Colville National Forest meeting made irrelevant

Rudeness has been stifling the Colville National Forest meetings set to inform the public about proposed revisions to the forest’s management plans.

The meeting at Colville two weeks ago was, as one Spokane man put it, “a freak show” of conspiracy theorists who essentially commandeered the evening with insolence.

They twisted the meeting to profess tangent views such as outdated private-property-rights takeover hysteria and misinformation about the Yellowstone-to-Yukon wildlife corridor concept – which is just that:  a concept.

And by the way, what does it have to do with an informational meeting about Colville National Forest plan revisions?

The effort turned out to be a waste of time because of loud people demanding answers to questions not relevant to the meeting and in a forum where no answers could be given.

The meeting hijackers were just as obnoxious but a lot less entertaining than PETA wrapping a naked lady in fake fur to get attention.

The Forest Service staffers conducting the meetings can’t even respond to such tripe. It’s not in their jurisdiction.

The meeting bullies might as well go blow off their mouth’s at the next PTA meeting, where their issues would be similarly irrelevant.

The Colville Forest meetings are about explaining the forest plan, from grazing and timber management to wilderness proposals. Nothing more.

The problem with rude people is that they give the impression they represent a larger portion of the public than they actually do.

They do this by repulsing and repelling decent people who just want to be informed and make constructive criticism.  Many people simply walked out of the Colville meeting, I’m told.

Let’s insist the Forest Service and elected officials recognize this and pay more attention to the thoughtful comment that will be trickling in.