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in 1937
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Letters to the Editor
(Editor’s Note: Views and commentary, including statements made as fact, are strictly those of the letter-writers.)
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Typed, double-spaced letters written solely to this newspaper and/or Website are considered for publication. Hand-written letters that are double-spaced and legible also can be considered.
Cards of thanks are not accepted as letters.
* * *All-church banner promoters comment
From Lyn Berry
Cave JunctionThe next all-church congregation is coming up Sunday, April 9 at Community Bible Church at 6 p.m. (see display ad elsewhere in this issue of “I.V. News”).
The application, complete with proposed text and layout of the next banner was submitted March 6. The proposed text is:
“All church congregation gathering
“Once and for all” a musical presentation in celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“Community Bible Church 4-9-06 at 6 p.m.
“ ‘...we have been forgiven and made clean by Jesus Christ dying for us once and for all.’ (Hebrews 10:10 (Living)”
The mayor approved all the above text, except the Scripture quote: “...we have been forgive and made clean by Jesus Christ dying for us once and for all” -- even though Hebrews 10:10 is the Biblical basis of the title of the special musical presentation (which, by the way, I highly recommend for believers and unbelievers, alike).
Since my husband and I have complied with every regulation in the printed “banner instructions” handed us by city hall personnel when we applied, we asked (on March 7 after being denied by phone call from the mayor) for a copy of the newly revised rules. We are told these were not yet available. We will continue to ask.
The banner needs to be installed March 24 in order to be up for two weeks prior to the event (as allowed in the rules we have been given). Of course, the banner company needs some time to manufacture and ship the banner.
I thank God for those believers who have encouraged us that they agree with having the Word of God and the Name of Jesus Christ lifted up in our town.
Former smokejumper base a real treasure
From Gary Buck
Cave JunctionThe Siskiyou Smokejumper Base at the Illinois Valley Airport has been approved by the State Historic Preservation Office as a State Historic Site.
It has been nominated for placement on the National Register of Historic Places.
The reason it has received these nominations is that this smokejumper base and the park-like setting around it are not only historic, but are rare and extremely unique in North America. These buildings were constructed for a specific purpose and are unequalled anywhere.
Experts appointed by the governor of Oregon approved it as State Historic Treasure because it represents an extremely significant story in U.S. history. This means that this base could become a one-of-a-kind attraction to help boost tourism in this valley, which would help improve the local economy.
There is no other community on the West Coast that has this unique heritage story. This attraction advantage should be saved so that we could capture some of the national tourism market. There is proven economic potential here. We have a million tourists who drive down Redwood Hwy. every year. Most are not stopping in Illinois Valley.
Other communities on the West Coast are taking advantage of the economics of tourism. We have not been able to do this, and we could. Ignoring the economic potential here would be foolish.
Buildings at the smokejumper base should not be torn down or removed. There is a park-like setting around those buildings. Trees should not be cut in this setting. This base is a national treasure. This base virtually eliminated catastrophic fires for 39 years.
While the base was open, we had no Biscuit Fire, no Longwood Complex Fire, no Mendenhall Fire, and no Silver Creek Fire. Remember that the Biscuit Fire was the most expensive fire in U.S. history. Siskiyou smokejumpers would have suppressed those fires easily and at very little cost.
Smokejumpers are a highly efficient, cost-effective fire-fighting unit. It probably would have cost the government approximately $20,000 for Siskiyou smokejumpers to put out all of them. Estimates on just suppression of the Biscuit Fire alone are more than $160 million.
Suppression costs do not include timber loss and other losses. In 1981 the Siskiyou Smokejumper Base was closed, supposedly to save money.
People should write letters to the Josephine County commissioners and express to them that this base is a treasure and should not be torn down. The commissioners have not announced a plan to preserve this historic site or have a museum. The park-like setting around the base should be protected.
This smokejumper base is nationally and internationally significant. The state of Oregon understands its heritage potential. There is no other base like this in the world. This base should be made into a museum so that others can visit and can share in this great story.
The base represents a proud moment in Josephine County history.
Salvage logging studies,‘last old-growth’ notes
From Lynne Vanderlinden
Cave JunctionIn response to Tim Norman’s March 15 rebuttal to my letter regarding the veracity of salvage logging studies, I’d like to make it clear that I an not an enemy of the environment, and that I abhor many past logging practices.
What I am is a realist with a basic understanding of what Norman opened the door to: natural progression.
I am not so stupid as to suppose that our forests
didn’t burn and blow down 2,000 years ago with no human intervention; it was natural and necessary. Yes, there were people here, but not many, and they could pack up and move at the first whiff of smoke. That option is no longer available.For better or worse, our distant ancestors (including Norman’s) did a bang-up job of going forth and multiplying and migrating to America to continue the process. And I guess that it all went downhill from there.
Whatever the Native Americans still believe, many seem to have naturally progressed, albeit unwillingly, right along with the rest of us. They too live in wooden homes, drive cars, utilize computers and slot machines, use toilet paper and even run their own logging operations and oil fields.
To quote Norman, “the circle of life.”
I think that he might have missed a couple of my points. The “moonscape” to which I referred was Mt. St. Helens, and no, I don’t wish to see more. I also didn’t argue the merits of salvage logging studies.
Doonesbury quipped a couple of weeks ago, “Situational science is about respecting both sides of a scientific argument, not just the one supported by science.”
He thinks that people (for example, loggers?) are intelligent enough to find another way to earn a living that isn’t destroying our planet. In that case, why don’t the enviros focus their time, money and attention to creating those jobs?
And while they’re at it, how about figuring out some viable alternative sources of energy, building materials, etc. that are not only plentiful, but affordable to everyone. Then they could stop worrying about “the very last old-growth” that every timber sale seems to contain.
During the interim, in this real world, and in certain cases, salvage logging and sustainable thinning make sense. On O&C forestland, for instance, there has been a net timber gain of 33 percent after harvesting for decades.
On the other hand, I don’t want to see any of our forestland defiled or clear-cut, including the proposed Takilma sales. There really can be a balance.
Shop Smart, shoppers noted for fund-raising
From Laurie Prouty
Cave JunctionI appreciate all the grocery shoppers who generously gave to the Illinois Valley High School senior students who bagged groceries for two weekends to benefit their all-night, safe-and-sober graduation party. The fund-raiser was very successful, and every penny is appreciated.
I also appreciate Shop Smart Food Warehouse and its employees for allowing the fund-raiser. During one of the weekends, there were also students from the International Club seeking donations, and Girl Scouts selling cookies. Shop Smart has been gracious to allow all these fund-raisers.
It is a sad situation that our schools, sport events and extracurricular activities all have to resort to asking for donations at the market. It is lucky that we live in a community that understands and reaches in their pockets to help our kids.
This is a wonderful way to give directly to the students and their individual projects. There are so few organized activities for our youth in Cave Junction that we as a community need to help fund the existing programs to keep them alive and functioning.
Our kids deserve all the support they can get.
Perspective provided on Biblical aspects
From John Bazen
Cave JunctionAre we ready for Christ’s return today?
Yes, most can be relatively certain of life to be ours tomorrow, but no man is able to guarantee this for you or me, right? Yet most know, or have heard, that no man knows the time but the Father.
Once we die, it’s too late, to reconcile ourselves with our maker, as His Word is known. There has been a great interest in “end of time,” in fact many books cover this.
The end time should not be the top item, rather the Ten Commandments should be, for much of Christianity obeys only nine of the 10. They use not the day God sanctified, made holy, as a sign for us to acknowledge Him, as our God, our Maker, and the Creator of all in the Universe.
Does anyone think Jesus knew which day this was and still is, or that Adam, Abraham and the Disciples knew that the seventh day from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset was that day?
So why did man, and man only, change this day, as well as the times a day is measured? From the sunset to sunset, to midnight to midnight, and from the seventh day to the first day of the week? Genesis 1:5 and 8 speak of the times the day begins and ends, and it’s not midnight.
Daniel 7:25, “And he shall speak great words at the most high, and shall wear out the saints of the most high, and to think to change times and laws ...” This took place centuries ago, by men just as God prophesied. Yet many break the fourth without knowledge of the truth. All who believe in Christ should want to follow His example, and many do on the nine, but break one, thus break them all.
Revelation 6:17. “For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” All those who take Rev. 19:10 to heart and live it.
‘Catch and release’from jail must stop
From Gil Gilbertson
Grants PassAfter 30 years of law enforcement experience, I believe we should stop the “catch and release” of criminals from our jail.
Currently we are the only county in the state that limits the number of prisoners incarcerated. We are filling only 120 beds of our 252-bed jail and releasing up to 75 felons each month. The sheriff has set a ratio of one deputy to five inmates.
But, how did the sheriff determine this number of deputies required to operate our jail? A member of the National Sheriff Association Board recently told me, “There is no magic formula.”
Deputy and inmate safety is extremely important, and safety factors were included in our modern jail design -- with pods separating the number of inmates into smaller, more manageable groups; security features such as cameras, electronically controlled doors; and controlled movement of personnel.
With proper supervision, protocols, training, and practiced emergency drills, crisis encounters are minimized, if not eliminated.
Sheriff Jack Crabtree of Yamhill County has two fewer corrections deputies, yet continually fills his older, less-efficient 250-bed jail capacity. Why can’t we do better with our state-of-the-art facility?
Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) 169.042- 169.046 authorizes only the county court or the county commissioners to determine if a “cap” is necessary. Who authorized this “cap” in the first place?
With proper management we can fill our jail and keep the criminals off the street. Let’s get started.
Library district plan called outrageous
From Marilyn Arnold
O’BrienLibrary advocates probably don’t want to remember their resounding defeat the last time voters were asked to take on a library levy; i.e. tax.
I believe that their newest plan to establish a tax district is ambitious and outrageous. Property owners of median-priced homes will pay approximately $140 the first year with a 3 percent increase annually.
Let’s remember that the library director’s annual salary of approximately $76,000 has been eliminated, as was the position, last year. The ex-director’s budget continued giving salary overages, one for a retired employee, which were rectified by the commissioners. Those savings are being realized this fiscal year and bring relief for years into the future.
I e-mailed a library advocate in Grants Pass last year who was initially helpful and informative. However, my suggestions to amend our state’s law, which prevents our libraries from charging any usage fees, met with complete silence. Library cards and associated fees are patrons would certainly take up the lion’s share of funding shortfalls they anticipate.
Southern Oregon is totally saturated with property owners on fixed incomes. They already absorb the annual 3 percent increase on existing tax districts and cannot take on one more special interest.
I think that we should vote “no” on the library tax district.
One man’s ode to old-growth
From Chris Matthews
Cave JunctionI doubt that I shall ever see/An old-growth forest left to be/A ravaged stumpland left for me/And all of our progeny.
God made creatures great and small/Lord I hate to see a giant fall/On forestland owned by all/If only Congress could hear the owl/Instead of selfish loggers howl.
More than trees will disappear/If all is cut so very near/I should like my child to hear the screech of owls, it sounds so dear/Possibly never to be heard around here.
If owls were hunted like the deer/their extinction sparking outrage clear/Owls have reasons to be here/Fish and trees and owls have much to fear/Kill them all, the loggers’ creed/So sad man’s ignorance, arrogance and greed.
Citizens of Illinois Valley should arise and say nay to BLM’s plans to log 30,000 acres.
Planned logging strongly protested
From Lisa Rohde
SelmaThe forests of Illinois River Valley are targeted by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service for logging. The 28,000-plus forested acres targeted for logging by BLM in the Illinois River Valley are some of Oregon’s last remaining low-elevation old-growth forests.
As though the logging threats from BLM facing our valley were not enough, the Siskiyou National Forest recently announced its plans to log inventoried roadless areas. One of the proposed roadless areas happens to be Mike’s Gulch, which is completely visible from our valley’s main corridor, Hwy. 199.
The valley forests and adjacent hillsides provide important wildlife habitat and connectivity for species migrating to and from the East and West Siskiyou, and lower elevation forests host greater biodiversity than way up in the mountains. These forests are the very watersheds from which our source of clean water springs forth.
The interior valley and adjacent hillside forests of Illinois River Valley are our “view shed.” People come from near and far to recreate in these magnificent forests. Our forests are the very reason for our ever-increasing Nature-based tourism that Illinois River Valley has to offer for future generations.
USFS, BLM objectives on logging questioned
From Guenter Ambron
Cave JunctionMost of my family has lived in Illinois Valley since 1969; the older ones grew up in a forested German community and moving here was like a homecoming for them after living in Southern California.
We believed what BLM and the forest service said about themselves. (Their mission statements) “to sustain health, diversity, and productivity of public lands for present and future generations” and “caring for the land and serving people.”
In July 2004, I was invited to a Biscuit Alliance meeting and therein was another reality. The group took me on trips to the Kalmiopsis, the timber sales, and they talked about the different sciences being used, politics, and some of the agency practices hidden from public view.
I participated, learned, and stayed open to all perspectives, but the stark fact of the evidence of what I saw spoke for itself. just visit Baby Foot Lake for a start.
Also in 2004-2005 I participated with the Deer Creek Valley Association, which was working with BLM to introduce its Natural Selection Alternative, a practical approach to restoration, fire, and an ecologically accountable extraction process supported by the community in the Deer Creek Watershed (Lake Selmac).
After two years of exhausting work with BLM, the association was awarded just 500 acres of severely cut-over lands of the 7,500 acres available.
Recently, members of the Takilma community also rose to address matters of commercial logging and management in their community, formed a committee, developed an action alternative, and worked closely with BLM staff. Then they were told by Abbie Jose that there will be no compromise regarding the 1 mbf of commercial extraction and the helicopter logging in their neighborhood.
Furthermore, BLM and the forest service do not work together on adjacent land, discuss forest health or accumulative effects. Both agencies have a high rate of forest liquidation, and their field practices differ sometimes considerably.
The ball is in the court of corporate politics, and for us I believe this is a significant quality-of-life issue in our valley. What these agencies portray and what is really happening -- well, I wish many more had the time to see it for themselves.
Is it the nature of human kind to swallow the natural world? And are our agencies trying to serve two masters? Do others have thoughts about this?
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