Letters to the Editor 11/28/2012

To the Editor:

Thank you to Shirley Lalli for bringing to our attention the amount of out-of-date food the Sisters Food Bank throws away. I applaud the hard work of volunteers and the success they achieve in providing food to the community, but I'm sure many of us share her sentiment seeing so much food wasted when so many are in need.

Posting the guidelines of what Kiwanis can and can't accept at the donation drop-off point might remind well-intentioned folks that leaving such items won't benefit anyone, will consume the time and effort of dedicated volunteers, and fill the landfill with cans that could be recycled.

I have no knowledge of restrictions placed on food banks, but the USDA Fact Sheet on Food Labeling says that "use-by" and "best if used by" dates are the manufacturer's recommended dates for best flavor and quality and are not safety dates. It further states, "In general, high-acid canned foods such as tomatoes, grapefruit and pineapple will retain best quality on the shelf for 12 to 18 months; low-acid canned foods such as meat, poultry, fish and most vegetables will retain best quality on the shelf for two to five years - if the can remains in good condition and has been stored in a cool, clean dry place."

Again, these are best-quality, not safety dates. It's common sense that food is likely unsafe if cans are leaking or if the contents have a foul smell or are discolored. This is possible regardless of date.

Perhaps the City of Sisters or other organizations could provide a central location where people could leave or pick up such items. This might be as simple as a drop-box location, requiring minimal oversight.

I can't imagine how much food must be wasted nationwide if food banks are so restricted. There must be a way to get this food to those in need, at least in this community, when the demand is so great.

Jan Morgan

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To the Editor:

Well, another disappointing fire season for the Sisters' forests.

During the last 10 years we've lost 180,000 acres to fires in and around the Sisters Ranger District. At that rate another 10 years and all 315,000 acres in the district will be gone.

Want to go hiking without walking through scorched earth? Forget it. Want to view the Cascades without the look of vacant forest land? Long gone. What did taxpayers receive for the 19-plus million spent on this Pole Creek fire? Well, another 27,000 acres gone, six weeks of off-the-charts smoke inhaling, $20,000 of lost revenue to local merchants per day, years of runoff/brown Whychus Creek, and a reminder every time you look or drive west or south that Sisters Ranger District has a culture of "let it burn."

Oh what that $19 million could have accomplished in treatment and thinning. Please don't call yourselves firefighters.

Secondly, $19 million and two months of fire investigation resulted in a report fatally flawed. The report states on page 2 of the Executive Summary that the "Pole Creek Fire was first detected in the afternoon of September 9, 2012 . The very next page, page 3, says "the Pole Creek Fire was detected in the morning of September 10, 2012." What? At least they got the correct year!

But most importantly, fire investigator Dan Smith referred in both The Bulletin and The Nugget articles to a National Lighting Strike Network called Vaisala Strike Network. His report stated there were eyewitnesses who saw lightning strikes on the eve of September 8. For $95 you can get a 24-hour report of lightning strikes within a 15-mile radius of anywhere in the USA. Their reports are 99 percent accurate.

Their 24 hour report for September 8, 12 p.m. through 11:59 a.m. September 9 states, "lighting WAS NOT detected by the National Lighting Detection Network for the given time-period and location."

The fire investigator referred us to this report, yet the report has no lighting strikes to back his claim of lightning-caused! Do we need an investigation (a group outside the USFS), to investigate their investigation, or will the report and the Pole Creek Fire fade into that culture of "let it burn"?

My hope is that we spend more resources on thinning and treating our forests, and that Sisters Ranger District is held accountable for this fire and investigation.

Tim Clasen