Letters to the Editor
From our weekly issue dated April 29, 2009
(Editor’s Note: Views and commentary, including statements made as fact, are strictly those of the letter-writers.)
Typed, double-spaced letters are considered for publication. Hand-written letters that are double-spaced and legible also can be considered. “Thank you” submissions are not accepted as letters
Fed to blame
From Dominick Odorizzi
Porter Ranch, Calif.
The U.S. Treasury used to mint gold and silver into coins. Later, when paper money was issued by the Treasury, it was backed by gold or silver.
In 1913, Congress created the unconstitutional Federal Reserve. Today, our currency is not backed by any precious metal. It is fiat money made legal tender by federal law.
The Federal Reserve decides how much money the Treasury needs to print. The fiat money stimulus packages will cause large-scale inflation that always follows fiat money. Our government will probably tell us that we can avoid inflation by joining the International Monetary Fund, or some other international group, thus destroying our dollar.
The Federal Reserve is not accountable to anyone. It has never been fully audited. If we want to preserve our dollar, we need to get Congress to stop the printing of fiat money. We citizens need to contact Congress to vote for the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009 (H.R. 1207 and S. 604) to get the audit we need.
Otherwise, our dollar may soon become as worthless as the German Mark after World War I.
Comments on E/W Plan
From Grace Brookman
Cave Junction
I attended the recent scoping meeting for the BLM’s E.W. Vegetation Treatment Plan.
I found four poster-style maps, two of proposed harvest areas, with a host of BLM specialists on hand who had little concrete information on what this project might actually do.
Harvest prescriptions were still completely vague and, according to conversations I held with specialists at the meeting, actual plans appeared to be held captive to the current political will. For the moment that was some good news, anyway.
One specialist candidly told me that anything done in the way of “restoration” or thinning for fuel reductions or road repairs (within the sale area) would only be paid for through the sale of large-diameter trees. While this doesn’t come as a surprise, it does seem like the means is negating the purported end.
The vegetation specialist I spoke with seemed concerned about prospects of catastrophic wildfire on the valley floor. However, if logging is required of what little older or late-successional reserve forests remain, the value of thinning other, overgrown, younger forests to remove fuels will be lost.
It’s been well established that forests of older trees provide breaks that slow fire, cool fuel temperatures and provide reserves of moisture that dampen intense fires (Greenlee and Sapsis, 1996, Agee et al. 2000). Removing older trees adds more small-diameter, flashy fuels to the fire and increases the likelihood of severe or catastrophic wildfire.
Ironically, the vegetation management specialist seemed to agree that doing nothing in this scenario might be better, but she wasn’t empowered to make any kind of significant change to what, at the very earliest scoping stages, sounded like a done deal. It’s disturbing to me how little incursion from the real world and even science is actually allowed to infiltrate BLM working plans.
If doing something is required, then what is done should at least help the situation rather than make it worse. Solutions to fire concerns in the valley should include plans to effectively close roads in the areas of concern from casual use by people in off-road and other vehicles. This would end some of the horrible abuses that occur in this area, including trash dumping, off-roading, illegal road building, squatting and meth production.
It’s been established that there’s a strong relationship between fires and humans in vehicles, whether by throwing a cigarette out a window or igniting dry grass with an exhaust pipe. Getting rid of vehicle access would help the erosion problems that exist on these lands as well.
There are numerous natural fire breaks in this area, including wide stretches of gravel and river bar along the East and West Fork Illinois, and Hwy. 199. It seems likely that any fire within the planning region will be somewhat confined by these natural and unnatural boundaries. Where people interface with the danger zone, it’s critical that they be responsible for creating, clearing and maintaining fuel breaks for their own safety.
Help from the state already exists for creating these fuel breaks. Where BLM land is involved I strongly support the idea of using thinning and sound scientific application of forestry to decrease dangers.
The lowland forests inside this planning area are unusual in that they sit at the center of our valley; they are super easy to access; they’re low elevation; and provide a huge reserve of cool temperature climate mediation for those living around them. They provide wind breaks, shade breaks and a place to recreate. They also provide some of the basis for the healthy salmon runs in the West Fork Illinois.
Management of these forests probably is unavoidable at this time because of past damages inflicted by less than ideal practices. I support a management strategy that helps return these forests to a healthier state by doing some thinning on previously logged and over-stocked, young plantations, leaving the larger-diameter trees alone.
This could be done by selling small-diameter trees for poles, firewood or use in making value-added forest products. Over most of this area that could be cost-effective due to the ease with which these areas can be reached. No road building is required, and few seasonal restrictions are likely to exist.
As for erosion problems and other restoration, a full review of all the resources available might open some possibilities. Grants, community work projects that involve volunteers and other low-cost and low-tech solutions might present themselves if BLM will seriously consider finding solutions to these problems.
In a paper released in February 2008 by University of Oregon’s Climate Leadership Initiative, Preparing the Pacific Northwest for Climate Change A Framework for Integrative Preparation Planning for Natural, Human, Built and Economic Systems, climate researchers suggest a strategy for dealing with the effects of human induced climate change and forests in the Rogue River Basin.
Included is the comment, Mature forests are better able to withstand large climate-induced disturbances such as heavy rainfall or wildfire. Conversion to even-age plantations should be avoided, and low-intensity forestry should be practiced to minimize soil disturbance and introduction of exotic species.
For grasslands and prairies, strategies include landscape-level land use planning, slowing or preventing invasive species proliferation, reducing road impacts, implementing science-based adaptive livestock management, and restoring historical grasslands.
Yet another benefit of these valley bottom forests is that they lessen the likelihood of and effects of flooding, something hugely important to me as a land owner with property adjoining the West Fork Illinois.
Appreciates RADE
From Carol Dickson
Cave Junction
I would like to express my appreciation for the detectives from the Rogue Area Drug Enforcement Team for their work on the overwhelming task of arresting drug dealers all over the county.
With resources in short supply, I appreciate that two big dealers from the Illinois Valley area have recently been apprehended. We know the valley could easily be overlooked and your work has not gone unnoticed.
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