The INDEPENDENT, May 6, 2004
Letters, cont.
From page 3
If you can’t volunteer, PLEASE
at least assist those who do so
by voting YES on renewing the
Columbia 9-1-1 levy.
Deborah K. Brown
Vernonia
Verizon policy may
omit some rural DSL
To the Editor:
Regarding your editorial
concerning the seemingly con-
tradictory information on DSL
availability
in
Vernonia
received by residents from dif-
ferent Verizon contacts, it is
likely that both answers are, in
a way, correct. Even though
DSL may be available in
Vernonia, that does not mean it
is deployed to all those with a
Vernonia telephone number.
In fact, senior Verizon repre-
sentatives have often publicly
stated that the company is
intentionally
limiting
DSL
deployment as a way of pres-
suring regulators to adopt rules
which favor the company. For a
recent example, see coverage
of remarks made by their Sr.
VP of public policy at
http://www.internetnews.com/x
SP/article.php/3343081
Another case in point: I
have a 324 prefix Banks tele-
phone number. DSL has been
advertised as “available” in
Banks for some time. It is not
available to anyone in my
neighborhood, however. Like
many people in western
Washington and Columbia
counties, my telephone line
does not connect me to the
Banks Central Office, but
instead to an intermediate
piece of equipment referred to
as a Remote Terminal (RT).
About a year ago, I noticed a
Verizon crew doing some work
on the RT equipment nearby. It
appeared that they were
installing a brand-spanking
new one. As a communications
engineer that has worked on
DSL development for the past
several years, this piqued my
interest. One day I stopped to
talk to them and they were kind
enough to give me a brief “tour”
of the new equipment. I recog-
nized it as a state of the art,
fiber-optic fed, broadband-
capable RT. “It should really
improve your telephone serv-
ice,” one of the technicians
said. I asked, “what about
DSL?.” He looked me right in
the eye and said his manage-
Page 23
Ike Says …
ment “won’t let us” install DSL
in RTs. He showed where in the
equipment rack he could install
the DSL cards, if he were
allowed to do so. I wasn’t the
first person to ask him about
DSL while he was out working
in the field, but he elaborated
that they are told by their
employer that “we’re not in the
DSL business.” He then men-
tioned some concern he heard
that, if they did widespread
deployment, they might have to
lease some of the equipment to
competitive DSL companies.
So it seems those speeches
make by executives aren’t just
talk, but have real effect on the
ground. It’s a real shame.
Broadband connectivity is
becoming increasingly less of a
luxury service, and more and
more a vital requirement to stay
fully in touch with this digital
world. Callous decisions from
companies such as Verizon
about who will get service, and
who will not, have a sharp neg-
ative impact on the economic
vitality and livability of our
region.
Sincerely,
Barry O’Mahony
Banks
9-1-1 dispatching is
an essential service
To the Editor:
May 18th Columbia County
voters can make a difference.
We can vote to protect our lives
and communities by voting
YES on the 9-1-1 Operating
Levy. To keep our system in
place, not only must a majority
of voters say YES to the levy, a
majority of registered voters
must actually vote. This is the
infamous double majority
requirement which we didn’t
achieve last November, despite
an overwhelming 70 percent
YES vote.
At a cost of $54 for a
$100,000 home, this 9-1-1 cov-
erage is a bargain. This is a
slight reduction from the levy
we are currently paying
because our 9-1-1 system has
held down costs. This service
is essential to our safety and
the system has earned your
support. Ask your family and
friends to vote YES on
Measure 5-122 to renew our 9-
1-1 system.
Jim Tierney
Vernonia
More letters on page 24
From page 2
these animals can’t survive!”
Here’s an easy to under-
stand example of why the
Marbled Murrelet, a sea bird
that nests in ancient forests, is
in trouble. Look out your win-
dow: Can you see a tree that is
200 feet tall with an open
canopy and a branch 150 feet
above the ground that is 16
inches in diameter? This is the
murrelet’s nesting requirement.
I don’t know about you, but I
can’t even see a tree 150 feet
tall. Of course it’s easy to dis-
miss this ocean bird as having
little value.
Or, how about the spotted
owl, which struggles to survive
in a forest devoid of one of its
primary food sources, the flying
squirrel. Flying squirrels need
large, old snags to live in and
there are not many of these in
the forest today. But more trou-
bling are the interrelationships
between the forests and the
animals and insects that occu-
py the forests.
Take, for instance, the rela-
tionship between voles, deer
mice, flying squirrels and trees.
Without them, the forest would
not exist. These rodents eat
underground truffles that con-
tain spores; they then expel
spore-laden droppings onto the
soil. When a tree seed germi-
nates and penetrates one of
these fecal pellets, the roots
are inoculated with the spores,
which form a fungus around the
root tips in a symbiotic relation-
ship that benefits both the fun-
gus and the tree. In fact, most
seedlings will not survive with-
out this relationship. So, all of a
sudden, deer mice, voles and
flying squirrels become more
important to us.
The book goes on to
describe how Old Growth
forests contribute to insects
and, eventually, to itself, as
trees die and slowly rot back
into the soil from which they
grew. It is troubling to think
about the huge disconnect that
human intervention has caused
in natural forest recycling, since
very few trees ever complete
this cycle today. The question
looms, can this go on forever?
If you are looking for a good
book on the natural history of
an Ancient Forest, I recommend
this one. The book provides a
human time-line of events to put
the discussion in perspective. It
also has extensive biological
information on various species
of animals and insects that
inhabit an ancient forest. This is
a real eye opener!
Now, while many of you are
thinking that my writing only
confirms me as a green
whacko, does the thought not
exist, ever so slightly, in the
back of your mind that we
humans should leave some
forests to do what they did
thousands of years before us?
Look out your window, do
you see one Old Growth tree?
Have you not lost part of your
heritage? Are our grandchil-
dren doomed to hi-tech gadg-
ets and hanging out down-
town? The answers will be writ-
ten in the future history books.
Will tomorrow’s generations
ask, “Didn’t they understand
what they were doing?” It will
soon be up to you to answer
that question.
Izaak Walton League
Nehalem Valley Chapter
meets on the third Thursday
of each month at 7:00 p.m.
Call 503-429-7193 for
location of meeting.
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