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4A | OCTOBER 8, 2020 | COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL Cottage Grove Sentinel 116 N. Sixth St. Cottage Grove, Ore. 97424 NED HICKSON , MANAGING EDITOR | Opinion 541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ CGSENTINEL . COM The First Amendment C ongress shall make no law respect- ing an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Govern- ment for a redress of grievances. “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” —Thomas Jefferson (1800) USPS#133880 Copyright 2020 © COTTAGE GROVE SENTINAL Letters to the Editor Policy The Sentinel welcomes letters to the editor as part of a community discussion of issues on the local, state and national level. Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters must be signed. All letters need to include full name, address and phone number; only name and city will be printed. Letters should be limited to about 300 words. Letters are subject to editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publication of any letter is not guaranteed and depends on space available and the volume of letters received. Letters that are anonymous, libelous, argumentative, sarcastic or contain accusations that are unsourced or without documentation will not be published. Letters containing poetry or from outside The Sentinel readership area will only be published at the discretion of the editor. Political/Election Letters: Celebrating National Newspaper Week local community that would ant understanding that con- otherwise be overlooked tinues to define us as a com- without them,” said Al munity newspaper: To our readers, we are not Cross, director of the Insti- tute for Rural Journalism at just the newspaper; we are the University of Kentucky. their newspaper. USC professor Judy In fact, in 2019, the com- bined readership of those Muller told the Stanford At least once a week, some 6,500 non-daily newspapers University Press that, while 6,500 community newspa- pers — those with a circu- lation of less than 30,000 — land on porches, inside Ned Hickson mailboxes or at local super- markets and coffee counters across the United States. was almost 15 million more local journalism is certainly According to a survey than that of daily newspa- about police blotters, obit- conducted by the Univer- pers, with non-dailies tally- uaries, bake sales and club sity of Missouri-Columbia, ing 55.5 million subscribers meetings, “The best com- more than three-quarters of — compared to 30.5 million munity newspapers also respondents said they read daily-paper subscribers. hold local governments and most or all of each edition This is according to the institutions accountable by of their local newspaper National Newspaper As- covering meetings, asking — with 94 percent of those sociation (NNA), which questions and recognizing people holding subscrip- also noted that 70 percent the good as well as the not- tions. of those small non-dailies so-good because ... if not Locally, on Thursday have a circulation of less them, then who?” mornings, you can see the than 15,000; The Sentinel is That “not-so-good” has front page of The Sentinel among that smaller group, been more frequent in re- suspended in front of fac- with a circulation of just cent months as communi- es around town as people over 4,500. ties here in Lane and Doug- inform themselves about When I became an editor las counties — as well as what’s happening in our in September 2016, I’d had around the state and nation community — from upcom- the good fortune of working — deal with the challenges ing fundraisers and special with three terrific editors of COVID-19. reports, to recaps of the lat- over the past 20 years I’ve Updates, guidelines, est board meetings and local spent as a journalist here in spikes and drops in cases, newsworthy events. as well as the efforts by in- Lane County. “Community papers pro- And while each brought dividuals and groups in our vide news coverage about their own style and focus, communiy to address those things that matter to their there has been one import- challenges for each oth- From the Editor's Desk er and those less fortunate have never been more im- portant than now. Each of our story meet- ings are underscored by the notion of “If not us, then who?” As we head into Nation- al Newspaper Week (Oct. 6-12), we’d like to thank you, our readers, for sup- porting your local newspa- per. Not only with your sub- scription or that weekly trip to our office or store to buy your copy, but also for your participation and contri- butions — through letters, emails, phone calls and con- versations in my office — that help make The Sentinel one of those 6,500 non-daily community newspapers that is continuing to grow during one of the most challenging times experienced within our community. In the words of Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Col. Edward Carrington on Jan. 16, 1787: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a mo- ment to prefer the latter.” A better plan is needed to prevent wildfi res As of Sunday, Oct. 4, several west- ern Oregon wildfires, fanned by the strong east winds on Labor Day eve- ning, are still burning out of control. These are the most widespread, dead- ly and destructive urban and forest wildfires in state history. Subsequent fall rains have mostly stopped the spread of these Sept. 7-8 fires, but they have already covered more than one million acres, de- stroyed more than 4,000 homes and 1,400 other structures, caused the emergency evacuations of more than 40,000 people and deaths of at least 10 others, and killed millions of wild animals. The long-term effects of severe re- gional air pollution for nearly two consecutive weeks on both people and wildlife remains to be measured. These are just the latest in a series of large- and catastrophic-scale Western Oregon forest fires that began in 1987, starting with the 96,000-acre Silver Complex Fire that burned the Kalmi- opsis Wilderness that year. More than 90 percent of these sub- sequent events have taken place in federal forestlands, which only rep- resent 50 percent of Oregon’s forested areas. The reasons for this disparity have been discussed in detail for more than 30 years, with some blaming in- creasingly passive federal forest and rangeland management policies and others blaming climate change. The larger question remains: What next steps should be taken to lessen the future number, severity, and extent of these recurring fires? From 1952 until 1987, for example, there was only one forest fire great- er than 10,000 acres in all of western Oregon: the 1966 43,000-acre Oxbow Fire in Lane County. From 1987 until now there have Guest Viewpoint By Bob Zybach PhD Environmental Sciences Program Manager, Cottage Grove been more than 30 such events, with several being far greater than 100,000 acres in size. What changed? Lessons from the 1933-1951 “Six- Year Jinx” Tillamook Fires and the 1987-2018 Kalmiopsis Wilderness Fires are clear: unless removed, the dead trees resulting from these fires will most likely fuel greater and more severe future fires. Forests of dead trees are far more dangerous, flam- mable, and unsightly than those with living trees. The best first-step solution is that 2020 fire-killed trees should be mapped, sold and harvested ASAP. Prices for Douglas fir logs are at a record high, there is a great need for good-paying rural jobs, and fire-killed trees have proven likely to burn again — and even hotter and more intensely than when they were living. Rapid removal of hazardous fuels resolves two problems: reduced likeli- hood of another fire in the near future, and local provision of needed recon- struction costs, jobs and materials. But this leaves another problem in place: How long will it be until another wildfire threatens these communities? And is there a way to keep that from happening? Part of the problem with Western Oregon wildfires is that primary fuels often consist of contiguous forest can- opies — mostly Douglas fir — whether five-years or 500-years old. This situ- ation is due in part by the elimination of historical landscape-scale burning and grazing patterns being replaced by solid plantations of conifers; often due to legal requirements. For thousands of years, ancestral Oregon Indian families kept ridge- line and riparian areas open for travel, hunting, fishing and harvesting pur- poses that were kept clear of ground fuels via constant firewood gathering and seasonal fires. This created a sys- tematic series of firebreaks and “safe spaces” across the landscape To effectively mimic these desired conditions, modern site preparation via scarification and prescribed burn- ing would still be critical, but high- grade seedling stock of select species would be planted on the basis of “mi- crosites” and desired densities/acre, rather than grids. And then regularly maintained via commercial harvest- ing, grazing, and prescribed burning — as proven successful in both an- cient and historical times. Election-related letters must address pertinent or timely issues of interest to our readers at-large. Letters must: 1) Not be a part of letter-writing campaigns on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2) Ensure any information about a candidate is accurate, fair and not from second-hand knowledge or hearsay; and 3) explain the reasons to support candidates based on personal experience and perspective rather than partisanship and campaign-style rhetoric. Candidates themselves may not use the letters to the editor column to outline their views and platforms or to ask for votes; this constitutes paid political advertising. As with all letters and advertising content, the newspaper, at the sole discretion of the publisher, general manager and editor, reserves the right to reject any letter that doesn’t follow the above criteria. Send letters to: nhickson@cgsentinel.com HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPS Oregon state representatives Oregon federal representatives • Sen. Floyd Prozanski • Rep. Peter DeFazio District 4 State Senator PO Box 11511 Eugene, Ore. 97440 Phone: 541-342-2447 Email : sen.fl oydprozanski@ state.or.us (House of Representatives) 405 East 8th Ave. #2030 Eugene, Ore. 97401 Email: defazio.house.gov/ contact/email-peter Phone: 541-465-6732 • Rep. Cedric Hayden Republican District 7 State Representative 900 Court St. NE Salem, Ore. 97301 Phone: 503-986-1407 Website: www.leg.state.or. us/hayden Email: rep.cedrichayden@ state.or.us • Sen. Ron Wyden 405 East 8th Ave., Suite 2020 Eugene, Ore. 97401 Email: wyden.senate.gov Phone: (541) 431-0229 • Sen. Jeff Merkley Email: merkley.senate.gov Phone: 541-465-6750 S entinel C ottage G rove 541-942-3325 Administration Jenna Bartlett, Group Publisher Gary Manly, General Manager... Ext. 1207 gmanly@cgsentinel.com Gerald Santana, Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1216 gsantana@cgsentinel.com Carla Skeel, Inside Multi-Media Sales Consultant... Ext. 1203 csummers@cgsentinel.com Editorial Ned Hickson, Managing Editor... 541-902-3520 nhickson@cgsentinel.com Damien Sherwood, Lead Reporter... Ext. 1212 dsherwood@cgsentinel.com Customer Service Meg Fringer, Office Manager, Legals, Classifieds... Ext. 1200 mfringer@cgsentinel.com Production Ron Annis, Production Supervisor... 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