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
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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
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Drawing from the expedition’s
justly famous journals and diverse
additional sources, Moulton promis-
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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
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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-
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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
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considered valuable potential part-
ners, before they were overrun by
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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
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a certain fatigue about the expedi-
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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-
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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-
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tion, a move strategically
retroactively vindicating
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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
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As reported by the Seattle Times,
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.,
and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo.,
last Thursday took testimony from
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partisan action to boost forest-thin-
ning and controlled burns — and an
end to the raiding of the U.S. Forest
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A major revamping of forest
planning is timely. Though still
sparsely populated by global stan-
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increasingly interspersed with hous-
ing, at the same time that climatic
changes result in tinderbox-like con-
ditions that are consuming hundreds
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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
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budget practice that shortchanges
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favor of other spending priorities.
Her proposals include upgrading
the U.S. Forest Service’s antiquated
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deployed to make rapid and mean-
ingful progress in blocking the path
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er valuable assets.
Barrasso, a former television
M.D. who seemed to shed his an-
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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
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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
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“We can’t cut our way out of this.”
Peter Goldmark, Washington
state’s elected commissioner of
public lands, commented on a need
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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-
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steps should revolve around involv-
ing forestland residents in setting
the stage for preempting future con-
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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-
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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.