| Letters
to the editor from this week's Chronicle:
Restoring forest health
should be about facts, not ideology
An editorial by
Raul Labrador, Congressman
Idaho’s First Congressional District
In the laboratory of ideas, results should count.
Recently, I introduced the Self-Sufficient Community Lands Act, H.R.
2316, which would set aside up to 2 percent of the 193 million acres in
the National Forest System for state and local management. Sadly, some
critics seem uninterested in whether local management of federal lands
might restore forest health, reduce catastrophic fires and revive rural
economies.
One editorialist wrote that the bill “might sound appealing” to those
living in one of Idaho’s struggling timber communities. Indeed it does
– the idea came from a bipartisan group of county commissioners in the
1st Congressional District.
Idahoans are alarmed by our forest crisis. Under federal management,
they’ve watched timber harvest crash since the 1990s. Consequences include
high unemployment, erosion of the local tax base and essential services,
and devastating fires.
Thirty percent of the nation’s national forests are at high risk for
catastrophic wildfire, according to the Forest Service. These fires damage
water quality, wildlife and property, undermining the government’s stewardship
duty. Worst of all, lives are lost: In the last 20 years, there have been
close to 350 wildfire-related fatalities in the U.S.
Working with local officials, I first introduced the bill in 2012.
It passed the House in 2013, but wasn’t considered in the then-Democratic
Senate. Now that Republicans control the Senate, prospects for final passage
are improved.
Perhaps that explains some of the overheated rhetoric, including claims
I’m doing the bidding of corporate interests hungry to buy up our public
lands and lock out the American people. One representative of an environmental
group called the pilot projects in my bill a “slippery slope,” saying,
“…if you can’t get title to the lands today at least go for management
of them so tomorrow you can make a case for title.”
Translation: Opponents of the forest products industry fear that local
management will prove superior to control from Washington, D.C. Such evidence,
of course, would boost efforts in Congress to reform federal land management.
New data shows the potential. In a March report, the Property and Environment
Research Center compared state and federal management. PERC found that
Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Arizona earn an average of $14.51 for every
dollar spent on state trust land management. The Forest Service and Bureau
of Land Management generate only 73 cents in return for every dollar spent
on federal land management.
But the critics don’t care about facts. They’re making an ideological
argument –federal control is better than local –not one based on what’s
best for the land and the people.
I think most Americans trust outcomes. If it turns out governors and
their advisory committees –working in consultation with Indian tribes –do
a better job managing our forests, the federal government should transfer
that authority.
With an $18 trillion deficit, Congress and the American people are
hungry for ideas to cut spending. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget
Office projects my bill would return a net of $64 million to the U.S. treasury
over the first eight years. Across the forest system, the savings would
be very significant.
I believe local management is an antidote for the sickness that ails
our forests and rural communities. That includes more harvest and efficient
salvage following fires. It also means higher paying jobs and fewer devastating
fires.
Just as a scientific hypothesis is tested in the laboratory, my bill
tests the hypothesis that state control is better for forest management.
It’s a shame that critics aren’t interested in learning what works best
for the health of our forests and rural communities.
Redneck Review!!
6/23/15
A quick glance at the news the past couple of days produced some real
eye openers!
But at the same time, not really that surprising!
Lewiston's Tribune Friday, June 19, for example, under a headline THE
CRACKDOWN BEGINS, cited a government report that 243 individuals have been
charged with "bilking Medicare and Medicaid" to the tune of $712 million
dollars. The article continues "Health care fraud costs tens of billions
annually, another drain on Medicare whose long-term outlook is already
shaky."
Surprising? Not so, I say! Already noted in this column is the claim
that dollars are more carefully spent by those who directly earn them,
than by those whose job is essentially to give them away. So repeated and
proved stories of graft throughout a government which spends annually anywhere
from a half trillion to over a trillion dollars each year can almost be
expected! And when those expenditures have political ramifications, especially
in an election year, one can more easily understand why our national debt
is near $18 trillion!
Just one day earlier, the same Tribune printed a story about Minnesota's
"Sex Offender Program violates state constitution." Noting that sex offenders
in that state do not have "any realistic hope of ever getting out," the
judge warned the legislature that remedies needed to be made, else "he
would impose his own." The thinly veiled threat included his "closing of
the St. Peter and Moose Lake facilities, or the extensive release of patients."
Complicating the problem is the rising cost of dealing with sex offenders.
The article says "It costs more than $124,000 a year to house just one
resident, triple the cost of prison."
Wow! Back a few paragraphs where it is claimed that people "spend their
own money more carefully...", one might wonder if the average taxpayer
is happy about that cost!
Especially so when states like Idaho are struggling to finance education!
With fraud all around and costs sky high, would that taxpayer not find
some way to cut those costs?
Another comment! Where in our Constitution can one find the tremendous
power that courts and judges have today to overturn both the laws passed
by legislatures, and the wishes of the people? It seems to me we were presented
with a system of "checks and balances" and "balance of power!" Are those
restraints operating on this judge?
Or, very shortly, a ruling from the Supreme Court of the United States
may well override the "marriage" laws many states have passed outlawing
"gay marriage." A ruling that is predicted to end up 5 to 4, meaning that
one man has the power to over rule both the the people and the legislatures
of several states. Does this make sense? I say no, and claim that our system
is being warped badly out of shape!
Oh, well! If neither of the above stories surprised the reader, then
neither should the one about "Isis: Creating a nation of fear!" Disidents
"vanish -- their disappearance some times explained by an uninformative
death certificate, or worse, a video of their beheading." How, I ask, can
one explain some American youth joining the Isis movement??
Jake Wren
Dear Editor,
Having written a children’s book, "Polly Bemis: A Chinese American
Pioneer" (2003), I am now writing a book about her for adults. I’m trying
to learn what happened to “Polly’s gold buttons.” There were nine of them,
made from $2.50 and $5.00 gold coins, and they were stolen from The Historical
Museum of St. Gertrude when the Museum was in the basement of St. Gertrude's
Academy. The theft occurred in 1957 or later, since the Museum still had
them in May 1957 and planned to show them to visitors on that year’s fourth
“Academy Day.”
When the late Sr. Catherine Manderfeld was the Museum Director, I asked
her about the buttons. She said that Sr. Alfreda had left their cabinet
unlocked, and noticed that they were missing after some boys had been in
the Museum. Apparently, according to Sr. Catherine, Sr. Alfreda always
blamed herself for providing the boys with the temptation to steal, so
she never pursued it with the police.
Since the culprits appear to be one or more boys who were students
at the school, does anyone in the Cottonwood area know what happened to
Polly’s buttons? Does someone want to clear his conscience by returning
the buttons or telling what happened to them? It was nearly 60 years ago,
so the Statute of Limitations has expired, meaning charges of theft could
no longer be filed. Do the buttons still exist, so they could be returned
to the Museum, or were they sold during a time of hardship for a local
family?
If anyone has any information about Polly’s gold buttons, please let
me know; anonymously if preferred. My address is 735 East 6th Street, Moscow,
83843; telephone, 208-882-7905, and e-mail, pwegars@moscow.com.
Thank you,
Priscilla Wegars
Moscow |
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