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Letters to the editor

Environmental groups have backed fuel removal

This letter is in regard to former Assemblyman Tim Leslie’s guest column published in the July 5 Tribune titled: “Angora fire: Anger, accountability, answers, action and appreciation.”

Once again, Leslie offers his criticisms from behind the desk that keeps him from actually standing in the forests he claims to know so much about.



It doesn’t surprise me that Mr. Leslie is charging that environmentalists and Lahontan are responsible for conditions that created the Angora fire. It does, however, upset me that his accusations are intended to divide the local community that he claims to have represented so well in Sacramento.

Here are a couple of facts that Mr. Leslie overlooked. First, in the last 10 years, there has not been a challenge by an environmental group to any Forest Service thinning project in the Tahoe Basin. In fact, during that time, these same groups have helped secure tens of millions of dollars from the federal government specifically to treat forest fuels in the wildland-urban interface, where fire danger is greatest.



I encourage Leslie to put on gloves, as I have several times, and participate in the League to Save Lake Tahoe’s annual Tahoe Forest Stewardship Day. Community education about living in forest landscapes is important, and what better way to learn about how we can all do our part to protect our neighborhoods and be good stewards of the land than by directly participating in hands-on projects like small-tree thinning and implementing erosion control projects?

Theresa May Duggan

Tahoe Vista

Newcomers are looking for short-term housing

My son just got a job in Lake Tahoe. He and his wife spent every day last week (July 7 to 14) searching via the Internet, Lake Tahoe newspapers, Realtors, rental fliers, etc. for a place to live.

Ultimately they found a place, but it will not be available until Aug. 1. They had to give up the home they were living in near Placerville, so they packed all their belongings in their two vehicles and a large U-Haul trailer and headed for Tahoe.

They are in their 20s and very dedicated, hard-working people, but they have no excess money. What they found were motels at way over $100 a night, and anything like a cabin costs more for two weeks than they earn in three weeks. They are stuck. They are going to have to live in a tent with their 2 1/2 year-old child, two immaculately trained dogs, and all their belongings until Aug. 1.

On Sunday, in my nice home in New Mexico, I turned on the TV and saw a golf tournament at Lake Tahoe with a tremendous cast of athletes and stars competing. It seems so incredibly ironic to me that a couple of honest, hard-working, clean kids cannot have a roof over their heads for 2 1/2 weeks because they are not rolling in money, while surrounded by countless billions of dollars.

If this is actually printed, my son may not speak to me, because he does not beg. Well, I’m willing to ask on behalf of him, his wife, and my little grandchild. Is there anybody out there willing to let them stay in your cabin, guest house, large R.V. or whatever until Aug. 1?

Ellen Tracy

Edgewood, New Mexico

e44y@highfiber.com


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