Good News and Good News?

Today was the second friday forestry day at the Alder Creek Childrens Forest, where a dozen teenagers in middle and high school at the Riddle Education Center came out and planted 180 trees. The replanting of oak is in an area that has recently been cleared of Cedar and Douglas Fir. The wetter area had drowned some root systems, which made the conifer stand susceptible to beetles. Kudos to Alan Baumann of the USFS for taking on the leadership roll and to Jesse for the youth leadership.

The link above is to a federal land sale - to raise $1B to fund the rural schools act. This is good because the federal government intends to pay for legislation imposed rather than expecting local communities to foot the bill. The constitution restricts federal land ownership to forts and post offices, but that has not been observed since the louisiana purchase. (i may be wrong about that - i am a scientist, not a historian). Management responsibility should be in the hands of the local populations that know how to grow trees in their locale, not managed by Washington DC politicians or Eugene-based federal judges.