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Show Who Is The Selfish One? I have lived in Panguitch for over 39 years and have always welcomed wel-comed and assisted visitors in our county. I, along with many others, have donated hundreds of hours in the aid of visitors through Garfield County Search and Rescue, Panguitch Pan-guitch City Fire Department and the Garfield County Am-bulance. I have seen a drastic change in some of the visitors ideals. A majority of the visitors and special interest groups have forgotten the meaning of the word selfish defined as: Lacking Lack-ing consideration for others. Long time residents and those before us have chosen to live here in Garfield and Kane counties because be-cause they loved the surrounding natural beauty and everything that came with it. We have struggled and sacrificed to live here, we have preserved and respected this area for hundreds of years long before Robert Rob-ert Redford, SUWA, the Clinton Administration and other selfish predators came. Taking without considering the possible impact. For example, the forests we have managed in the past were healthier, growing more vigorously and producing oxygen factories and greenhouse exchanges. Now, thanks to SUWA and others, we have forests which are diseased, infested in-fested with insects and more susceptible suscep-tible to fire. Older forests reverse the oxygen and greenhouse effect by removing life sustaining oxygen and emitting carbon dioxide. A wood framed home stores more than 14 tons of carbon. The manufacturing of metal and masonry ma-sonry for a similar home involves the release of 150 tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Each American Ameri-can does use the equivalent of a 100 foot 1 8-inch diameter tree each year for wood and paper products. But, six million trees are planted every day which works out to nine trees a year for every American. Growth exceeds harvest by 37 percent. We have fought hard for timber sales which provided jobs and better managed our forests, only to be continually confronted with litigation litiga-tion by special interest groups resulting re-sulting in the loss of our sawmill in Panguitch, Fredonia and Escalante. Esca-lante. Mother Nature has compensated compen-sated for their mismanagement of our forests by providing fires, disease dis-ease and insect infestations which has resulted in the loss of millions of trees. Another example of how selfish self-ish and misled people can be is with the recent designation of the Grand Staircase Escalante Monument. Monu-ment. The number one statement I have heard from visitors and prospective pro-spective visitors is, now we can enjoy en-joy it. WAKE UP YOU SELFISH PREDATORS. You have had the opportunity to enjoy this area restriction re-striction free for hundreds of years. Now with the designation of this monument comes restrictions; access roads being cut off, making it harder for you to enjoy the majority major-ity of the monument, the loss of desperately needed jobs and the loss of the trust land revenue which belongs be-longs to our children. As residents of Garfield County we voted on a $8,000,000.00 bond issue to upgrade up-grade our outdated, over crowded schools. We would not have to bond for this money if the special interest groups and the Clinton Administration weren't so selfish. Trust land money could pay for it. You don't have to work in the lumber industry to have this effect you. It effects everyone in Kane and Garfield County, directly or indirectly in-directly in the loss of jobs and tax increases. You should ask yourself, what happens when you have made living here impossible for the residents resi-dents of Garfield and Kane County. When we leave so do the goods and services. Good luck out there on your own. These should be multiple use lands and are here for the benefit of al! of us. Until you have struggled to make a living here you should have no say in how to manage our area. You can see that every decision deci-sion in the past you have made has had a devastating effect on this area. You haven't won or preserved anything, any-thing, you have ruined it. Wake up before it is too late. REMEMBER: SELFISH IS LACKING CONSIDERATION CON-SIDERATION FOR OTHERS. Excluding the facts, the statements made are my opinion. Jim Johnson Panguitch |