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Support local voices against Zigzag and sign this letter!
Dear Richard,
We are deeply invested in the care and management of the public lands around Mt. Hood. Our families spend time in this area, all year around. We appreciate and rely on the businesses that depend on the recreation opportunities in the Zigzag District. We, our downstream neighbors, and the fish and wildlife depend on the clean water from the Sandy and Salmon River Watersheds. We want to see the forest thrive. This August, we dedicated hours of research, deliberation, and study in order to participate in the public processes of forest management, enacting our rights and responsibilities to care for the land that sustains us. Not only the six of us, as you well know, but hundreds of local and regional community members made it a priority, despite the stresses of the pandemic, to provide your staff with high quality information regarding the project area in an effort to support your good decision making. We understand that your actions flow downward from the chain of command and that your agency may have limited recourse to affect outcomes. Yet our grassroots effort to provide local input from people who are deeply invested in this forest has provided you with a means to carefully and thoughtfully consider your constituents’ concerns, as the public comment process is meant to do. We did our part, expecting that you and your staff would respect and utilize our input. Instead, it seems you have disregarded the public completely, incorporating not one single recommendation or request for stronger protection of these invaluable watersheds. As the highest ranking official on the Mt. Hood National Forest, we urge you to look for positive ways to challenge the status quo, putting these dynamic ecosystems and our communities front and center as you continue to implement projects that will affect the forests for centuries.
Sincerely,
Mitch Williams, Brightwood
Georgenne Ferdun, Portland
Russell and Laura Strudwick, Rhododendron
Penny Mock, Brightwood
Tonight, join us for another edition of our Rad◦i◦cle Activist Training Series of workshops: Mt. Hood and Climate Change: Ecology and Policy, from 6-8 PM.
Read the description here.