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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 2015)
OPINION 6A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2015 This extraordinary land is our land Founded in 1873 STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager A Lewis and Clark: Alive and well long return visit to the Columbia River estuary this sum- mer by estimable scholar Gary Moulton is both an invalu- able encounter with a bright mind and a useful reminder that LW¶VVWLOOSRVVLEOHWR¿QGVXUSULVLQJO\IUHVKZD\VWRH[DPLQHDQ historical touchstone — even one as famous as the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Having spent much of his aca- demic life studying this signature episode in America’s foundational years, Moulton is better equipped than anyone alive to create a kind of literary time machine that will al- low us to glimpse what the explorers were seeing and doing on each of the GD\VRIWKHLUDGYHQWXUH Drawing from the expedition’s justly famous journals and diverse additional sources, Moulton promis- HVWRIXO¿OODZLVKFRPPRQDPRQJ Lewis and Clark wannabes: “A per- son could sit there and say ‘I want to see everything that happened on this day.’ I am simply giving an account of each day of the expedition.” Rex Ziak of Naselle, Wash., an- other passionate expedition expert, did something similar with the ex- plorers’ time near the mouth of the Columbia. Moulton is going for the whole enchilada. It will make for fascinating reading. This is happening in the context of HBO’s on-again, off-again, on- again Tom Hanks/Brad Pitt produced mini-series about Lewis and Clark. As of last week, it is back on track, with actors reportedly having been informed about a new start date next year. Sadly, as with many programs set in the American West, the show DFWXDOO\ ZLOO EH ¿OPHG LQ &DQDGD The spectacular Albertan Rockies will stand in for the more-pop- ulated mountains and plains of North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. Favorable Canadian tax and labor policies may also help account for the decision. Considering Lewis and Clark are a particularly potent American sym- EROWKLV¿OPLQJORFDWLRQGHFLVLRQLV unfortunate. Even more so would be a failure to enlist U.S. tribes as active con- sultants and participants. The expe- dition served as President Thomas Jefferson’s emissaries to Indian SHRSOHV ZKR ZHUH DOOWRREULHÀ\ considered valuable potential part- ners, before they were overrun by ZKLWH VHWWOHUV DQG SUR¿WHHUV LQ WKH 19th century. A television show that will inevitably inform many Americans’ opinions about Native Peoples should at least include ac- tual descendants of Chinook and Clatsop tribal members. Some local residents who recall WKH ELFHQWHQQLDO VWLOO IHHO a certain fatigue about the expedi- WLRQ%XWLWLVIRUHYHU¿UPO\SDUWRI national mythology, serving a large role in establishing our American ethos of courageously prevailing over all obstacles. We continue to be very fortunate to have this histo- ry — and the national park devoted to it — so closely woven into our local communities. By NICHOLAS KRISTOF New York Times News Service T he other day, my teenage daughter and I were idly browsing real estate porn, a monument to U.S. inequality: a private island in the Bahamas selling for $17.9 million; a 900- acre retreat in Washington state for $11 million; and an 83-acre estate in Colorado for a cool $100 million. Then we snapped out of the covetous- ness, for we had just been enjoying a va- cation on even more exclusive property, so Nicholas valuable that Kristof no hedge fund manager could ever afford to buy or rent it. We had been hiking day after day past pristine mountain lakes, serenad- ed by the babble of snow-fed streams, JUHHWHGE\YLYLGZLOGÀRZHUVLQDOSLQH meadows. And it’s all my land! Of course, it’s also your land. It’s our extraordinary national inheri- tance, one of the greatest gifts of our ancestors — our public lands. My daughter and I were backpack- LQJ D PLOH VWUHWFK RI WKH 3DFL¿F Crest Trail in central California, from Donner Pass to Yosemite. The cost? It was all free. Most of the time in America, we’re surrounded by oppressive inequality, such that the wealthiest 1 percent col- lectively own substantially more than the bottom 90 percent. One escape from that is America’s wild places. At a time when so much else in America is rationed by price, egalitar- ianism thrives in the wilderness. On the trail, no one can pull rank on you — except a grizzly bear. (In that case, be very deferential!) Wilderness trails constitute a rare space in America marked by econom- ic diversity. Lawyers and construc- tion workers get bitten by the same mosquitoes and sip from the same streams; there are none of the usual signals about socioeconomic status, for most hikers are in shorts and a T-shirt, and enveloped by an aroma that would make a skunk queasy. The wild offers the simplest and cheapest of vacations. My daughter and I unroll our sleeping bags on a $5 plastic sheet and watch shooting stars until we fall asleep (if it rains, we set up a tarp). We carry all our food. And Turned out it was 2015 In February, Lithuania de- calling. Obama’s own cided to reinstate conscrip- WRS RI¿FLDOV KDYH EHHQ tion, a move strategically retroactively vindicating LQVLJQL¿FDQW ² WKH /LWK- Romney. Last month, ASHINGTON — On uanians couldn’t hold off Obama’s choice for chair- the Russian army for a day September 5, 2014, man of the Joint Chiefs of — but highly symbolic. Russian agents crossed into Eastern Europe has been Staff declared that “Rus- Estonia and kidnapped an begging NATO to station sia presents the greatest threat to our national se- (VWRQLDQ VHFXULW\ RI¿FLDO /DVW permanent bases on its territory as a tripwire guar- curity.” Two weeks ago, week, after a closed trial, Russia anteeing a powerful NA- Charles the retiring Army chief Krauthammer sentenced him to 15 years. TO/U.S. response to any of staff, Raymond Odier- The reaction? The State Russian aggression. no, called Russia our NATO has refused. Instead, “most dangerous” military threat. Department issued a statement. The NATO secretary-general issued a Obama offered more military ex- Obama’s own secretary of defense tweet. Neither did anything. The ercises in the Baltic States and Po- has gone one better: “Russia poses land. And threw in an additional an existential threat to the United European Union (reports The Wall 250 tanks and armored vehicles, States.” Street Journal) said it was too early spread among sevenallies. Turns out the Cold War is not over It is true that Putin’s resentment either. Putin is intent on reviving it. to discuss any possible action. The timing of this brazen viola- over Russia’s lost empire long pre- Helped immensely by Obama’s epic tion of NATO territory — two days dates Obama. But for resentment to misjudgment of Russian intentions, after President Obama visited Esto- turn into revanchism — an active the balance of power has shifted — nia to symbolize America’s commit- policy of reconquest — requires and America’s allies feel it. ment to its security — is testimony opportunity. Which is exactly what And not just the East Europeans. to Vladimir Putin’s contempt for Obama’s “reset” policy has offered The president of Egypt, a country the American president. He knows RYHUWKHSDVW\HDUV estranged from Russia for 40 years Since the end of World War II, and our mainstay Arab ally in the Obama will do nothing. Why should Russia has known that Middle East, has twice visited Mos- he think otherwise? what stands in the way of cow within the last four months. • Putin breaks the westward expansion was arms embargo to Iran by The Saudis, congenitally wary Turns not Europe, living happi- of Russia but shell-shocked by lifting the hold on selling ly in decadent repose, but Obama’s grand nuclear capitulation it S-300 missiles. Obama out the the United States as guar- to Iran that will make it the regional responds by excusing Cold antor of Western security. hegemon, are searching for alter- him, saying it wasn’t Obama’s naivete and am- natives, too. At a recent economic technically illegal and War bivalence have put those conference in St. Petersburg, the adding, with a tip of the guarantees in question. hat to Putin’s patience: Saudis invited Putin to Riyadh and is not It began with the re- the Russians reciprocated by invit- “I’m frankly surprised over. set button, ostentatious- ing the new King Salman to visit that it held this long.” ly offered less than two Czar Vladimir in Moscow. • Russia mousetraps Obama at the eleventh hour of the months after Obama’s swearing-in. Even Pakistan, a traditional Chi- Iran negotiations, joining Iran in Followed six months later by the nese ally and Russian adversary, demanding that the convention- unilateral American cancellation of is buying Mi-35 helicopters from al-weapons and ballistic-missile em- the missile shield the Poles and the Russia, which is building a natural Czechs had agreed to install on their gas pipeline between Karachi and bargoes be dropped. Obama caves. • Putin invades Ukraine, annexes territory. Again, lest Putin be upset. Lahore. By 2012, a still clueless Obama Crimea, breaks two Minsk cease- As John Kerry awaits his up- ¿UH DJUHHPHQWV DQG HUDVHV WKH mocked Mitt Romney for saying that coming Nobel and Obama plans his Russia-Ukraine border. Obama’s Russia is “without question our No. presidential library (my suggestion: response? Pinprick sanctions, emp- 1 geopolitical foe,” quipping oh so Havana), Putin is deciding how to ty threats and a continuing refusal cleverly: “The 1980s are now calling EHVW H[SORLW WKH ¿QDO PRQWKV RI to supply Ukraine with defensive to ask for their foreign policy back.” his Obama bonanza. After all, he explained, “the Cold weaponry, lest he provoke Putin. The world sees it. Obama The East Europeans have noticed. War’s been over for 20 years.” doesn’t. By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER Washington Post Writers Group t’s good to see some of the West’s U.S. senators working across the political aisle in hopes of de- veloping better forest management strategies in light of this summer’s GLVDVWURXVZLOG¿UHV As reported by the Seattle Times, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., last Thursday took testimony from ZLOG¿UHVSHFLDOLVWV³DQGSOHGJHGEL- partisan action to boost forest-thin- ning and controlled burns — and an end to the raiding of the U.S. Forest 6HUYLFH¶V¿UHSUHYHQWLRQEXGJHW´ A major revamping of forest planning is timely. Though still sparsely populated by global stan- GDUGV3DFL¿F1RUWKZHVWIRUHVWVDUH increasingly interspersed with hous- ing, at the same time that climatic changes result in tinderbox-like con- ditions that are consuming hundreds RIDFUHVWKLVVXPPHU6RPH¿UHVZLOO almost certainly smolder until heavy winter rains begin, representing a continuing risk they might jump be- yond containment measures. Cantwell is working on a law WR VWRS ³¿UHERUURZLQJ´ D IHGHUDO budget practice that shortchanges ¿UH SUHYHQWLRQ DQG SUHSDUDWLRQ LQ favor of other spending priorities. Her proposals include upgrading the U.S. Forest Service’s antiquated DLUWDQNHUÀHHWWKHSODQHVWKDWFDQEH deployed to make rapid and mean- ingful progress in blocking the path RI¿UHVDSSURDFKLQJKRPHVDQGRWK- er valuable assets. Barrasso, a former television M.D. who seemed to shed his an- DO\WLFDO VFLHQWL¿F PLQG RQFH HQ- sconced in the Senate, is at least partially disposed toward working on a forest-management strategy that doesn’t rely on a return to dis- credited 20th century industrial for- estry approaches. Thinning and maintenance are clearly needed. A forestry ex- pert from Western Washington 8QLYHUVLW\ WHVWL¿HG WR WKH VHQDWRUV that there is a 400-million-acre backlog — an area larger than Alaska — of forestland that needs to be thinned and have branches and other fuels removed that contribute WRELJ¿UHV+HFDXWLRQHGKRZHYHU “We can’t cut our way out of this.” Peter Goldmark, Washington state’s elected commissioner of public lands, commented on a need WR PRGHUQL]H ¿UHGHWHFWLRQ ² XV- LQJ DLUSODQH À\RYHUV VDWHOOLWHV RU GURQHVWRFDWFK¿UHVZKHQWKH\DUH still small enough to quickly snuff out. Such rapid, targeted response could have saved lives and averted vast property damage this summer. As communities in Oregon and Washington move past the imme- diate crises of controlling this sum- PHU¶V ZLOG¿UHV WKH SRVLWLYH QH[W steps should revolve around involv- ing forestland residents in setting the stage for preempting future con- ÀDJUDWLRQV Congress can play a valuable role in this by making sure forest money is applied to forest issues, and by helping the West’s diverse constitu- HQFLHV¿QGORQJUDQJHZD\VWRZRUN together toward forest health. My daughter and I are hiking the at the end, we sometimes try to hitch- hike back to civilization (although IXOO 3DFL¿F &UHVW 7UDLO PLOHV drivers mostly speed up when they from Mexico to Canada, in the narrow window in which she’s strong enough see me). Car campers often pay fees. But and I’m not yet decrepit. We’ve hiked there are almost never fees for back- KDOIDQGKRSHWR¿QLVKLQDQRWKHU¿YH packers in the real wilderness. In- or six years. stead, you pay in sweat and blisters. My favorite area this time was In that respect, the wilderness the area south of Sonora Pass, a stun- UHÀHFWV D YLVLRQ IRU$PHULFD WKDW LV ning landscape of jagged peaks, snow more democratic than just about any patches and alpine lakes. We found other space in our country. it more intoxicating than any micro- I can’t help thinking that if the brew. American West were discovered to- Then it started hailing on us. Yes, day, the most glorious bits would be in midsummer, balls of ice the size of sold off to the highest bidder. Yosem- marbles pelted us, stinging through ite might be nothing but weekend hats and clothing. Soon the ice turned homes for Internet tycoons. to rain, the trail to mud — and we Fortunately, Amer- were reminded that ica’s visionaries back one of the great things The wild then didn’t think that about the wilderness way. People like The- is its capacity to dis- offers the odore Roosevelt and comfort and humble Gifford Pinchot who us. simplest helped preserve our Most of the time wild places were per- in the 21st century, and sonally wealthy and we dominate our sur- could afford coun- cheapest of roundings: We tweak try estates. But they thermostat and vacations. the understood the im- the temperature falls portance of common one degree. We push ownership of some of America’s a button and Taylor Swift sings for natural heritage, so that access didn’t us. It’s the opposite in the wilderness, depend on wealth or breeding. which teaches us constantly that we 7KHLUYLVLRQUHÀHFWHGDGHHSEHOLHI are not lords of the universe but rather at the time, among Republicans as building blocks of it. well as Democrats, in public services In the best sense, nature puts us in that transcended class. The result was our place. Sometimes with icy toes. the world’s best public school system Wilderness offers therapy for the at the time, networks of public librar- soul as just about the last fully egal- ies, public parks and beaches, and itarian place in America. Here we all later a broad system of public univer- stand equal — before the bears and sities and community colleges. the mosquitoes. And there’s a lesson Sadly, that belief in public goods here worth emulating for the rest of today seems old-fashioned! America. What six years of ‘reset’ have wrought It’s time to grow better forest policies W I Nicholas Kristof/The New York Times The Pacific Crest Trail winds by an alpine lake in central California. America’s visionaries left us a wilderness where egalitarianism thrives and bears treat rich and poor hiker equally.