4 A
❘
SATURDAY EDITION
❘ MARCH 12, 2016
Siuslaw News
RYAN CRONK , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
Opinion
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
VIEW FROM UPRIVER
YESTERDAY’S NEWS
Natural Benefits
W ESLEY V OTH
For the Siuslaw News
––––––––––––
T
rilliums in the deep shade of the
cedars in our yard have finally awak-
ened, joining the many in areas that
have more sun exposure. The first of the
maple trees are blooming, their edible-when-
cooked blossoms meaning area spring greens
like nettles and miner’s lettuce, oxalis and
yellow wood violets can be found as well.
Today I saw the first of the commercial gath-
erers of lady fern fiddleheads out with their
plastic buckets. This late-winter and sudden
abundance of local greens must have been a
great boon to all of the peoples here before
us who did not have access to things brought
from warmer climes, a welcome infusion of
vitamins A & C that had been largely missing
since mid-autumn.
We just returned from a short visit with
our daughter who has moved back to the
Captain Cook area of the Big Island of
Hawaii. We left there in 2003 and it had been
more than 10 years since our last visit.
Changes in flora and fauna have been dra-
matic in that decade, noticeable in the sounds
alone — the crowing of jungle fowl
from 3 a.m. and the cacophony of
coqui frogs all night.
Hawaii is a great place to observe
the harm that invasive species can do,
both the accidental and purposefully
released. Many small mammals, birds,
frogs, lizards, spiders and a myriad of
insect and plant species multiply phenome-
nally year round with nothing controlling
them, completely supplanting either the
native species or species that have lived there
long enough to be in some sort of balance
with everything else. Sometimes control of
one (poisoning the rats and mongoose) has
the unintended consequence of un-controlling
something else (jungle fowl and wild
turkeys).
We came home to a letter from the Oregon
Department of Forestry telling us that our 2
little parcels of land had been left out of the
Forest Patrol Assessment, and would this
year be included when our property taxes
come due in the fall.
I spoke with our District Forester Link
Smith, and he said that about 700 of these
letters had gone out in the greater Florence
area. They try and look each area over on a
five year rotation to see if all land that meets
wild fire criteria that should be included actu-
ally is; better tools now make this process
more accurate.
Link described for me some of the air and
other support that would be deployed should
wildfire come — as it surely will eventually
— to Mapleton and Brickerville, support
beyond what local fire departments can and
would be able to handle. My apologies to
our neighbors who have been paying for
this wildfire protection all this time, while
for the 15 years we have owned these
parcels we have not.
Also in the mail was a survey “scientifi-
cally selected by address” to determine the
number of people in the 50 states involved
in wildlife associated recreation, including
hunting and fishing.
Included was information gleaned from
the last study, done in 2011, conducted by
the census bureau. Roughly one third of
American adults reported that wildlife
watching was an activity they participated
in during that year. If you included those
who only listed hunting and/or fishing but
not watching wildlife (and I wonder how
you can do either of the first without watch-
ing wildlife), the percentage jumped to 38
percent. Virtually all of the wildlife watch-
ers included “around the home” as one of
the places this happened, and three-fourths
reported feeding wildlife as part of that
activity.
The report seems to suggest that people
are more likely to travel to see the natural
world as they get older, and underscored the
great economic benefit to local communities
associated with preservation of that natural
world.
LETTERS
Caring for the
caregivers
I would publicly like to express
to Spruce Point Assisted Living
my gratitude for its ongoing sup-
port to the bimonthly meeting of
the Caregiver Support Group that
has been meeting in its facility for
four years. Spruce Point has pro-
vided a complimentary lunch for
all the participants that attend.
It has been encouraging and gra-
cious to us continuously. Thank
you, caring folks. What a stellar
relationship this has been.
Mary Ann Earl
RN and BSN retired
Florence
habitats and help to contain forest
fires.
When the government gets done
closing all the roads, you will
know who to blame when some-
one throws a cigarette out of a car
window and starts a fire that burns
from Highway 101 to Junction
City.
I fought fires and know how
they spread. I worked too long in
these woods not to worry about
fire.
I think the federal government
needs to leave the management of
the forests to the state.
Virgle Bechtold
Florence
A Florence forum
Managing the forest
We received a letter from the
state telling us that Oregon is
going to add $18.75 to our taxes
for fire protection. We have .29 of
an acre with one monkey tree and
two apple trees. I wonder — how
much are they going to charge the
Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) and the U.S. Forest
Service?
When I was a choker settler, I
spent many hours clearing chunks
and dragging limbs from creeks.
That was what the Forest Service
and BLM made the loggers do.
I see reports that the Forest
Service plans to place 900 logs
across Indian Creek for salmon
enhancement. Now what would
Tub Beers have to say to that?
The Forest Service has closed
roads to the public. The do-good-
ers — “Save the spotted owl!” —
and the tree-huggers have stopped
the logging. But newly planted
forests encourage deer and elk
From the kitchen I heard what
sounded like a raucous “cock
fight” with the audience shouting
and jeering. It turned out not to be
an illegal cock fight, but an embar-
rassing exchange between Donald
Trump and Marco Rubio.
The antics of this election year’s
Republican candidates are not only
confusing but very troublesome,
not just because of the base level
of discourse taking place, but the
media highlight of this behavior.
Florentines, we are being held
captive by the six corporations
who own 90 percent of media in
America. These czars determine
what we will or will not hear or
read. They are promoting coverage
of the juvenile antics of the
Republican top runner and at the
same time have put a media blitz
on a major Democratic challenger.
We don’t know what we don’t
know because the media is block-
ing important information from us.
Unless we tap into non-commer-
cial media outlets, such as KXCR,
our community radio station or
Free Speech TV and others like
them, we will be in the dark about
critical data that ought to inform
our political and social thinking
and action.
This has serious consequences
for our quality of life. I don’t have
the answer, I only know and feel
the real danger of losing my fun-
damental rights.
This is not new; it has been
creeping up on us for a long time,
but most of us have been too busy
to notice it. A nation where 17 mil-
lion, or one in four children in the
country, is living without consis-
tent access to enough nutritious
food to live a healthy life and when
they get to school are too hungry to
learn, a nation that encourages
donating millions and billions to
essentially “buy” a candidate, is a
situation that erodes our sense of
national humanity.
While democracy is a time con-
suming endeavor, being a specta-
tor is not going to win the game. I
urge you to become involved, if
only to ask questions and to learn
ways to become an effective par-
ticipant.
Florence needs a forum to
investigate and inform its citizens
of issues such as these, and many
more. I invite like-minded readers
to engage in such a forum.
Nan Harvey
Florence
Presenting a clean
front
Florence is trying to attract
tourists, yet the mall at the corner
of Highways 101 and 126 is lit-
tered with old socks, food wrap-
pers, coffee cups and overflowing
garbage cans.
Where is the business pride?
I am aware that this area is fre-
quented by transients, but Florence
businesses need to clean up and
put their “clean fronts” forward.
Pat Rongey
Florence
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WHERE TO WRITE
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John Bartlett
Jenna Bartlett
Ryan Cronk
Susan Gutierrez
Cathy Dietz
Ron Annis
Jeremy Gentry
EDITOR @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Pres. Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
Gov. Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, OR 97301-4047
Governor’s Citizens’ Rep.
Message Line 503-378-4582
www.oregon.gov/gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
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Washington, DC 20510
MOMENTS IN TIME
The History Channel
On March 20, 1823, Ned Buntline, the
“dime millionaire” and discoverer of Buffalo
Bill, is born in New York. More than any single
writer, Buntline was responsible for creating a
romanticized and misleading image of the
American West. He once said, “I found that to
make a living I must write ‘trash’ for the mass-
es.”
On March 18, 1834, in England, six English
agricultural laborers are sentenced to seven
years of banishment to Australia’s penal colony
for their union activities. Their crime: They
agreed that they would not accept work for less
than 10 shillings a week.
On March 17, 1901, paintings by Dutch
painter Vincent van Gogh are shown in Paris,
causing a sensation across the art world. Van
Gogh had committed suicide 11 years earlier
after selling only one painting.
On March 14, 1922, John “Jack” Mack, co-
founder of one of North America’s largest
heavy-duty truck makers, is killed when his car
collides with a trolley in Pennsylvania. The
expression “it hit me like a Mack truck” (mean-
ing something that creates a powerful impact) is
part of the American lexicon.
On March 19, 1957, Elvis Presley puts a
$1,000 down payment on a new home for his
parents, a southern Colonial mansion on a 13.8-
acre wooded estate. Presley agreed to purchase
the Tennessee home called Graceland for
$102,500.
On March 15, 1968, construction begins on
the Eisenhower/Johnson Memorial Tunnel in
Colorado. Cutting through the Continental
Divide at an average elevation of 11,112 feet, it
is America’s highest vehicle tunnel.
On March 16, 1978, the oil tanker Amoco
Cadiz wrecks off the coast of France. Although
the French navy dropped bombs to open the
hull immediately, releasing the oil where it was,
much of the 68 million gallons of oil drifted to
the coast.
(c) 2016 King Features Synd., Inc.
L ETTERS TO THE
E DITOR P OLICY
The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to
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Florence area and Lane County.
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Write to:
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Copyright 2016 © Siuslaw News
202-224-5244
541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
FAX: 503-986-1080
Email:
Sen.ArnieRoblan@state.or.us
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753/FAX: 202-228-3997
541-465-6750
State Rep. Caddy McKeown
(Dist. 9)
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
Email:
rep.caddymckeown@state.or.us
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (4th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416/ 800-944-9603
541-269-2609/ 541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
State Sen. Arnie Roblan (Dist. 5)
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
West Lane County Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
FAX: 541-682-4616
Email:
Jay.Bozievich@co.lane.or.us