Dear Editor:
The recent commentary by the new temporary district ranger served to point out that the Forest Service doesnt have a clue what their real problem is. The road-closure issue is only the visual part of a much larger problem, much like an iceberg.
The so-called public lands, both national forests and BLM, were originally to be developed for multiple-resource uses for economic purposes. The lands and resources were managed to produce a dynamic economy in local areas.
Then, in the past 40+ years, the feds gradually abandoned the trust responsibility in exchange for non-economic, protectionist view sheds and romantic ideas of wilderness. No two people can even agree on what those ideas are. To attempt to protect such a nebulous concept of some idealists, they are beginning the removal of human intervention.
This is where the road and access issue comes into play. The problem comes to light just as the local, state and national economy is in the toilet with the handle in the flush position. Natural resources are the foundation of any viable economy. The federal land agencies are locking up use and access to the very resources that local and state economies have depended upon and are necessary to restore this country. They are literally protecting the public lands and resources to death!
There are a lot of sensible people across the West that have become aware of this travesty of mismanagement and want it to be corrected.
Dexter Gill
Lewis