Letters to the Editor

Questioning governor’s proposed ‘heat pump’ program

To the Editor:
    The recent legislative hearing on the use of public lands for increased harvesting has disturbed me not a little bit.  The governor evidently has asked the bureau to produce more wood to help fund his proposed low income home heating needs across the state.  The “heat pump” program would accelerate the fiber mining of our public forests by large industrial operators (employing few) and invest the stumpage gained into upgrading domestic oil and natural gas furnaces and the installation of heat pumps in low income homes.

    OK, but such harvest action is unconstitutional.  Income from public forests must be used for forest conservation measures.
    Where’s the long-term vision in the governor’s plan?  How about management of public forests for the opportunity to teach job skills, build community, and strengthen regional economic industry while heating Maine homes at the same time.  Think: Firewood.  If our state was committed to using wood heat efficiently and at scale (look over the ocean to Scandinavia for good examples), we could use careful management of our public lands as a model for responsible harvest levels while putting Maine people to work.
    Stand next to any rural highway, watch the daily outgoing parade of chip trucks hauling away fuel while at the same time an incoming stream of oil and gas trucks hauls fuel in.  We are the nation’s most forested state and yet still are a net importer of wood.  AND we lead the nation is per capita home heating oil consumption.
    Many people in many communities can’t heat their homes despite being surrounded by fuel and people with no jobs to do.  Seems like a good opportunity for some creative community-based solutions instead of an unconstitutional funding sleight-of-hand that further enriches only a few, degrades our public land, and increases our dependence on oil and gas for heating our homes.

Sam Brown, Cambridge
Licensed Maine Professional Forester #3267

From a cloud to a silver lining

To the Editor:
    The Cloud: The Brownville Snowmobile Club had a catastrophic mechanical failure of our Bombardier BR 180 that occurred on Feb. 6. The club also had more than a usual amount of breakdowns in other grooming equipment. The bottom line is all of this breakage has almost broken our treasury.
    The Silver Lining: In many ways good things have come from this.
    We have had many trail riders, individuals, local and distant businesses, and several of our club members step up to help through this tough time. Help came in many different ways: cash, donations of equipment, volunteer man-hours and use of facilities. And it all came without asking.
    For all of us who do trail maintenance and grooming there normally is very little recognition, so it has been a heart-warming experience to know we have so much support of our club and snowmobiling in general.
    Thanks for your much-needed support.

Brownville Snowmobile Club
Board of Directors