Lack of logic

Radical environmentalists have an aversion to logic, common sense and truth. Their ongoing ravings have driven me to some observations.

Wildlife has proven willing to coexist with humans as coyotes, deer, bears, wolves, fox and mountain lions move into metropolitan areas throughout our country. It is incompatible radicals who call for isolation of humans as they seek declaration of ever more off-limits wilderness lands.

Bipartisan Healthy Forest legislation declared fuel buildup as the hazardous cause of wildfires and has prioritized nationwide fuels reduction efforts. The Forest Service now favors so-called "thinning by burning" which pollutes both air and water and is, in essence, simply clear cutting by burning, destroying everything including old growth. This as opposed to mechanical removal, which permits saving desirable trees and provides productive utilization of wood product removed. "Let-burn policy," a proclaimed alternative to firefighting, supports high intensity forest fires which consume everything, including old growth and wildlife, bakes the soil as in a ceramic kiln, and never recovers current well balanced stands of timber.

Regarding gravel pits, population growth demands fulfilling needs: Highways, driveways, concrete foundations and sidewalks. Oil, gold and other minerals are not found by simply digging just anywhere. Nor is gravel and sand. They are only where they are, in different qualities and quantities.

Recovered gravel pits have many uses. In Four Lakes, a Chicago suburb, beautifully landscaped apartments and condos line the waterfront, formerly a massive gravel pit. Residents enjoy boating, fishing and skiing on the little hill formed by dredgings. What some may have considered an ugly duckling became a beautiful swan.

We need earth's resources to provide human needs and healthy economy. It is not "greed" that made our country the envy of the world. It is our free enterprise system providing for citizens and, even, our ever more ravenous government . . . not the reverse.

Let's be realistic, honest with ourselves and others, acknowledge truth and apply logical common sense.

Respectfully submitted,

Clarice Ryan

Bigfork