Ernie Niemi

Most of us know the saying, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” When somebody offers us something valuable for free, we hold tight to our wallets and purses, because it’s usually a con job. … Hold extra tight these days, in response to promises of wonderful things for free if we let the timber industry salvage-log trees killed in Lane County and elsewhere in Oregon by last summer’s forest fires. Like all good cons, the sales pitch sorta makes sense on the surface.  …To see inside the con, look back to 2002, when the Biscuit Fire burned 500,000 acres in southern Oregon. Oregon State University researchers visited the site several years later and found that unlogged areas had enough naturally occurring tree seedlings to satisfy the Forest Service’s management standards for the area.