NWA Letters to the Editor

Action needed to stop

Forest Service change

The United States Forest Service is up to its old tricks again. After decades of public involvement, the USFS has a new proposal to eliminate public input on "smaller" forest projects of less than 7 square miles. With this new proposal, the Ozark-St. Frances National Forest would no longer consider public feedback on almost any new project they wanted to do.

Why has this come about? Money is the driving force. The Trump administration is behind this idea basically to make up the high cost to our treasury, caused by rewriting the tax laws giving big breaks to large corporations.

We don't need the USFS filling economic gaps by burning, cutting, drilling and mining our national forests down to bare earth. Let's not turn back the clock on good environmental policies that value the feedback of our citizens as an important addition to the agency's input. The forests of our country provide many more benefits than just lumber. Clean water, soil conservation and carbon sequestering come to mind. Not to mention the recreation/tourism dollars generated by visitors to our national forests. Also, national forests are home to countless species that would have no where else to go if their homes are destroyed.

Thank you, Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, for your recent guest commentary by former USFS supervisor Jim Furnish on Aug. 15. Mr. Furnish was very disturbed by this newly proposed rule change. We should all be alarmed by this new proposal.

Please write or call the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests Supervisor's Office: 605 West Main Russellville, AR 72801, (479) 964-7200. Let them know this is a very bad idea. National forests are for everyone's benefit, not just a tool for economic enrichment. If you don't show some interest, they won't think you have an opinion.

George Imrie

Springdale

Debt, spending votes

earn Cotton support

I'm an American citizen who is gravely concerned about our national spending and debt. As I review the past few years of bills and acts, nearly all spending increases have passed. Alarmingly, there's no indication this trend is slowing down. Every person alive today, and those not yet born, are burdened by debt that was passed on from generations before. It is immoral and it should not continue.

In reviewing Sen. Tom Cotton's voting record since 2015, I'm encouraged to see that the American people can depend on him to vote against spending increases in most cases (15 out of 20 times).

Sen. Cotton's Democratic opponent is promoting "universal coverage" health care and "free" two-year community college. Those were just the first two issues he addressed on his website, so what else might he have up his sleeve? More spending, more taxation and more debt for Americans, no doubt.

Let's encourage Sen. Cotton to keep the American taxpayers' debt burden at the top of his mind, and vote accordingly.

Please join me in voting to re-elect Sen. Tom Cotton.

Melanie Elliott

Cave Springs

Commentary on 09/20/2019

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