Return to Letters Index
Hunters and Republicans Support Roadless Initiative
by Jim Scarantino and Oscar Simpson
REP members from Albuquerque, NM
The following "dialogue" appeared in the Silver City (NM) Sun-News in June, 2000. The correspondents were two REP members and a man who took exception to their letter to the editor.
The original letter by Oscar Simpson and Jim Scarantino, June 6, 2000
What could get hunters and Republicans to praise the Clinton administration? Forest protection. By overwhelming majorities, hunters and Republicans support the Forest Service's plan to ban new roads in our National Forests.
A nationwide poll by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Alliance showed that 83% of hunters do not want more forest roads. A poll by GOP pollster Linda DiVall found that Republicans by 2-to-1 (62% to 31%) favored an end to road building in our forests.
Protection of roadless areas means the preservation of wildlife habitat and the hunting tradition. Wildlife need large roadless areas where they will be undisturbed by motorized vehicles. Roads fragment their habitat and restrict their food sources. With more roads also comes more poaching.
Hunters know the best hunting is found in large roadless areas. And, like wildlife, hunters also need to get away from roads. Being buzz-bombed by motorized vehicles while trying to call in elk is no fun.
An end to road building in the forests makes penny-pinching common sense. The Forest Service already has about 400,000 miles of roads and a multi-billion dollar maintenance backlog. Forest road building has been a taxpayer rip-off. Let's get the Forest Service out of the road-building business.
For Republicans--like all Americans--preservation of these roadless areas means the preservation of a great national heritage. Who can imagine America without the grandeur of her wild forests? Patriotism motivates many conservationists, regardless of politics.
So hats off to the end of road building in our national forests. Hunters and Republicans say it's about time.
Oscar Simpson
New Mexico's Coalition of Sportsmen
New Mexico Republicans for Environmental Protection
James Scarantino
New Mexico Republicans for Environmental Protection
Rebuttal by a man in Santa Clara, NM , June 11, 2000
Oscar Simpson and James Scarantino from Albuquerque have decided to use their back brains about roadless forests. Amazing how city dwellers know so much about our (?) forests. The polls they speak of are as bad and discriminatory as the polls taken by the wolf viruses.
I am an avid sportsman and so are most of my friends and family. We have never been polled on this ridiculous roadless plan. Favor the plan? No way! The healthiest parts of forests are where roads exist. Without roads, the forest cannot be protected from fires.
The public cannot see and enjoy the splendor of our forests if we can't get in. Walk or ride a horse? What about sportsmen and people who can't walk or ride a horse? How about the elderly? Has anybody thought about them? Must they give up hunting, fishing or just driving around taking in the beauty of the forest?
How about people who make their living from the forest? Sensible logging and woodcutting create meadows and open the forest for plants, shrubs and grasses that most animals eat. Without thinning the forest, they become stagnant and void of most animals. That is why them wolves (sic) are bothering people.
Beautiful wilderness? Now how would we know that? Most of us can't get in to see it. No roads!
I have hunted all my life. My best trophies have been harvested less than a mile from camp. How, you ask? I drove my truck to where I camped and went hunting. Roads open up thoroughfares for hunters and animals to use. Don't believe me? Go walking in the roadless areas and tell us how many animals you see. You won't see many because you have to use a machete or something equivalent to get through the trees.
Animals are not disturbed by vehicles. They are more afraid of a two-legged idiot noisily trying to get to them. I have seen elk and deer stand and look at me until I get off my vehicle. Then they skedaddle from there. If you call an elk from a vehicle or near a road, you are not much of a hunter. The elk has already seen you. Do you think he is interested?
So, gentlemen, what is so grandiose about a forest if you can't see it to enjoy it? Next time you align yourself with sportsmen, don't write anything so asinine as your letter without knowing the facts.
Signed by a man from Santa Clara, NM
Follow-up letter by Oscar Simpson and Jim Scarantino, June 13, 2000
We write in response to the letter from Mr. X, captioned "Keep roads."
First, Mr. X does not seem to understand what the roadless initiative is. This proposal does not close roads, exclude off-road vehicle use, or prohibit logging, mining or grazing. All it states is that the taxpayers are not going to pay for building any more Forest Service roads into the large (5,000 acres plus) areas of our National Forests. The only off-road vehicles to be excluded are the heavy machinery used to tear up our forests in building new roads.
Second, if Mr. X is advocating that more and more roads be built into critical areas of elk, deer and other wildlife habitat, he is not a responsible sportsman. No sportsman in his right mind would advocate that habitat for our game animals be damaged. Good luck hunting when habitat is gone. We will not have very strong populations of elk and deer if we go around fragmenting their habitat and giving poachers a better shot at them. We have such strong populations of elk in New Mexico because we have large areas of unbroken habitat. (Seen any elk in Albuquerque or downtown Silver City lately?)
Third, is Mr. X advocating that taxpayers foot the bill to build roads into every corner of our forests just for the sake of convenience of a very few people? We already have 400,000 miles of forest roads and an $8.2 billion--that's BILLION with a capital B--maintenance backlog. We can't take care of the roads we have now.
What does Mr. X want, the Gila National Forest looking like the El Paso suburbs? Would he prefer to see all our hunting grounds paved over? And who is going to foot the bill? He must be calling for our taxes to be raised so our national forests can be turned into big parking lots.
We had better be serious about protecting our forests. The West is growing rapidly in population and God is not making any more forest land. If we don't act today to save what we have left, Mr. X's grandchildren are not going to have any idea of what they have lost.
Oscar Simpson
New Mexico's Coalition of Sportsmen
New Mexico Republicans for Environmental Protection
James Scarantino
New Mexico Republicans for Environmental Protection
