The Columbian Blows It: In Our View: Gouging the Forest

Usually, when the first premise of a position is wrong, then most everything that follows from that premise is wrong.

Here, the Columbian lies when they start their rant with this little vignette:

“As if the prospect of a casino being built in the gorge is not offensive enough,“

You see, this tips their hand. These clowns are so blinded by their frequently bizarre biases that their judgment must be called into serious question.

There is NOTHING “offensive” about building a casino in the Gorge, particularly when it’s built within the urban growth boundary of a community HAMMERED by the unconstitutional tenets and application of the Gorge Scenic Act.

We’re talking about dirt, here, people. Not Mecca. Not the Vatican. Not the Lincoln Memorial. The Gorge is a PLACE. Not hallowed ground like the Gettysburg Civil War Cemetery.

There is no “reason” utilized to support this propaganda. Tens of thousands of acres were wrongfully set aside due to the cataclysmic even known as the Mt. St. Helens Eruption. These people have a legal right to mine, they should be allowed to mine with adequate safeguards and if the Columbian doesn’t like it, they can close.



Monday, July 11, 2005
Columbian editorial writers

As if the prospect of a casino being built in the gorge is not offensive enough, now we hear about the prospect of a copper mine being gouged out of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, just a few miles north of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument.

This idea produces more red flags than May Day in Moscow.

As The Columbian's Erik Robinson reported recently, Spokane-based Idaho General Mines Inc. is seeking permission from the feds to conduct exploratory mining near Goat Mountain, which is near the edge of the volcano's 1980 blast zone. We can't think of a worse idea for land use in that northwest corner of Skamania County.

Granted, mining is not new to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Old mining claims in the Goat Mountain area kept it from being included in the national volcanic monument. We further concede that there might be abundant copper in the area, and we acknowledge that the price of copper has more than doubled on the global market in less than three years.

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