Four C meeting on "Wild Olympics"
by Marv Chastain
January 24, 2012
Last night (Jan. 23, 2012), the “Wild Olympics” crew gave their well organized, graphic pitch to lock up more of the peninsula to “save” it, to the four C group in Sequim. Most of the audience were older people who have been around a while and are skeptical of hype. They didn’t buy it. Very many lined up to question it, but there just wasn’t time. Unfortunately, too many folks get a mic in their hand and instead of good questions, start to bloviate.
Carol Johnson from NOTAC gave an excellent presentation of why it is a bad idea and Bill Pickell gave a good back up to hers.
A toxic combination of so called “environmental” groups with money and spendaholic politicians such as Norm Dicks and Patty Murray who have the keys to the US credit card, continue their assault on the folks of the Olympic Peninsula. After the spotted owl fiasco which bankrupted many peninsula businesses (doing nothing for the owls which continue to lose to their cousins) and the currently ongoing Elwha ecological destruction, they smell final victory in their drive to get rid of the people and turn this peninsula over to the wild animals (wolves and grizzlies?)
They operate on the false premise that all the works of man are evil and against nature while their brand of “environmentalism” brings death of wildlife, destruction of the environment and needless waste. They use pictures of huge trees cut a century ago which aren’t found in any proliferation any more. But how did those trees get so big? Forest on the Olympic Peninsula grows at a fantastic rate. So many trees grow so fast that if left alone, they just kill each other. A thousand small trees over hundreds of years evolve into a few huge monster trees with very little undergrowth. Whereas, with management, the forest produces useful wood and an environment that is favorable to wildlife and tree growth.
That’s a wealth creator - what we need.
Where do you find deer? In the deep woods? NO. You find the deer in the clear-cuts where young woody plants grow which are their preferred diet and where the predators have a harder time catching and killing them. No clear-cuts = no deer. When I bought cut-over timber land 25 years ago, it abounded with deer. As the trees grew, the deer moved to people’s yards. Now, you are more likely to see deer in town than in the woods. Four years ago, I cut some and now the deer are coming back (somewhat).
What about “endangered species”? If it’s a pocket gopher destroying farmland (Thurston County) it must be preserved. If it’s a useless sucker fish (Klamath basin) farm irrigation must be cut off to enhance it. But, a beautiful Dolly Varden (Bull) trout in a man-made lake on the government’s “endangered” list - no problem, just drain the lake.
When does the insanity stop?