Dear Editor:

It has been a long cold winter and my wood pile is going down. What I am wondering is how and if I am going to be able to replace it this year.

The Forest Service is threatening to close down over 4,000 miles of roads on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. They claim that these roads are a determent to the environment and there management ability. Most of these roads have been in existence for over 40 years built by the logging companies subsidized by the taxpayers as an expense of the operation and therefore a decrease in the revenue realized from the timber sale.

Once the logging was over, the roads became an asset of the national forest. What has that to do with my wood pile? Well, those of us who get our own wood supply know the value of being able to use an old road bed, to gain access to a dead tree for wood. Over the last 10-plus years the Forest Service has been systematically closing these roads and putting more and more restrictions on our right to harvest our winter wood supply.

Those of you that chose to have your wood supply furnished, you have seen the price double in the last year, granted the price of fuel last year was a big factor but mainly it was due to the limited access and restrictions created by the Forest Service. Most of us know of a place where there is an abundance of wood laying three or four tank traps and dirt burms away that is just going to lay there and go to waste. Closing these roads for no viable reason other than a directive from some misinformed government official that completely ignored the actual needs of the local citizen.

You may think this doesn’t apply to you but if you know someone that was working for Boise Cascade ask them what they think of the forest management and the granola-eaters’ interdiction into are way of life.

What can you do (hopefully you may ask)? Well as it turns out our county commissioners have the power to demand an equal position on this and any other government issues that effect their (our) area. They don’t need to be led along as a subordinate to the feds. They are representing the locals and that is what they were elected for. I would ask you to call your county office and just tell them enough is enough we don’t need or want any more road closures.

Dorian Cox

Union

P.S. I don’t burn wood but my 92-year-old mother does.