To the Editor:

I would like to introduce you to a congressional representative who is currently up for election. This candidate will work collaboratively to increase wilderness areas, will allow all Oregon national forest in his district to operate under the “closed forest system” of the U.S. Forest Service Travel Management Rule, and will champion the concept of working in “collaborative groups” with environmentalist to negotiate away access to our mountains in trade for possible, not guaranteed, but possible future timber cuts.

This candidate will hire staffers that will not return correspondence from constituents, will not attend meetings that are perceived as “boring” and make commitments to addressing issues without ever reporting back on findings of said meetings.

Sounds like a great choice don’t it, a vote for Greg Walden will get you that candidate. If you are an active user of your forest, either subsistence or recreation, please realize Mr. Walden is not the candidate for you. In Greg’s tenure as our U.S. representative he has systematically allowed the Forest Service to lock us out of our public lands, and has lifted but a very light hand to address the issue. He has been our representative for 15 years, and 10 out of the 12 national forest in his district are now “closed forests.”

While I appreciate the “urging” Mr. Walden has done with letters to federal employees, his ability to effect change on these agencies personnel is limited. However his ability to effect change on budgets of such agencies is not. Mr. Walden has made it very clear it is deemed “politically unpopular” to use such tactics with his colleagues in the House; he may need to be reminded he does not represent the House of Representatives, but the people of Eastern/Southern Oregon.

If Greg is unwilling to truly tackle this issue, it’s time we find someone that is. I will be voting for Dennis Linthicum for representative this year, I ask that you do the same.

John D. George

Bates