Opinion

Your February 3rd issue contained two of the best letters to any editor that I have read since moving to Bend last June. Carlos Wysling and Vanessa Schulz nailed the roots of their arguments by analyzing the big picture, something many people seem incapable of doing, especially when such an analysis results in conclusions that seem to threaten their perceived individualism or income. Mr. Wysling addressed the enormous cost of U.S. imperialism, and Ms. Schulz discussed our nation's war on wildlife on behalf of them good ol' cowboys and their almighty cattle.
For the past few decades, our nation has put its environmental efforts into mitigating the effects of ecologic disruption rather than confronting the ultimate foundation of those problems. This is also the pattern for modern medicine, where pushing pills to counteract the effects of body imbalances has taken precedence over eliminating the causes of those imbalances with exercise and good nutrition. We think that we can avoid societal difficulties by dealing with the edges of the big problems rather than tackling their collective tap root and taking an honest look in the mirror.

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I'm new to town and am really perplexed by Mt. Bachelor’s “condition-based pricing.” We had friends fly here for MLK (Weekend) because we love Bend and the mountain and wanted to share it with them. Was shocked that the crappiest ski day I have ever had in my 35-plus years cost $70. There were really only two lifts running, no visibility and miserable conditions (yes, I get I maybe should have stayed home).

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This fall, the 9th Circuit issued its final decision and reversed an earlier ruling by Judge Hogan in Eugene, Oregon, on a large old-growth timber sale in the Deschutes National Forest. Local citizens and volunteers with the Sierra Club, Cascadia Wildlands Project and the Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project spent years field- checking the sale.
The citizens tried to approach the Forest Service to change the controversial plan, but the agency moved ahead. Judge Hogan found that the agency’s logging plan would degrade this forest for decades and that the agency’s claim that the logging would reduce fire risk was not supported by the scientific evidence in the record.

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