Letters to the Editor 01/16/2013

To the Editor:

I attended the Town Hall meeting with Sen. Ron Wyden at the high school. A large part of the audience was comprised of students at the school. These young people were interested, attentive, and polite. Several asked a question of the senator and their questions were well-thought-out and they were very articulate.

Kudos to those students who attended this meeting and to the parents in Sisters Country who are raising these exemplary young people.

Carolyn Asson

s s s

To the Editor:

Last summer I hiked the trail up to Tam McArthur Rim and looked down over the valley. Below was a large swath of dead trees, killed by the pine beetle. Beetle-killed trees stretched out for miles in a belt, easily distinguished from the heights above. Two weeks later most of what I was seeing was burning up in the fire that started at Pole Creek.

The area was ripe for wildfire with all the dead wood through the region. There has been a lot of emphasis in recent years toward reducing the fuels that feed wildfire. If there had been better forest management by the USFS, some of these areas that were burned through could have been utilized by the tax-paying public and fuels reduced.

There are quite a few local residents who burn wood to heat their homes in the winter. My family is one of them. I know that for at least the last 10 years and probably longer, there has been very little change in the wood-cutting units allotted by the Forest Service.

I have cut firewood for 10 years in the Pole Creek Unit and have seen that area worked to the bone. That unit has remained the same throughout this time, with no expansions although the wood around has been plentiful. The south side of the unit was wilderness, but the rest had room for expansion. Now it's all burned up. I have written the Deschutes National Forest Ranger and received no reply. We need some conscientious people to work for us that will manage the forest in a way that will benefit all the public.

Richard McDaniel

s s s

To the Editor:

I just talked to Mr. Glen Miller. He informed me that the asphalt grindings that are in the Sisters Industrial Park are not for free. I stand corrected.

Mike Griesman