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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 18, 2015)
VIEWPOINTS Saturday, April 18, 2015 Quick takes Raising the speed limit Yes we are the only ones around that have a very slow speed limit which is ridic- ulous for Eastern Oregon, I see it as a way for the counties to make money on out-of- state drivers. — Mickey Barber Meredith Have any of you tried to pull a trailer in the in the right lane between Pendleton and Boardman? The ruts are terrible. Try it at 75 mph. — Marshall Schilling I’m the guy doing 58 in a 65 zone, better gas milage and longer engine life. Not in a hurry to die either. — Henry Timzen What good can come of a stupid bill like that? More death and more money spent on gas! — Sharon Peck Brown Don’t people already do between 70-75 on Oregon freeways? I know I do. — Eric Skaggs Podcast recommendations Josh and Chuck’s Stuff You Should Know podcasts never disappoint. — Elizabeth Connelly Scheeler My podcast addiction has abated, but I still try to tune into the live feed of Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show from time to time ... The 2-hour shows were great for read trips or weekend listening. — Gary L. West The Wallaholics podcast is pretty good and features Pendleton on occasion. — Corey Neistadt One of the great lessons of the Twitter age is that much can be summed up in just a few words. Here are some of this week’s takes. Tweet yours @Tim_Trainor or email editor@eastoregonian. com, and keep them to 140 characters. Page 5A Forest service still looking for a mission as nation debates forest’s purpose itself since then, and it still struggles to create a clear purpose and mission for the 21st century — one that resonates with the public it serves. erhaps Ken Burns had the right idea In my recently published memoir, when he named his public-television series “The National Parks: America’s Toward a Natural Forest, I talk about how the Forest Service and I have both Best Idea.” Even though I worked for the VWUXJJOHGWR¿QGDZD\IRUZDUG7KHLVVXH Forest Service for 34 years, I’m inclined confronting the agency to agree with him about isn’t new; the question is the importance of our Throughout the still: “How do we get what nation’s parks. But the need from our forests national forests are surely nation there is still we without ruining them in our second-best idea, a priceless asset despite a conflict between the process?” When I was the the call from some the notion that supervisor of the Siuslaw Westerners to sell off National Forest in our forests and privatize national forests Oregon’s Coast Range them. 1992 to 1999, my It is sad to admit that are little more than from work brought me into the battles over logging, WKHKHDUWRIWKHFRQÀLFWV timber factories grazing, mining and endangered species recreation fees have ... and the newer over like the spotted owl and never stopped. Forests salmon. My approach was go up in smoke or fall conviction that an abrupt turnaround that prey to insect epidemics while critics complain they need to thrive ended the old regime of clear-cutting, which ruled about how ineffective ecologically... the Siuslaw from 1950 and wayward the Forest until 1990. I wanted the Service has become. forest to be more than In some ways, it is the DWUHHIDUPWR¿QGDZD\WRUHVWRUHZKDW agency’s own fault. KDGEHFRPHDQDUWL¿FLDOHFRV\VWHP&ULWLFV The Forest Service enjoyed broad denounced my approach as disastrous. support as a “can do” agency in the post- Yet today, the Siuslaw prospers, and WWII logging era, but its glacial response its current management illustrates a land to the environmental movement dried up a reservoir of legitimacy and trust and created ethic that aims — as best I can put it — for naturalness. The old single-minded focus KXJHSUREOHPVSHUKDSVEHVWH[HPSOL¿HG on timber production is gone, even though E\WKHVSRWWHGRZOFULVLVLQWKH3DFL¿F logging still occurs. The difference is that Northwest. I recall vividly when a federal trees are cut sensibly and sustainably. The MXGJHGHWHUPLQHGWKDWDJHQF\RI¿FLDOVKDG Siuslaw is managed to preserve and restore willfully broken endangered species laws LWVPDJQL¿FHQWFRDVWDOIRUHVWVSURGXFWLYH in their determination to protect logging salmon rivers, and vital wildlife habitat interests. As Orville Daniels, the former for imperiled species, as well as to provide supervisor of the Lolo National Forest, put timber. And as incredible as it might sound, it, the Forest Service had gone over to the there has been no timber sale appeal or “dark side.” 7KHDJHQF\KDVIRXQGLWGLI¿FXOWWRULJKW lawsuit for over 20 years. By JIM FURNISH Writers on the Range P Fewer acronyms, more action F East Oregonian ederal Payment-In-Lieu-of-Taxes and “Safety Net Payments” and “Secure Rural Secure Rural Schools payment schemes Schools and Community Self-Determination are not in the best long-term interests of Act.” Oregon’s citizens. I have attended countless This ought to remind everyone of the budget meetings where hard-working folks Obamacare debacle. It’s cleverly named the strive to manage their limited resources. “Affordable Care Act” but there’s little that’s However, the hard truth is that relying on affordable or caring about it. What was sold these monies will only place us on the as a well-intentioned new idea has turned into same street corner next year, with the same Dennis a wasteful, ineffective nightmare. We should cardboard sign, asking once again, “Please, Linthicum know better than to believe the cleverly named Sir, More…” bad policies from Washington, D.C. Comment All of these federal disbursement models Look at the 1976 Federal Land Policy are outdated, whimsically amended, and Management Act. This is where PILT was hobbled by bureaucratic ineptitude. They are built on birthed. This is also where Congress declared a a mishmash of legislative actions from self-interested fundamental transformation of its Public Land goals. parties that are forged deep within the marbled halls Up until this single event the federal government had of our nation’s distant capital. Worse yet, most federal a legislative mandate for disposing of public lands. actions are rank with either executive or legislative After FLPMA the focus became one of land retention. over-reach or pregnant with deplorable raids on the Land retention is the skunk in the woodpile. This US Treasury. is exactly why PILT and SRS exist. These monies • Executive Over-reach #1 – Between 1904 and are aimed at buying your complacency through the 1906, President Roosevelt went tearing through bankrupt budget and monetary policies of our federal Oregon maps creating 10 new forest reserves: 1904 government. Don’t mistake their offer for a mere 25 – Baker City; 1905 – Chesnimnus, Maury Mountain, percent of the revenue as the answer to your county’s Wallowa and Wenaha; 1906 – Blue Mountains, GLI¿FXOWLHV Fremont, Goose Lake, Heppner and Siskiyou. Instead of talking about PILT, SRS and O&C • Defensive Response – In 1907, Oregon’s U.S. monies, it is time to start talking about the Transfer senator Charles W. Fulton introduced an amendment of Public Lands to states, counties and private to eliminate the president’s authority to establish enterprises. Dismantling federal land jurisdiction national forests in Oregon. This amendment would give local communities control and appropriately gave responsibility back to Congress management over their own natural resources. and changed the name from forest reserves to national It’s time for us, as loggers, ranchers, entrepreneurs forests in order to make it clear that the forests were to DQGHOHFWHGRI¿FLDOVWREHOLHYHLQRXURZQIXWXUH'R be used, not preserved. not allow the Politburo in Washington D.C. to plan • Executive Over-reach #2 – In 1907, the night your life for you. Focusing on government handouts before signing Sen. Fulton’s bill, Roosevelt grabbed is never the right answer. another 16 million acres, deridingly known as the I know local families, businesses and communities “Midnight Reserves.” Opponents were furious, but are hurting. I know county services will face ¿YHQHZQDWLRQDOIRUHVWVZHUHSURFODLPHGLQ2UHJRQ constraints but Congress needs to admit that it has Blue Mountains National Forest (added to the older promised more than it can deliver. The feds have Maury Mountain Forest Reserve), Coquille National over-spent your hard-earned money by throwing Forest, Imnaha National Forest (created from the $18.2 trillion down the proverbial rat-hole while your older Wallowa and Chesnimnus Forest Reserves), Commissioners are scrounging the pavement looking Tillamook National Forest, and Umpqua National for Road Fund nickels and dimes. Forest (Coast Range). Instead of being placated by the empty words • Congressional Pandering – The next year, 1908, of career politicians we should place our faith in Congress invented the 25 percent annualized receipts local control and open markets as the best means of sharing plan to placate states and counties whose UHVWRULQJDQGSUHVHUYLQJRXUZDWHU¿VKJDPHWLPEHU land assets were completely nationalized through and mineral resources. This is the road we must be Roosevelt’s takings. willing to travel to secure the blessings of Liberty to • Whimsically bureaucratic — Since counties ourselves and our posterity. ¿UVWLPSDOHGWKHPVHOYHVLQWKLVHFRQRPLFGHDWKWUDS Ŷ Congress has never repealed federal misdoings but Dennis Linthicum is a Klamath County KDYHRQO\DPHQGHGRUPRGL¿HGWKHRULJLQDODFWV Commissioner and was a candidate for Congress in with cheery names like, “Payment in Lieu of Taxes,” 2014. The Siuslaw’s remarkable transition has been accomplished with citizen involvement at every step. I believe the people concerned have begun to rediscover the deeply satisfying sense that this national forest really does belong to them, with the Forest Service serving as a valued partner and steward for all Americans. But throughout the nation there is still DFRQÀLFWEHWZHHQWKHQRWLRQWKDWQDWLRQDO forests are little more than timber factories that need to earn their keep and the newer conviction that they need to thrive ecologically for their own sake as well as ours. The single-minded pursuit of economic goals has caused havoc across the nation. In the Northwest, it led to the disappearance of old-growth trees. In the Southeast, it spurred the virtual loss of entire ecosystems such as longleaf pine woodlands. In all cases, the HPSKDVLVRQORJJLQJVLPSOL¿HGODQGVFDSHV because the tree species were restricted to a few economically useful ones that were cut on short rotation. If land managers favor ecological sustainability, however, the principle behind the existence of the national forests is kept intact, that principle being the preservation of a landscape’s essential integrity and environmental function so that it can continue to supply forest resources in abundance. Logging does not need to be eliminated, but it does need to be coupled with humility and sensible business practices. On our public lands, there is no place anymore for greed. We have argued for generations about what, exactly, national forests are for, and whether particular forests are best suited for logging, mining, drilling or recreation. But our highest commitment should be to the land itself, allowing it to be what it needs to be, naturally. Ŷ Jim Furnish is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a column service of High Country News. He lives in Maryland. AROUND THE STATE On Hayes’ emails T KHHPDLOVUHOHDVHGEHWZHHQIRUPHU¿UVWODG\&\OYLD +D\HVDQGIRUPHU*RY-RKQ.LW]KDEHU¶VVWDIIFRQ¿UPZKDW many news articles had suggested. Hayes mingled her private consulting work and the work of the JRYHUQRU¶VRI¿FH7KHOLQHVZHUHQ¶WEOXUUHG7KH\ZHUHWKRURXJKO\ trampled. Kitzhaber’s insistence that the two roles were kept separate are not backed up by his own emails. He cleared the way for her. Hayes has demonstrated that the public-private line was one she ZDVZLOOLQJDQGHDJHUWRFURVV,WZRXOGEHQRVXUSULVHWR¿QGWKDWWKH same is true in her private email. Her attorney has argued that public records laws should not apply to her. He said that releasing such emails would violate her priva- cy. And he said that disclosing the emails would violate her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by way of acknowledg- ing they exist and that they relate to state business. We would have more respect for those arguments if the 94,000 emails already released gave a different impression. They have added to the growing body of evidence that Hayes embodied neither the letter nor the spirit of ethical government. — (Bend) Bulletin ——— A common interpretation of John Kitzhaber’s fall is that the former governor was hoodwinked, blinded or otherwise led astray E\KLV¿DQFpH&\OYLD+D\HV0DQ\RIWKHUHFHQWO\UHOHDVHHPDLOV reinforce that narrative, revealing an assertive woman who used her closeness to the governor for personal advantage. But Oregonians should not be too quick to let Kitzhaber off the hook. He could have, DQGVKRXOGKDYHUHLQHGLQ+D\HVDQGQRZKH¶VRXWRIRI¿FHEHFDXVH he didn’t. )HZLQWKHJRYHUQRU¶VRI¿FHGDUHGWRFKDOOHQJH+D\HVHYHQ though some recognized that her actions created ethical problems. She treated staffers as though they were her employees, scolding them when she was excluded from lists of people receiving informa- tion or when scheduling problems arose. “It would have been nice to be informed of our moving forward on avoiding the food stamp cuts. I had emails that caught me unprepared because I did not know we had decided to move forward,” she wrote in a message to a staffer in 2014. Hayes’ haughty tone and the sense of entitlement will bolster the narrative of Hayes as the villain in the Kitzhaber tragedy. — (Eugene) Register-Guard ——— (PDLOH[FKDQJHVEHWZHHQ+D\HVDQGNH\¿JXUHVLQWKHJRYHUQRU¶V RI¿FHPDNHLWFOHDUVKHLQWHQGHGWRIXQFWLRQDVLIVKHZHUHDGHSXW\ governor, inserting herself into policy decisions, building her “brand” DV¿UVWODG\RI2UHJRQDQGEHKDYLQJLQDVXSHUYLVRU\PDQQHUWRZDUG senior staff members. The emails also reveal that Kitzhaber facilitated this, instructing staff to send her correspondence regarding policy matters and include her as a participant in high-level meetings. So far, only Hayes’ emails have been released. Kitzhaber’s email records from his state account have not been. If Hayes’ emails are any indication, Kitzhaber’s are unlikely to make either of them look any better. — (Medford) Mail Tribune