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July 10, 2007 Opinions |
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— Letters —
Environmental Extremists
To The Record-Courier:
If you are on a fixed or limited income you should really take some time to let environmental extremists know what you think about their role in stopping logging and new energy production efforts. For most of us the cost of gas, food, housing, fuel, roads and law enforcement are getting out of hand and the environmental extremists are primarily responsible. You should take the time to recognize these people and give them your “special” blessing because they have allowed you to give up so much on behalf of their extremist beliefs.
Environmental extremists have discounted the guiding principles of conservationist Gifford Pinchot when he helped to create the US Forest Service. Gifford Pinchot understood values of nature and how to protect the forests with a balance of economics and management of our resources. Integrated forest management strategies look at the health of the forest within an adaptive management context.
Plans call for the development of a variety of stand structures across the landscape. This will, in turn, benefit local and regional economies while providing ample opportunities for forest recreation such as hunting, berry picking, wildlife viewing and hiking. Healthy forest ecosystems with varied stand structures also have an added benefit as a deterrent against forest fires. Plans also have strategies for property functioning aquatic and riparian habitats which will benefit the recreational and commercial fisheries.
Because environmental extremists have successfully blocked almost all federal timber sales through our legal system, we now have densely stocked, unhealthy forests resulting in catastrophic annual forest fires.
Don’t blame Nancy Pelosi (US Speaker of the House) for not renewing the legislation to obligate money for federal timber payments. Activists have been pressuring and suing governments and agencies for decades now. Activists are excluding science and proven safe practices to scare people into paying more for fuel that is not safer for the environment. The result is a system of government that is bowing to special interests. It’s called tyranny by the minority and the rest of us are paying the price.
Charles Hurliman
Tillamook County
Commissioner
Our Dire Energy Situation
To The Record-Courier:
I am in total agreement with Senator McCain’s energy plan to promote drilling for oil off the shores of the U.S. There are numerous oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and in off-shore waters around the world that have not caused environmental problems. It is estimated we have over 20 billion barrels of oil reserves off our coastlines, and at least another 30 billion barrels of untapped oil reserves in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, and the oil companies say it is light, sweet crude, which is low in sulfur and easy to refine into gasoline.
The U.S. needs a comprehensive long term and short term energy program which will free us from foreign oil, reduce dependence on oil and promote cleaning up the environment. Long term we need to increase domestic oil production; increase domestic refining capacity; build nuclear power plants and develop technology to recycle nuclear waste; and expand mass transit systems. In the short term we should continue to reduce gasoline consumption by driving smaller cars, buying flex-fuel cars, driving less, car pooling and utilizing existing mass transit systems; conserving energy; and installing solar power and wind power systems.
Barack Obama and his cronies oppose offshore and Alaska oil drilling and are down-playing nuclear power. They continue to have their heads stuck in the oil sands of the Middle East, and their policies will ensure we continue to pay high gasoline and fuel oil prices.
Donald A. Moskowitz
Londonderry, N.H.
Proud Servers Of Adolescents, Children and Parents
To The Record-Courier:
We are the adolescent’s/children’s therapists at Mountain Valley Mental Health and we understand that there was some concern about how comprehensive our services to children and adolescents are through MVMH. We would like to respond to this, describe the services we offer, and present the opportunity for suggestions as to how we can improve our services.
We offer a comprehensive mental health evaluation, as developed by our regional MHO, for each child or adolescent referred to MVMH. To guide treatment we use a state sanction treatment planning process, tailored to the needs of each child or adolescent. We consult with a psychologist weekly. We offer full psychological evaluations for children and adolescents needing greater support and to provide for additional critical information we can use to guide treatment for these complicated clients.
We offer individual therapy to meet the full age group range, including play therapy for preschoolers and parenting support. We now have three treatment groups, with another scheduled to start July 1, 2008. One is a Dialectal Behavior Therapy focused group for adolescent girls, two are social/problem solving skills groups for younger and older grade school age children (these are children primarily referred to us by the local schools), and the third group will be for adolescents and will target anger management and social skills. This group is in collaboration with the Juvenile Department.
In addition to collaborating with the Juvenile Department we collaborate with Child Welfare, the schools, and, lately, with the Baker House of Blue Mountain addictions (a residential drug and alcohol treatment program for adults). We have worked with Child Welfare on individual cases and we are now scheduled to be an integral part of the new foster care provider training program. We have also conducted parenting classes for foster parents, targeting the therapeutic needs of their foster children. While we don’t have a contract with the schools we are able to work with children and adolescents in the school if the child or adolescent is on the Oregon Health Plan, and we have done so this past year. Additionally, we are scheduled to meet with the district school superintendent to discuss how we can best serve the schools now that we don’t have a contract with the school district.
For children and adolescents needing greater than individual or group therapy we have two Family Care Coordinators filling a full time position. Our FCC’s, through the ICTS program, coordinate Community Resource Team meetings, bringing critical family, friend, and community partners (including the schools), together to develop wrap around service. In this way we can collaborate to bring a wide array of services to the adolescent/child. This includes Personal Care Assistants that can provide twenty hours of personal attention to each adolescent/child each month.
One of our missions is to keep adolescents/children close to their families and in the community. In this light we are proud to offer crisis support for adolescents and their families by maintaining a room at Elkhorn Adolescent Treatment Center.
Each adolescent receives full, individual monitoring support while we work out a plan to safely return the adolescent to his or her family. In addition to these crisis services we can access a residential assessment and evaluation for adolescents and children who cannot be safely maintained in the community. This gives the adolescent/child time to stabilize and so be returned to home and family as quickly as possible. While we work hard to keep adolescents and children with their families we offer longer term residential treatment, should a client need this level or treatment and support.
We would also like to note that we have a therapist working nearly full time at Elkhorn Adolescent Treatment Center in their dual diagnosis program serving adolescents that have both drug and alcohol and mental health issues.
We are proud of the services we offer adolescents, children, and their parents. However, we are always looking to improve our services. In this light we have reviewed other Eastern Oregon child/adolescent health treatment programs and find that the array of services we offer equals or exceeds those offered by other agencies. Of course, we want to make sure that our services are tailored to our community and welcome any suggestions as to how we can best meet the community’s needs.
Karen Waln, LCSW
Alan King, MSW
Kelli Wright, MSW
Mountain Valley Mental Health Programs, Inc.
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