To the Editor:

When taking office as the elected Grant County sheriff, Todd McKinley swore to uphold law enforcement code of ethics: My fundamental duty is to serve society; to safeguard lives and property, to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, the peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect the constitutional rights of all people to liberty, equality, and justice. On Oct. 19, Sheriff McKinley did exactly what he was sworn to do, even though that meant going against an employee of the U.S. government that is protected by a union representing over 110,000 federal employees.

We as the citizens of the U.S. have quietly sat by for too long when it comes to allowing those who we pay, through our taxes, to manage our lands to do whatever they want whenever they want. As their employer we never hold them accountable for destroying our land and the lands of those neighboring federal lands. What if the Holliday Ranch would have begun a prescribed burn that day that traveled onto the USFS land? Would the USFS have them arrested for non-control of a fire, maybe even charge them with arson?

It goes further than the burning of our timber and grasslands. As a result of terrible decisions to supposedly improve creeks for fish, the USFS and the Department of Fish and Wildlife have defaced the creeks in the Galena area to the point where they have destroyed the meadows along the creeks. Their poor management of our forest lands have caused many fires to spread quickly, making it increasingly harder to extinguish. As a USFS employee in the 1960s, we never saw fires grow like they do now. The timber was thinned and harvested, keeping fires to minimal growth, and we jumped on them quickly.

I am now 81 and have held jobs continuously since I was 14. I have always been, and expected to be, held accountable for any mistakes I may have made at any job.

I firmly stand behind Sheriff McKinley!

Rusty Clark

Monument