© 2002
The Nugget Newspaper
Sisters, Oregon
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The contents of the on-line edition of The Nugget represent a selection among the stories that appear in the weekly print edition.

Letters, letters, letters
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer's name, address and phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday.

To the Editor:

On behalf of Pacific Northwest National Incident Management Team 3, I extend our gratitude to the people of Sisters, Camp Sherman, Black Butte and surrounding communities. We recently completed our tour of duty fighting the B&B Complex Fires and have returned to our home stations.

Our team is drawn from throughout the Northwest, and we are assigned to fires and other "incidents" across the country. We have never received a more gracious and generous welcome than we have here.

Despite the repeated interruptions in their lives, the people of these communities showed us great patience, appreciation and understanding. With highway closures, evacuations and smoke-filled skies a part of daily life, residents still found a way to welcome us into their communities.

We received lots of support and supplies for firefighters, including gifts of food and clothing and personal supplies. Our command posts at Sisters High School and at the rodeo grounds were brightly decorated with cards and banners from the public.

It has been a unique experience for our team working here. The community spirit of caring and support that has been shown for the firefighters will always stand out in our memories. More importantly, the kindness you have demonstrated shows us how much our work is appreciated. We are thankful for the opportunity to work here in this remarkable community, and we wish you all a safe and peaceful future.

Thank you,
Bob Anderson
Pacific Northwest National Incident Management Team 3

* * *

To the Editor:

As a second-generation Metolius cabin owner with 27 years of memories sitting in the path of the B&B Complex Fire, my family and I have many people to thank.

When it became apparent that evacuation was imminent, we were fortunate to have my wife Mary, nearby at Black Butte Ranch, staying with friends. She made a bee-line for the cabin to grab photos and other sentimental items, and load the family's cabin truck with all she could before evacuation was enforced.

But what to do with the truck? She was there with her own car, and I was on business out of state. No more than a few hours after the evacuation was announced, she had found that Rich and Nancy Barrell at Sno-cap Mini-Storage in Sisters had offered free storage until the evacuation ended.

We want to extend our sincere thanks for their willingness to store our truck-full of memories for several weeks until we were able to return.

It was amazing to see how the Sisters community in general came together to support the fire suppression efforts and take care of the evacuees. We are deeply indebted. We also want to thank Don McCreight, a general contractor in Camp Sherman, who checked on our place several times in our absence and filled us in on how things were going when we were most in the dark.

And of course, huge thanks to the B&B Complex firefighters and management. Without them, we would be left with just our truck-full of memories. Instead we were able to return each item to its proper spot in our cabin and now look forward to our children developing their own memories of a special place.

Sincerely,
Christopher Graham

To the Editor:

We could sure use better leaders and managers, these days, couldn't we?

Just the other day, a good friend of mine stopped by my place after a day of wood-cutting up in the Pole Creek area. He told me that a Forest Service person stopped him and threatened him with a citation for not having his wife with him on the outing, because she was the one that purchased the permit!

Never mind that this friend of mine is 75 years old and only left his wife behind at home to care for his 95, or so, year old mother while he went out to gather the family's winter heat supply.

I recall in the late '80s, a local timber company going to trial for stealing trees just a few miles south of Sisters, towards Three Creek Lake. The Forest Service claimed that somehow this company got their hands on some of their special blue paint and made off with between $2 million and $12 million worth of gigantic ponderosa pine trees.

The end result for the company was something like a $100,000 fine and forbidden from bidding (stealing) on any more sales for a couple of years!

When you can count stumps and measure them also, can't you figure the value of the timber closer than $2 million and $12 million worth?

But the Forest Service really needs to make sure that there isn't anyone out in the woods, stealing dead trees for firewood...to the extent that a legal spouse can't purchase a wood-cutting permit for her husband!

Also, they don't have the money to keep the trails up to speed anymore, but have you seen the ranger stations in Detroit and McKenzie Bridge, lately? These type of people and agencies sicken me -- and the list seems endless.

Sincerely,
Duane E. Hanson, Bend

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