A4
Opinion
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Congress has a
choice on Federal
Forest Act
T
he time has come for
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the U.S. Forest Service needs to
better manage the 188.4 million
acres of national forests.
For decades the Forest
Service did a world-class job
of managing national forests
under the multiple-use doctrine.
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administration and now under
the Obama administration,
management of the national
forests shifted to a doctrine
of benign neglect, as timber
sales and grazing tapered off
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multiplied.
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burned 9.1 million acres of
national forests — including
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— and the Forest Service spent
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As the understory became
clogged with brush, logging
slowed to a crawl and grazing
was reduced, the forests
became overstocked with fuels.
Here’s the problem. The
nation’s taxpayers are not only
stuck with the bill for putting
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taken out of the budget used
for clearing brush and treating
areas that are vulnerable to
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The result has been a cycle
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budgets aimed at preventing
them.
A proposal in the U.S. House
offers a starting point for
breaking this cycle of neglect.
The Resilient Federal Forest
Act of 2015, HR 2647, would
allow the Forest Service to
get money from the Federal
Emergency Management
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The bill also eases the yoke
of environmental overkill that
the Forest Service and Bureau
of Land Management struggle
with as they try to manage
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insect infestations and disease.
The agencies are currently
hobbled by federal laws
that require expensive
environmental reviews. HR
2647 would exclude from
National Environmental Policy
Act review parts of projects
in areas up to 15,000 acres,
allowing them to proceed
without unnecessary and
expensive delays.
“Depending on funding, it
can take a couple of years to
complete projects and they
can take up to 250 pages of
environmental review,” said
Nick Smith, executive director
of Healthy Forests, Healthy
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Service alone spends $356
million a year to jump through
NEPA-induced hoops.
“This isn’t about taking away
environmental protections, but
making them faster and more
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president of the American Forest
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organizations that support the
legislation.
When it comes to reducing
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are part of the picture. About
2.5 billion board feet are logged
each year in national forests.
That’s down from 8 billion to 12
billion board feet in the 1960s
and 1970s.
Though the bill has passed
the House, its future in the
Senate is less than certain. The
current thinking as that it can be
included in other legislation that
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adjourning at the end of the
year.
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can either pass this legislation,
or a variation of it, or it can do
nothing. If it chooses to pass the
legislation and President Obama
signs it, the Forest Service can
more effectively manage the
national forests.
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pass the bill, you can count
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to one seen recently in the
Northwest: “Public lands. Log
it, graze it or watch it burn.”
American Dream is the
reality of self-governance
My dear friends,
I write to you on the measure
concerning the outlawing of canna-
bis entrepreneurship.
I am a leader. The truest and
most effective form of leadership
is leading by example. I know that
my children will not become ad-
dicts because neither their mother,
nor I, am. Further, this is not due
to biological relations nor physical
presence on its own. I know this be-
cause we raise our children. We raise
them to become the strongest ver-
sion of their selves. We do this from
the front, by example, by always
continuing in our quest to become
the strongest version of ourselves.
Addiction is victimhood, a foreign
concept that is nearly non-existent in
the mind of a true leader. There ex-
ists no threat to our youth so long as
we raise leaders.
If you treat a child like an irre-
sponsible, unintelligent, irrational
and unaccountable fool, that is what
you shall have. If you treat a child
like an adult he’ll be more responsi-
ble by the time he’s 12 than the ma-
jority of “adults” you know. If you
treat Americans like children, then
you shall have a nation of “adults”
who believe they are the embodi-
ment of victims. If you start treating
Americans for the good moral peo-
ple that they are, that is exactly what
you shall have.
It is because I love my fellow
Americans that I’m not only willing
to let them fail, I want them to fail.
I want this for them because I know
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experiencing failure. If you yearn for
the American Dream, as I do, if you
believe in a country of individuals
taking pride in their never-ending
successes and failures in the pursuit
of their unique forms of peaceful
happiness, if you are a creature of
integrity, this is the only position:
Self-ownership.
Belief in authority is a failure to
believe in one’s self; a lack of con-
viction in one’s own capabilities and
actions. Through belief in ourselves
and our compatriots, through respect
of ourselves and our fellow citizens,
we will bring America back to the
greatness that Jefferson penned in
1776.
Self-medication is not a foreign
concept to this county. Nearly every
hard-working rancher, farmer, log-
ger and every other hard-working
laborer that I know self-medicates.
Whether it be drink, smoke or that
prescription you allowed your doc-
tor to give to you in order to treat
the symptoms of a larger issue: hu-
mans self-medicate. Whether it be
your back, your knees, those joints
you didn’t even know existed till
you felt pain, or perhaps a simple
short vacation from responsibility,
to give them peace where it’s found
wanting.
The American Dream, is not a
dream. It isn’t as simple as successes
and happiness, rainbows and butter-
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great. The American reality is about
accountability. It’s about loving
one’s self so much that we choose
the decisions that will make us the
happiest in life, it’s the pursuit of
happiness. Through pain and suffer-
ing we become strong. We create
strength through the adversity that
comes with making our lives.
Americans used to understand
that and they still understood it
during prohibition. We can deduce
this because there was no prohibition
in reality. They said ‘This is ridic-
ulous!’ We are individually respon-
sible creatures. We own ourselves.
We make our decisions, we will
live or we will die by our own dis-
tinctive choices. The problem is, as
with most things in life, government.
This belief in external authority. A
belief that contradicts and under-
mines self-ownership. The Ameri-
can Dream is the reality of self-gov-
ernance.
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ness in a negative light. They have
forgotten what other traits Americans
have. We are a Socratic body of be-
ings. We hold in the highest order of
principles integrity and community.
They have forgotten what human be-
ings are. We’re loving beings, we’re
compassionate, we’re pack animals
and we have no strength when stand-
ing alone. We must stand shoulder
to shoulder as individuals. I believe
in the American Dream. I know that
my countrymen are compassionate,
empathetic, loving, good, moral and
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decisions, the choices we take to
make us who we are are the most
compassionate, the most empathet-
ic and the most loving. The most
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PDQNLQGDUHWKHPRVWVHO¿VK*HQ-
erosity is the ultimate happiness.
I challenge you, my compatriots,
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facet of life. Be happy in the pursuit
itself.
James Vaughan
Long Creek.
W HERE TO WRITE
GRANT COUNTY
Grant County Courthouse — 201
S. Humbolt St., Suite 280, Canyon City
97820. Phone: 541-575-0059. Fax: 541-
575-2248.
Canyon City — P.O. Box 276, Canyon
City 97820. Phone: 541-575-0509. Fax:
541-575-0515. Email: tocc1862@centu-
rylink.net.
Dayville — P.O. Box 321, Dayville
97825. Phone: 541-987-2188. Fax: 541-
987-2187. Email:dville@ortelco.net
John Day — 450 E. Main St, John Day,
97845. Phone: 541-575-0028. Fax: 541-
575-1721. Email: cityjd@centurytel.net.
/RQJ&UHHN — P.O. Box 489, Long
Creek 97856. Phone: 541-421-3601. Fax:
541-421-3075. Email: info@cityoÀongcreek.
com.
Monument — P.O. Box 426, Monument
97864. Phone and fax: 541-934-2025.
Email: monument@oregontrail.net.
0W9HUQRQ — P.O. Box 647, Mt. Vernon
97865. Phone: 541-932-4688. Fax: 541-
932-4222. Email: cmtv@ortelco.net.
Prairie City — P.O. Box 370, Prairie City
97869. Phone: 541-820-3605. Fax: 820-
3566. Email: pchall@ortelco.net.
Seneca — P.O. Box 208, Seneca
97873. Phone and fax: 541-542-2161.
Email: cityseneca@centurytel.net.
SALEM
*RY.DWH%URZQ' — 254 State Capi-
tol, Salem 97310. Phone: 503-378-3111. Fax:
503-378-6827. Website: www.governor.state.
or.us/governor.html.
Oregon Legislature — State Capitol,
Salem, 97310. Phone: (503) 986-1180. Web-
site: www. leg.state.or.us (includes Oregon
Constitution and Oregon Revised Statutes).
6WDWH5HS&OLII%HQW]5-Ontario
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
P UBLISHED EVERY
W EDNESDAY BY
(District: 60), Room H-475, State Capitol, 900
Court St. N.E., Salem OR 97301. Phone:
503-986-1460. Email: rep.cliffbentz@state.
or.us. Website: www.leg.state.or.us/bentz/
home.htm.
6WDWH6HQ7HG)HUULROL5 — (District
30) Room S-223, State Capitol, Salem
97310. Phone: 503-986-1950. Email: sen.
tedferrioli@state.or.us. Email: TFER2@aol.
com. Phone: 541-490-6528. Website: www.
leg.state.or.us/ferrioli.
Oregon Legislative Information — (For
updates on bills, services, capitol or messag-
es for legislators) — 800-332-2313.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
7KH:KLWH+RXVH 1600 Pennsylva-
nia Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20500;
Phone-comments: 202-456-1111; Switch-
board: 202-456-1414.
866HQ5RQ:\GHQ D — 516 Hart
Senate Of¿ce Building, Washington D.C.
20510. Phone: 202-224-5244. Email:
wayne_kinney@wyden.senate.gov Website:
http://wyden.senate.gov Fax: 202-228-2717.
866HQ-HII0HUNOH\'— 313 Hart
Senate Of¿ce Building, Washington D.C.
20510?. Phone: 202-224-3753. Email:
senator@merkley.senate.gov. Fax: 202-
228-3997. Oregon of¿ces include One
World Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon St.,
Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; and 310
S.E. Second St., Suite 105, Pendleton, OR
97801. Phone: 503-326-3386; 541-278-
1129. Fax: 503-326-2990.
865HS*UHJ:DOGHQ5 — (Second
District) 1404 Longworth Building, Wash-
ington D.C. 20515. Phone: 202-225-6730.
No direct email because of spam. Website:
www.walden.house.gov Fax: 202-225-5774.
Medford of¿ce: 14 North Central, Suite 112,
Medford, OR 97501. Phone: 541-776-4646.
L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR
Give the wolf killer
a medal
or horse, or anything, for that matter,
they heap misery, worry and a lot
of expense on the receiver. Our big
To the Editor:
game animals are suffering more than
This isn’t just a letter to the editor, any other and when they suffer, the
but to everyone who might be con- ODFW suffers, because when there
cerned with common sense justice.
are no animals to hunt, hunters do not
Recently, an individual shot and buy licenses and tags. What kind of
killed a wolf while mistaking it for a message does the prosecution of this
coyote. He was honest in that he told man having been honest deliver to
the ODFW what he did.
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He subsequently has been charged to shoot, shovel and shut up, and that
with killing an endangered species is what will be done from now on.
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So, instead of spending time and
jail time, or maybe both – who knows money on a senseless prosecution,
right now.
just give the man a medal.
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Dean Elliott
not endangered, never have been and
Prairie City
probably never will be. Isn’t that pa-
thetic. Instead of prosecuting the man
for being honest, he instead should Good news: Beer
be given a medal for removing a kill-
ing machine that, along with other calories, salt content
members of its species, is costing our To the Editor:
economy millions of dollars. These
After all the bad news this past
animals are the ISIS of the animal summer there were two items in the
world.
national news the past few days that
Why in the world are wolves so PLJKWFKHHUWKHIRONVLQ*UDQW&RXQW\
JORUL¿HG" (YHU\ WLPH RQH RI WKHVH We sometimes forget the big picture
killing machines kills a sheep or cow when we become so involved in the
L
etters policy: Letters to the Editor is a forum for Blue Mountain Eagle readers to express themselves on local, state, national or world issues. Brevity
is good, but longer letters will be asked to be contained to 350 words. No personal attacks; challenge the opinion, not the person. No thank-you
letters. Submissions to this page become property of the Eagle. The Eagle reserves the right to edit letters for length and for content. Letters must
be original and signed by the writer. Anonymous letters will not be printed. Writers should include a telephone number so they can be reached for
questions. We must limit all contributors to one letter per person per month. Deadline is 5 p.m. Friday. Send letters to editor@bmeagle.com, or Blue
Mountain Eagle, 195 N. Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845; or fax to 541-575-1244.
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
P UBLISHER ............................... M ARISSA W ILLIAMS , MARISSA @ BMEAGLE . COM
E DITOR .................................... S EAN H ART , EDITOR @ BMEAGLE . COM
A DMINISTRATIVE A SSISTANT ........ K RISTINA K REGER , KRISTINA @ BMEAGLE . COM
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MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
mundane. Things like forest road clo-
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ZDUPLQJ VWUHDPV IRUHVW ¿UHV HWF ,W
is nice to see that our dedicated gov-
ernment representatives are constantly
seeking ways to make our lives better.
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caught my ear was that our president
just released 2,000 new regulations
that will go into effect on Jan 1. Among
the more important is a requirement
that all beer brewers disclose the cal-
orie count of their brew. The other is
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that restaurants list the salt contents of
each menu item. Even though that will
not affect us here in Oregon with any
luck it will be picked up by the folks in
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WRRFDQUHDSWKHEHQH¿WV
It was mentioned in the item about
calories in beer that this may bring
about the closure of some micro brew-
ers due to the cost. But as we sip our
Budweiser and munch our fries we
can all bask in the glow of knowing
that someone up there cares about our
well being!
Claude Baker
John Day
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