We should be proud of Navy pilots overhead
I read with dislike the recent letter in the Skagit Valley Herald from J. Robert Henderson of Guemes Island with his senseless and thoughtless complaint about Prowler and Growler engine noise.

I, too, am a resident of Guemes Island and Henderson certainly does not speak for me nor the many other patriotic residents here who truly understand what Naval Air Station Whidbey Island and its fine warriors are doing day and night to allow us to live securely on Guemes Island or anywhere else in America.

I know that the base receives these types of noise complaints (from the thoughtless and less informed) and I know that it is doing everything it can to reduce noise in surrounding communities.  But, I also know that you “fight the way you train” and that flight crews are doing what is necessary to keep our communities safe.

So, I want to express my pride and appreciation to all the great warriors at NAS Whidbey who serve our Guemes Island and our country day, night, 24/7 regardless of the weather — because that is why we are able to breath freely 24/7 here in the great Northwest.  I love the noise the planes make and I believe that “freedom” rings a special noise to those who have fought and nearly died that those protected will never know.

Navy planes can “prowl” and “growl” over my house on Guemes at any time and any altitude deemed necessary to meet training requirements. I will be looking up with great pride knowing of the many sacrifices warriors are making in our behalf. 
Richard D. Iversen
Colonel, USAF, ret.
Guemes Island

Convention center of good size still needed
The Back in the Day column is a very interesting part of the Anacortes American.

This last edition had an article on a convention center at Cap Sante, what a far-out idea. Now 30 years later it’s something we still talk about, maybe not to the scale of 30 years ago.

We don’t need something of that size but Anacortes does need a convention-type center. The city and the port seem to have the idea that this is a private sector thing, and in 30 years nothing has happened. Anacortes the city and our local business area have lost years of income that could have been.

We have our local service clubs, hospital, and several companies that would use the facility. It would also be a place to hold weddings and company and private parties.

If done right it would draw users from other locations in the Northwest. With the right location it would be a big help for our downtown business area.

We have a wonderful place, let’s promote it and make it better. But not after 30 years of thinking about it.
Arnie Schafer
Anacortes

Come to the Cool Climate Cafe on Saturday
Climate change is real, but perhaps because we cannot see the CO2 in the air like we do drifting autumn leaves, and we live in a charmed area where the worst weather is only rain, we forget about climate change.

We forget, because violent storms are far away. We forget that climate has already made thousands starve in Africa and that vast food and water wars are imminent around the world.

Our homes have not been consumed by fire like Californians’, nor have floods and tornados buried thousands of our loved ones. Even our trees are still green, though vast numbers stand dead from insects and disease just across the mountains.

Even so, in summer 2005, Washington coastal ocean temperatures were 2-5 degrees above normal resulting in huge declines of phytoplankton and krill. As a result, thousands of fish and therefore birds starved to death. Have you noticed the shrinking glaciers on Mount Baker? Heads up! That is a major part of our water supply.

A new report says Arctic climate change is happening faster than top scientists anticipated. Craig Stewart of the World Wildlife Fund says, “We thought by 2050, multi-year (sea) ice would be cut in half.  Well, it (already) happened in 2007.”

The biggest worry is methane hydrates, a slushy form of methane frozen in ice molecules that exists in vast volumes in permafrost and continental shelves around the circumpolar globe. Cold and high pressure have so far kept that methane — a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide — out of the atmosphere. Underground methane, however, has recently been observed bubbling up in Arctic Russia. Bad news.

The good news is that although the problems of climate change seem overwhelming, our individual efforts do matter. Our daily lifestyles represent half of America’s carbon footprint and our purchases influence the other half. Lifestyle changes could not only help to lower carbon footprints, but also help create new technologies, green markets, green jobs, public transportation and alternative energy. Our grandchildren are depending on us.

On Saturday, grassroots-led events will be taking place all over the world. This International Day of Climate Action will be the most widespread day of climate action ever. There are thousands of events taking place in 158 countries around the world. This will be huge, so please join in.

In Skagit County, the Cool Climate Cafe will provide a cafe-style community conversation about the climate crisis and what we can do about it. Learn about the Low-Carbon Diet and how you can lose a minimum of 5,000 pounds from your carbon footprint. 

There will be two Climate Cafe events in Skagit County: 9:30-11:30 a.m. at the Skagit PUD Building, 1415 Freeway Drive, Mount Vernon and 12:30-3 p.m. at the Anacortes Senior Activity Center, 1701 22nd St, Anacortes.

Easy things like hanging up clothes, caulking windows, eating more veggie meals and tuning up your furnace will help you lose 5,000 pounds in no time, and doing it with friends makes it fun.

This is good news. Just as many grains of sand make a long beach, if we each do our part, it will make a difference and our grandchildren will live well.
Phyllis Dolph
Anacortes

Motorcycle engine size just part of the issue
I would like to clarify some issues that have not been addressed concerning motorcycles in the Anacortes Community Forest Lands and some of the damages they can cause.

Size limitations and four-stroke vs. two-stroke engines are both arguments that completely overlook the larger or at least equally as important issues at hand here — unless we’re only talking about air quality. There are plenty of better reasons to rid the city forest of a recreation type that is completely incongruent with a policy that claims to seek preservation over recreation.

The primary reasons are not obvious to trail users who do not venture beyond the gentler grades of trails. As trails steepen the degradation effects of off road vehicles increase. The speed limit could be 5 mph instead of 15 mph and it would have the same devastating effects and just as little connection with reality as it applies to erosion.

The relative motion of the motorcycle is not what creates the massive ditches that are now occurring throughout the forest. It’s the revolutions of the rear wheel.

Motorcycles are powerful machines that are capable of tremendous torque values where the rubber meets the earth. It takes very little throttle to break their knobby tires loose and begin a spin, that if maintained will eventually get you to the top of a hill while never actually breaking the speed limit.

This, by the way, is never a quiet thing. I’m actually quite surprised that the physics of this action have never been discussed. However, I’m glad members of the City Council turned out for a firsthand perspective — just be careful that at the same time you’re not “taken for a ride” under some false pretense that size somehow matters.
Tim Nelson
Anacortes

Forest Lands are indeed a public park
I would like to point out a misleading statement made by Mr. Glade in his letter published on Oct. 14 in the American. He quoted the goal of the current draft plan and implied that it is the current regulation. The proposed plan is not the current controlling document.

The actual controlling document states, “Our purpose was to create a self-sustaining comprehensive resource plan which ‘maintains and enhances aesthetic and recreational values’… The overriding goal is to make these lands more accessible to the people of Anacortes and to enhance these resources for the future.”

The intent of the proposed plan is most clearly stated on page 15: “The underlying policy must be one of minimum disturbance to the forest, wildlife and low-density recreational opportunities.” The language that Mr. Turner has proposed for inclusion in the plan is not radical, it is conservative, it favors maintaining the current policy rather than changing the purpose of the ACFL.

How did we come to a place where a public park is proposed to be converted into a nature preserve? If this question interests you, you might look at the public comment posted on the city Web site. Fifty percent of the comments on dogs favored establishing an off-leash area within the ACFL. Bob Barry wrote an excellent letter concerning this subject published on Sept. 30 in the American.

There was a large volume of comment concerning Mount Erie. Ninety-nine percent of that comment opposed the changes contained in the current proposal. The proposed forest management plan is the result of what has been called a public process. Decide for yourself. I believe that the results were determined before the process began.

I find it interesting that Mr. Glade threatens legal action against the city if the council does not approve the proposed plan as written. If the controlling document changes the ACFL from a park to a preserve, future lawsuits against the city demanding policy changes concerning recreation and access will be more likely to succeed.

There was an article about the ACFL in the Skagit Herald on Sept. 6. There was some mention of Whistle Lake in that article. How would the people of Anacortes feel if swimming were prohibited at Whistle Lake due to environmental impacts? There has already been talk of shutting down bicycles during the winter, just like motorcycles.

We are all environmentalists. Mud dries out. Moss grows back. Trails can be redesigned. When we see problems we will fix them. Let us not rush headlong into a decision which we will have cause to regret. I think that Bill Turner is doing his job, looking out for us.
Harold Mead
Anacortes

Response to trestle fire took cooperation
Last Thursday, we suffered a large loss to one of our community’s valuable resources, the Tommy Thompson Trestle.

We would like to recognize the extraordinary efforts by the many individuals and agencies for working in a coordinated effort to mitigate the fire. Without the previous and ongoing effective relationships we enjoy, we would not have seen such a coordinated effort and response.

The following agencies were involved in the following ways: Fire Districts No. 13 (Summit Park), No. 11 (Mt. Erie), and the Anacortes Fire Department were involved with all shore-side firefighting efforts. Swinomish Police, La Conner Fire Department, Shell and Tesoro refining were assigned to firefighting efforts from the water.

The Anacortes Police Department were initially involved in scene control, and are now investigating the cause of the fire as suspicious. Fire District No. 17 (Guemes Island) and Central Valley Ambulance were covering the rest of the city for several hours in case any other fire and medical responses occurred.

The Anacortes San/Juan Island Red Cross was instrumental in providing support to the emergency responders by supplying food, coffee and much-needed rest and rehab via generous donations by Bob’s Chowder and the Pizza Factory.

The Skagit County Department of Emergency Management was in a support role to assist the incident commander with obtaining unique resources not available locally. The Department of Ecology was on scene and began initial preservation of contaminates from fire debris, ultimately booming the area around the burned trestle.

The Anacortes Public Works department was very helpful in providing barricades and road control devices. Finally, the Anacortes Parks Department was instrumental in providing support for planning efforts and strategic decisions. We thank all those individuals and agencies for their help.
Richard Curtis,
Fire Chief
Bonnie Bowers,
Police Chief
Dean Maxwell,
Mayor

Trestle has been a great thing for community
I have been viewing the coverage of the trestle fire and oh how it saddens me.

Pat and I have so enjoyed riding our bikes over the trestle and extending our ride around the refineries, it just couldn’t be beat for a nice ride. We always passed families enjoying the trail, either on their bikes, or walking.

We as Anacortes citizens want to know just how this fire came about. A big thanks to our firefighters of the area.
Betty and Pat Mooney
Anacortes

Trestle fire a tragedy
I am hurt and upset! An old material friend was injured last week.

I am referring to the trestle. To the newbies in town, I’m referring to the now well-named “Tommy Thompson Trail.”

I won’t go into descriptive detail other than to say, from approximately 10 years of age to 18, I caught fish and crab plus got a duck now and then from this trestle. The creosote was newer then and I guess the fish and crab didn’t know it was detrimental to their health. It wasn’t to mine.

My north property line is the same section line that separates the old Shell and Texaco properties. I am treated to a full-length view of the trestle every time I come home.
This destructive act was uncalled for.

Anyway, we can be sure that it wasn’t just a single person involved. Knowing this, it brings to mind an adage I read years ago.

“Three may keep a secret — If two of them are dead.”
George Strickert
Anacortes