Letters, letters, letters

To The Editor:

Without a doubt, mismanagement and over-cutting have led to the demise of our forests both public and private. That era is finally history.

In today's real world, what few loggers and ranchers are left work hand-in-hand with our federal agencies. A new era has arrived and all of us who work in the forest have recognized it. True Story.

I would like to invite Steven Huddleston to explain why he calls us taxpayer-subsidized welfare loggers. I don't like this. I wonder what he calls you ranchers?

Perhaps at the same time he can tell us why we should let our dead forest fall down in a heap, depriving the taxpayers of millions of dollars.

Extensive logging in these dead zones is the first rational step toward reforestation and wildlife management. Unfortunately, rational measures, which could have been implemented years ago, are no longer possible due to environmentalist red tape.

Our privately held forest lands will continue to disappear, what's left of our National Forest will likely burn, and that's the end of the story.

Dave Elpi

To the Editor:

Public beware. You may soon be hiking, biking and camping on treeless Deschutes National Forest land.

The Forest Service land swap will transfer 26,000 acres of the beautiful Deschutes National Forest to Crown Pacific. In return the public will receive heavily logged trash land that the Draft Environmental Impact Statement describes as stands of "seedlings, saplings and poles."

The Forest Service is supposed to be steward of our public lands, but they have entered into a cozy deal to accommodate a large private timber company who wants to turn 400-year-old ponderosa pines into lumber.

The public losses are staggering. We will lose 1,500 acres of old-growth ponderosa, 10,000 acres of deer migration corridors, 8,000 acres of elk habitat, and thousands of acres of territory for listed species, including the endangered Peregrine Falcon. Most damage will occur on subwatersheds: Bull, Dorrance, Sellers, and Toast.

Wake up public! This is your land. Let the Forest Service know your dissatisfaction with this rip-off. The deadline for public comment is January 9. Please write a letter requesting that a "supplemental environmental impact statement" be issued that removes old-growth forests from this exchange. Write to: Sally Collins, Deschutes National Forest, 1645 Highway 20 East, Bend, Oregon, 97701.

Howard Paine

To the Editor:

In response to the December 17 commentaries by your resident liberals, comrades Molly Ivins and Russell Sadler:

Ivins' feeble attempt to "white-wash" the corrupt "Clinton White House" by minimizing the indictment of Henry Cisneros, on 25 (count them) criminal counts (by an independent council), I find laughable. Golly "Ms. Molly," he hasn't been convicted. At least not yet.

Russell Sadler is your typical Democratic liberal. He believes sending back the surplus tax kicker; to us "greedy" taxpayers is a grave mistake. He also believes this surplus should be "squirreled away" to finance future social rat hole programs.

"Hey dude," it's not the state's money.

At least the conservatives give back the money.

The Democrats consistently clamor for more and higher taxes to foster their "black hole" schemes.

E.N. Swehosky