I have been a proud Oregon resident all of my 40 years of life, except for the past seven, which I have lived abroad. When I have mentioned that I was from the state of Oregon, people would respond by saying, “our floors in our house is made from Oregon timber” or “my mother’s cabinets are made from Oregon timber.” It was nice to travel to different parts of the world and have my home state internationally recognized.

It is sad to move back to our wonderful state and see the destruction that the fires have caused from what I think is improper management by under utilizing a renewable and natural resource. Good management in logging and grazing is so important to fuel reduction in our forest and to our economy. We are so intent in protecting our floral and fauna we have overlooked the secondary cost not only to our economy but our environment as well.

Labeling me as some redneck who wants to kill or destroy everything in my path would be far from the truth. No one wants to see any of our native floral or fauna endangered or become extinct, but we do need to know the difference between protecting and good management practices. Use it or lose it.

It is no secret that our economy is in trouble and you are frantically trying to bring the budget in balance. I am reminded of an old saying that you might keep in the back of your mind: “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”

Every day in the news we hear of initiatives to borrow money against future settlements, or redirection of funds to allow for easier access. This is all fine, but they are only temporary measures. We need to get to the cause of the problem. Raising taxes will not be the answer. Raising the amount of taxpayers is.

I accept in the short term, government cutbacks are going to be a necessary evil, but remember for every job lost, the hand that feeds the government is being bitten. Long-term we need laws that will allow for good management practices of our renewable and natural resources and ensure future growth of Oregon’s economy by prioritizing our spending to programs that will contribute, not take away.

Economic Development is one such program that is vital to our future. We need diverse industry growth that will bring jobs. I have not seen many unemployed people, spotted owls, sucker fish and ground squirrels lining up at the post office on April 15 to pay their taxes.

GLEN H. KREBS

Hermiston