Letters to the Editor

Band-Aid not enough

U.S. Senator Jon Tester's Forest Jobs and Recreation Act unfortunately displays lack of adequate comprehension and balance in addressing urgent management needs for our seriously fire-prone federal forests. What is really needed is policy change by the U.S. Forest Service opening forests to timber management at a level that will significantly reduce the threat of massive catastrophic fires increasingly destroying watersheds, environment, and wildlife. This could be accomplished at minimum tax-payer expense. Closely related are the causative bug infestations spreading throughout the forests and feeding fires of the Northwest. All can be tracked back to inept, cultist philosophies pressuring a lop-sided, misdirected environmental movement.

Environmentalists and government appear so obsessed with protecting these lands from "loggers' that they refuse to acknowledge that density reduction by productive, selective thinning of timber and fuels (not limited to dead, dying and burned) is the only feasible solution. It would correct this massive problem, while enabling the forests to pay for their own hospitalization and restoration!!! Missing is respect for "profit," the essential ingredient for funding the worthwhile things in our country and our lives. It even provides the taxes for Government operation. We certainly do not do well on "credit." Unfortunately our "green" regime is busy destroying what is left of "essential" well directed profit motivation and opportunity.

Blind power being applied largely through the judiciary, combined with lack of knowledge contributes to the ongoing human caused catastrophe killing our forests. Obsession with recreation and locked down human access under the pretense of "protecting" endangered species and trees, over-rules common sense workable solutions, thus producing destruction by ignorance. Dispersing consolation crumbs to a starving timber industry hoping that somehow a few mills might still survive is not a solution. "Token" fuels reduction projects are a gross under-estimation of what is needed.

Senator Tester's basically timid approach lacks comprehension of the magnitude, and reflects the misguided perceptions of the environmental community. Only a sound, healthy industry with long-term assurance of supply established by firm governmental policy, can produce needed industrial infra-structure and long-term job security. Random group-managed projects cannot correct present man-created decline in forest health. Success can only be achieved through realistic prioritization, sound goals and objectives, and application of proven science and technology under professional timber management with freedom to operate. Failure has proven inevitable when management is attempted by a variety of unskilled but well meaning special interest groups. However, professional stewardship can and should incorporate guidelines and controls that will satisfy public and environmental interests.

Clarice Ryan

Bigfork

Bigfork remembered

Ahh my Bigfork, how you've grown! It was a pleasure seeing the photo coverage of the Fourth of July parade. It brought to mind our first "organized" Fourth of July celebration back in 1949 or 1950. There wasn't a parade and it didn't draw a crowd of 10,000. For its time, and for its being the first of its kind in Bigfork, however, it drew a respectable-sized crowd and created what for us then was a "traffic jam". The fireworks were launched at the end of the bay and the dock and the area around it was jammed with onlookers.

We spent the daytime hours 'shooting" our personal fireworks. This was before OSHA and the consumer product safety nannies, so we had 2- and 3-inch firecrackers, cherry bombs and silver salutes. For the more feint-of-heart types there were the 1-inch and lady finger firecrackers. We used to put the more powerful firecrackers under a large tin can and light them. A good shot would launch that sucker 20-25 feet in the air. We also had roman candles and skyrockets – not bottle rockets – for our own nighttime entertainment.

Your pictures of the parade pointed up the truth of the old saying that you can't go home again. I didn't recognize any of the buildings other than the old O'Brien Hotel and the old bank building. Time doesn't stand still and neither does the face of the town. The memories of the town and its people as they were back then though haven't changed or dimmed.

Another thing that attracted my attention was the editorial cartoon in the same coverage. I wasn't able to decipher the signature of the artist, but a pretty good guess would be that it is the work of Elmer Sprunger. When I joined the Navy in 1952, Elmer drew a small profile caricature of me as a 'swabbie" that he gave to my folks. It was replete with white hat and pony tail (artist license since pony tails were not in vogue then). Sadly, that caricature was either lost, or hopefully, only misplaced in a move. Perhaps it will turn up one of these days.

As Bob Hope used to say, thanks for the memories!

Jerome C. Burchard, BHS '51

Gainesville, VA

Meeting thanks

Thanks to all who attended the North Lake County Planning & Zoning Committee's community meetings on July 21 and 22. Your comments and ideas are critical to us as we proceed with drafting regulations and working on a plan that will help the community guide our future growth and development. If you would like to comment, or did not receive a survey and would like one, please call me at 837-6094 or Paul Rana at 837-1102. Our next committee meeting is Friday, Aug. 7 at 9:15 a.m. at the Saddlehorn Discovery Center. We will then take a break and resume meeting on the firstand third Fridays, same time and place, starting Oct. 16. All are welcome.

Leslie Budewitz,

Chair, North Lake Planning and Zoning Committee