Pointing out sources, not fingers
To the editor,
Dan Randolph, I appreciated your interest in the recent story on the Four Corners methane study. As a photojournalist, I work hard to ensure accuracy. I will say that the main thrust of the recent article was to bring attention to the fact that a prominent study was taking place here in our own region, drawing numerous scientific agencies who are seeking more specific answers to the very question of, “what has led to the unusually high methane levels in the Four Corners?”
Much of my story was based on information derived from the handful of locations the researchers highlighted during my assignment, as well as the conversations I had with the researchers, and my own subsequent research. I agree that this story could be expanded and revisited in much greater depth. My aim was not to point any fingers toward specific sources, but rather make a case for the fact that so many varied sources in our region are all contributing on some level. To what extent we don’t know, but that is the very point of the study. The recent data collected will be analyzed and made available in due time, hopefully providing direction for policy makers and the community at large.
– Regards, Jeremy Wade-Shockley
Not another storybook ending
To the editor,
I really enjoyed Shan Wells’ latest commentary. I would like to offer some alternate endings to “Is that the light of a million suns shining on this glorious peace?”
- No, it’s the Iranian nuclear development activities
- No, it’s Israel; Iran just nuked Tel Aviv
- No, it’s all of Obama’s red lines vaporizing
- No, it’s the starting light for the new Middle East nuclear arms race
- No, it’s the factories in Iran; now that they have lots of money they are working all night making rockets for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
– Will Rottenberg, Durango
Seeing the forest for the trees
To the editor,
Summer continues to be busy. I have been given the opportunity to discuss the legislative session with folks from Pagosa Springs to Gunnison, and I hope to see many more citizens between now and when the second session begins in January.
I attended a tour and forum spearheaded by Hinsdale County commissioner Cindy Dozier regarding the devastation of Southern Colorado forests by the spruce beetle. Speakers at the forum included experts in forest management from the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the Colorado Forest Service. The number of dead trees on Slumgullion Pass equal numbers on Wolf Creek Pass. The difference is, on Slumgullion the USFS has contracted with a sawmill in Montrose to remove dead trees along the highway corridor. This will help serve as a fire break in case of a catastrophic fire. Young, living trees are left standing, which will hurry reforestation.
The problem is, the Montrose sawmill would like to expand to two work shifts per day and, even with millions of dead trees, federal bureaucracy hampers the ability to provide the trees needed. I continue to agree with State Rep. Don Corum that a presidential executive order is needed to hurry up the federal permitting process in this emergency situation to get as many dead trees off the forest as soon as possible to minimize the devastation of an inevitable catastrophic fire.
I have asked on numerous occasions why no work is being done on Wolf Creek. One of the answers was that there is a “roadless area” on one side of Highway 160. It is crazy to use that excuse when we have this emergency situation that is the prelude for a catastrophic fire of the magnitude that we have never seen. I will continue to press for action on Wolf Creek Pass.
We also are beginning to see beetle kill in the Purgatory and Coalbank Pass areas.
I am very impressed by the knowledge and expertise of our USFS and BLM employees. These folks know what they are talking about and want to do the right thing. However, they are hampered by politics. Several of them did lament that our national forest had not been managed properly because of misplaced public pressure by certain activist environmental groups. The result has been the destruction of the timber industry and a crowded and unhealthy forest that was vulnerable to the 2002 drought, which gave rise to the spruce beetle infestation.
Our grandchildren will never know our national forests as we have known them. The trees are dead or dying. Nature will take its course, and in 200 or 300 years, there will again be a forest as we know it today. The damage has been done, and we cannot go back in time. However, we can and must learn from our past mistakes as we manage for the future.
– Rep. J. Paul Brown, R-Ignacio
Sanctuary cities haven for criminals
To the editor,
On July 1, Kathryn Steinle was shot and killed in San Francisco by an illegal alien that had been deported on five separate occasions. When asked by a reporter why he returned to San Francisco, he cited the fact that it was a sanctuary city and he did not fear being turned over to federal authorities.
Google sanctuary cities in Colorado and nine locations pop up, including Durango. With progressives calling for “dialog” on everything from Confederate flags to black lives matter, where the hell is the Telegraph on reporting the whys and where fore of Durango being a sanctuary city. The murder of Ms. Steinle by an illegal alien is not an isolated instance. Last week, an illegal in Denver was sentenced to 40 years in prison for killing a 17-year-old Hispanic youth in a DUI-related accident.
Unlike the San Francisco illegal, the Denver man had only been deported three times!
– Dennis Pierce, Durango
Salt to Taste 2
Old skin,
with salt to taste,
been in that Living Sea,
making a sweet reed.
Old skin
so salty and sweet,
caramel in parts,
this one doesn’t miss a beat.
Old skin,
Ashkanazi white,
freckled in the slight.
Who is this man?
when will we be told, we can?
– Sara Michal, Cortez