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Show Volume II, Issue XVIII THE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Page 17 September 15, 2000 New Information on Forest Plan Revision Released For Review U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Forest Service, Wasatch-Cache National Forest The Forest Service has revised their Forest Plan Revision time schedule. Since the National Roadless Area Conservation proposal public comment period ran through July 17, the Forest Service thought it would be best to ask for public review of any WasatchCache Forest Plan revision materials after that time. Also, the National Roadless effort and the fire season have required some of the planning team’s time and resources which has slowed the pace on revision work. Past and new information is currently available. Issues to be addressed in the Plan Revision were presented last fall. New information begins on page two of the document with Preliminary Alternative Narratives and Chart. Also available on the Forest Service’s website and in each of their offices are Preliminary Alternative maps. These are available for review during normal office hours. In developing preliminary work on management direction information for the Proposed Forest Plan, it became evident that work that had been done so far painted an incomplete picture, raising more questions than it answered. Since each part of the management direction package is dependent upon another, to present one part without the others might cause more confusion than insight. Thus the Forest Service decided that information will be best displayed later this year along with the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). The Forest Service is asking the public to review the current information, noting how previous comments have been used to develop the current range of alternatives. The Forest Service is now asking for comment to see whether the five Alternatives presented are responsive to the issues. Forest Service Supervisor Bernie Weingardt states, “If we incorrectly understood . . . concerns, and these alternatives are not responsive, now is the time we would like to hear about it. We have tried to develop at least one alternative that provides measures and/or a theme to address concerns people have. Given that some of the issues are polarized, no one alternative fully resolves all of them.” Mr. Weingardt further explains that showing a range of approaches for addressing issues, along with differences, trade-offs, and projected effects is a key part of the environmental analysis process. “Keep in mind that these are works in progress. There is much work to be done in fleshing out the DEIS and Proposed Forest Plan. These alternatives (and maps) will no doubt be adjusted as we respond to comments and proceed with analysis.” An important note: since a decision on the National Roadless Conservation Proposal will likely be made prior to release of the DEIS, work must be adjusted to be consistent with that decision. Thus, comments will be most useful if received by September 29. For a copy of the document go to www.fs.fed.us/wcnf (Forest Plan Revision) For more information contact Kelli Aspen Murray, Planning Assistant, Wasatch-Cache National Forest at (801) 524-3981. On Enriching the Environment By Earl Nightingale Did you ever hear of “The Milwaukee Project”? Marilyn Ferguson, in her book, The Aquarian Conspiracy, reminds us that the wasted potential of children was dramatically illustrated in the Milwaukee Project, an experiment in the sixties sometimes known as Operation Babysnatch. Psychologists at the University of Wisconsin arranged for special attention to be given to babies born to a group of borderline feeble-minded women (IQs of seventy or less). Normally, by the time they are sixteen, such children show intelligence as low as their mother’s. Presumably, a dull mother cannot stimulate a baby’s mind very much. Forty babies were picked up at their homes and taken to a university center where they were played with, sung to, and otherwise stimulated. Later they learned in small groups of toddlers. By the time they were four, these children scored a mean IQ of one hundred and twenty-eight on one test, one hundred and thirty-two on another—in the range psychologists label “intellectually gifted.” These experimental children were brighter than the typical child from a superior, middle-class home. Forty children of comparable circumstances who had not received the extra attention scored IQs of eighty-five (very low normal) by age four. The magic of human interaction had made all the difference. That’s quite a story, isn’t it? Buckminster Fuller once remarked that neither he nor anyone else he knew was a genius: “Some of us are just less damaged than others,” he said. If children are not held back by unimaginative, uninteresting schools and parents, it’s hard to say what might be possible for them. Like Margaret Mead, Fuller was essentially home-taught. Studies have shown that an impressive proportion of great, original achievers were educated at home, stimulated by parents or other relatives from infancy, borne up by high expectations. As Marilyn Ferguson writes, “If we are not learning and teaching we are not awake and alive. Learning is not only like health, it is health. As the greatest single social influence during the formative years, schools have been the instruments of our greatest denial, unconsciousness, conformity, and broken connections. Just as medicine often treats symptoms without concern for the whole system, schools break knowledge and experience into subjects, relentlessly turning wholes into parts, flowers into petals, history into events, without ever restoring continuity.” Or, as Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner observed in their marvelous book Teaching As a Subversive Activity: “English is not History and History is not Science and Science is not Art and Art is not Music, and Art and Music are minor subjects and English, History and Science major subjects, and a subject is something you ‘take’ and when you have taken it you have ‘had’ it, and if you have ‘had’ it you are immune and need not take it again. It’s the vaccination theory of education.” If you have small children, you now know what to do. For one thing, I’d recommend that you read Marilyn Ferguson’s book, The Aquarian Conspiracy. It’s a paperback. Children are magical and can absorb an astonishing amount of information. So much depends on a stimulating environment where high expectations are the order of the day. ACTIVE REPRESENTATION IS ------ seeking our opinions... Grant Protzman has a great record for responding to constituent needs and solving local and state problems. He held town meetings, distributed questionnaires, sponsored open forums and sent out newsletters at his own expense every year, NOT ONLY IN ELECTION YEARS. He works in the open rather than behind closed doors and welcomes citizen ideas. He will fight to end closed door caucuses and meetings where a majority of the members meet in secret and make their deals. |