Our letters
section and your opportunity to weigh in and be heard. Send
us your thoughts and profundities. You can contact us here.
The real Rush
Dear Editors:
Fine cartoon. But Rush (Limbaugh) is not just a hypocrite;
he is also a repeat offender. This is his third trip to rehab.
– R.T. O’Hara
Somewhere near Bayfield
Upsides to developing the valley
Dear Editors:
You hear it everyday, people complaining about the development
in the valley. I am personally opposed to this issue, but it
got me thinking to the brighter side as well. I know that the
elk live there in the winter, and I know that it’s a beautiful,
peaceful thing. What isn’t so peaceful is when they jump
in front of your car on the road, and not only are they hurt,
but you may be hurt as well. Could the development help cause
less car accidents with animals? Plus, with the many fires in
California, I’m sure that a lot of people may want to
move here. They have the money that our town needs, and if we’re
the town I thought we were, then we’d welcome anyone.
I know we are all afraid of becoming a huge city and losing
our beautiful air, but in reality I don’t think it will
get much bigger any time soon. Plus, sometimes we just have
to live life. Live it, and come what may, because that’s
what life is about. So, whatever happens with this issue, let’s
just all stay calm and live.
– Dakota Jeane DiSanto
Durango
SledAlert: A vintage snowmobile
gets a
good dusting of the white stuff near Lime
Creek Road./Photo by Todd Newcomer.
The flip side of mosquito control
Dear Editors:
I am a concerned citizen of this community.
The insecticide currently used by our mosquito districts is
permethrin, a synthetic pyrethroid class of chemical. One concern
in using permethrin is the effect that it could have on the
insect population, particularly bees and parasitic wasps. Both
play a large role in transferring pollen from plant to plant
and as a natural control to other insects (tomato hornworms
and corn borers) that can destroy plants and crops.
The healthiest option in controlling mosquitoes is to increase
the biological controls (when applicable) such as the silvery
minnow or “mosquitofish” (Gambusia affinis) that
feed on mosquitoes. The next best option is the natural larvicide
Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis isrealensis), which has minimal
effects on other insects and is less toxic to humans. If we
must use insecticides better outreach to the community concerning
prevention, location and time of spraying, and product details
is needed. The mosquito control districts have a “no spray”
list that people may sign, but it is poorly publicized and often
not respected. This needs to be changed.
Finally, if we are going to damage the local population of
pollinators and beneficials, I would like to see a long-term
plan for replenishing the insect population that is being destroyed.
West Nile Virus is a concern, but by incorporating these integrated
pest-management solutions we can deal with the virus and at
the same time protect our personal health, lessen our dependence
on toxic chemicals and increase the health of our environment.
– Michael Rendon
Durango
Environmentalism triggers fires
Dear Editors:
“What belongs in common...is accorded the least care.”—Aristotle
Why is a lot of California burning? The physical cause of course
is an errant flame, in one case the work of arsonists. But the
substantive cause appears to be adherence to a confusing ideology,
one that results in contradictory, so-called “progressive”
objectives. The first prides itself on its “green”
environmental record and its erroneous need to demonize the
logging industry. The second wants to supply quality-of-life
affordable housing, which must push developments out near the
uncleared forestlands.
When boiled down to root causes, it becomes apparent that the
scale of wildfires, not only this year in California but recently
experienced throughout the West, is in large part a consequence
of the failure to act. Back in 1994, the National Commission
on Wildfire Disasters warned that: “millions of acres
of forest in the western United States pose an extreme fire
hazard from the extensive build-up of dry, highly flammable
forest fuels.” The commission’s chairman told Congress
that year: “The message we are trying to bring to you
today is that there are millions of acres of federal forest
in the inland west that need immediate intervention, to prevent
an environmental and economic disaster.” In nine years,
nothing was done. Politics of course. Congress, under the influence
of the lobbying power of a major contributor to the Democratic
Party, the environmental special-interest lobby, adheres to
the model provided by that lobby, called Stasis. The model basically
claims that we can’t allow any policy of human action
since that could only result in one that, regardless of its
scientific validity, would favor the evil logging interests.
That of course shuts down any forest policy that makes sense
since a large portion of the west is subject to the authority
of numerous federal bureaucracies and several infamous federal
environmental laws.
It is a fact to those of us who monitor such things that forest
policy has been smothered with unscientific bureaucracy. So
much so that any action, or any act of public leadership, has
become virtually impossible. The result, environmentalism has
destroyed our forests in order to save them. Perhaps its time
we recognize that the environmental movement is out of control,
that its cure is worse than the disease.
