USFS recipe ignores local desires

Published 4:47 pm Monday, January 12, 2015

To the Editor:

A recipe for locking up public lands to motorized use.

Ingredients – 1 Regional Forester, 3 Forest Supervisors, Environmental Groups and State Agencies (ODFW preferred), Seasonings – flouting rules and ignoring the public.

1) You take one forest supervisor that is within retirement age and willing to sellout entire communities to get his high 3 for retirement, add in 2 others that will blend smoothly with a Regional Forester picked ripe from the vine to force motorized use restrictions on the public. Blend in a yearly bonus of somewhere around $5,000 a year to turn a deaf ear to local residents’ calls for keeping their mountains open.

2) In a separate bowl collect a ratio of “interested groups” 4 to 1, Anti-motorized use to Pro-motorized use to cover the supervisors and regional forester.

3) Spread the “interest group” topping over the blended Forest Supervisor/Regional Forester mix and cover heavily as to disguise any sense of pre-conceived agenda.

4) Apply a generous seasoning of flouting rules on how public engagement should occur, smothered with a heavy application of ignoring the public on their concerns.

Place in a “consensus” oven set at, till hell freezes over, and wait to see when the Forest Supervisors and Regional Foresters actually act upon locals’ concerns.

Meal will be done when the supervisors and regional forester are soft to the touch, poking with an email or phone call to test tenderness, and are ready act upon local residents’ concerns.

Until they reach that point you should place the meal back into the oven and increase the heat till such time as the Forest Supervisors and Regional Forester act accordingly or are done, whichever comes first.

John D. George

Bates