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Show j community comments... Little did Forest Ranger John Hogard know, some fifteen years ago, when he was District Forest Ranger for the LaSal Mountain division of the Manti-LaSal National Forest, that he would become famous In Southeastern Utah. John's fame came from the fact that he was the man in charge here when the first major water-bar program was undertaken on mountain roads. And because he was In charge, those bone-crushing, spring-popping, muffler-smashing trenches across mountain" roads near Moab became known simply as "hogards." And work this late summer by Forest Service crews have gotten up the dander of local residents again, as it has ever since the practice was started. I don't blame the folks for getting upset. I'm upset about it, too. And I've heard all the rationale from Forest Service officials who claim that on lightly-maintained mountain roads, water-bars are the only effective way of controlling the erosion that comes with every mountain shower. But there's got to be a better way. I . know that the USFS has extremely limited funds for mountain road maintenance. Maybe that's because forest maintenance funds are short nationally, and maybe it's because we don't yell loud enough in our area for better things. But even with the limited funding available, It seems,to mejhat a whole lot more in a positive manner could be done on the LaSal Mountains. ? ' . ' ' From my standpoint, I would venture to bet that most of the roads on the mountain now, except those maintained and improved by Grand County crews, have already eroded down to slide-rock, and no amount of soli erosion is going to hurt them any more than they've already been hurt. With that fact before us, why waste the money it takes to build massive trenches across the trails. If the amount of money spent in building a lot of water-bars could only stretch far enough to replace one smashed culvert with a bigger one heavy enough to stand the runoff, then that seems to me to be better money spent. Given enough years, a number of such small improvements could make a lot of difference on the mountain. But simply throwing the money into water-bars or "hogards," as our letter writers call them is just making a bad situation a whole lot worse. Residents of Grand and San Juan County who are up in arms about the situation should do a whole lot more than write letters to me. I already agree with you, though I will be glad to print your comments for others to read. Direct your anger to the-Manti-LaSal supervisors office In Price. Better still, get mad and dump on the Regional Supervisor in Ogden. And even better than that, give the Secretary of Agriculture an earful whomever whomev-er he might be since Ole' Earl decided to tell his dirty jokes as a , private citizen rather than as Secretary of Agriculture. Believe me, actions like the above can make a difference. sjt Persons interested in what's happening in local government should mark next Wednesday night on their calendars. That's the night the Grand County Commission has called a second hearing on whether or not to drop the Community Action Program in Grand County. And the hearing was called, because at an earlier such hearing, the County officials felt the crowd was representative of only one major point of view. This Grand County Commission has been a unique one in a very welcome way. It has taken controversial issues before the general public in the form of public meetings and hearings. And that's been great. I don't care what side of this issue you might be on. -If you have an opinion and want to support good government in Grand County, attend next Wednesday's hearing. It will be at the Courthouse at 7:30 p.m. sjt |