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--> --> Our lands are wild, but fragile It is possible that legislation will soon be introduced in Congress to give wilderness protection to 400,000 areas of federal land in southwestern Oregon. It is high time, especially in the face of the Bush administration's efforts to scuttle environmental standards and protections across the board. Lifting the Siskiyou mining moratorium is only the latest - it won't be the last. Legislative action to put our precious natural places off-limits to destructive activities is both critical and urgent. Soda Mountain, Siskiyou Crest, Rough and Ready Creek, Oregon Redwoods and Copper Salmon at the headwaters of the Elk River are among the jewels that would be protected. They include some of the cleanest, most productive salmon streams in the country. These landscapes shelter rare and unique plants and animals - wild orchids and marbled murrelets; a hundred kinds of butterflies and the plants they depend on; Port Orford cedars and Brewer's spruce. In this wild, rugged country you can still find "a big silence all around" to renew your spirit in these noisy times. We need these places. But the threats to their continued untrammeled integrity are real and insistent. Logging, mining, road building and rough "recreational" usage take a huge destructive toll. These are wild lands, but fragile ones. It's easy to unravel their wonders, difficult if not impossible to reweave them completely. Wilderness status is their surest protection. The time for it is now. Carol Ampel Medford Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing