg Demers has been in the
news recently. Spend a little Google time
and check out his track record. He has done
well for himself: a lot of land and timber,
property development and more, all quite
legal of course.
Demers’ methods of acquiring wealth
are emblematic of those that gave rise to
the Occupy Movement. The movement is
relatively quiet now and many will prefer
to dismiss it as a minor historical footnote.
Perhaps the movement’s original scale was
too large. What if the Occupy movement
focused on more local, more tangible
issues like Parvin Butte, where state and
local regulations have stopped working for
a great many of the people whom they are
supposed to serve?
Kevin Reilly
Eugene
June 25–September 7
uosummer.uoregon.edu
facebook.com/uosummer
541-346-3475
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