A fire crew works to extinguish hotspots on the Alder Springs fire at Crooked River Ranch. (Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin file)

Thank you firefighters and law enforcement

We are so grateful to the firefighters and law enforcement who mobilized from our region and around the state to protect our home, Crooked River Ranch, from the wildfire. We saw suppression units from Clackamas, Ashland, Riddle… we’re going to forget some … Lebanon, Philomath… traveling our roads, as well our home and neighboring fire districts.

We saw squad cars from both Jefferson and Deschutes County Sheriff Departments. Deputies loud hailed evacuation orders and tied colored tape on address tags noting who had evacuated and who had not.Our family left under billows of smoke and flames leaping along the canyon wall we see through our living room picture window. We packed and left just as our evacuation level went from Two, get set, to Level Three, go. Our departure was smooth, although we later heard a car accident caused bottlenecks and delays for others.

When we returned to our home we could still see smoke spiral from hot spots. We found such comfort in the sound of chainsaws and watching helicopters dip and drop water. Air tankers swooped in to lay down streams of magenta fire retardant.We continued to receive updates on our phones through Frontier Regional Alerts/Everbridge and the Watch Duty app, key tools for potential evacuees.

We’ve always been realistic about the fire danger here. The system worked this time. The swift and smooth action on the part of command and crews who handled this fire boost our confidence in our safety.

— Pat Tellinghusen, Crooked River Ranch

Adding lanes won’t help

Traffic congestion is a hot topic in Bend and your June 5 editorial about Oregon’s congestion report highlights the fact that more is coming. Will wider highways through cities help? Economists have recognized for decades that if roads are widened, more people will choose to drive and traffic will quickly fill up the wider roads. The City Observatory explains “The Fundamental, Global Law of Road Congestion” in detail.

Even if adding lanes to our streets would help with congestion, which houses and businesses would you tear down for those wider streets? Where do you want wide streets as barriers between our neighborhoods? How are you going to pay for the streets? Do you want to live next to them?

There is not a magic pill for congestion-ever wider streets will fill up with cars, congestion will return. We need development that puts people closer to the places they want to go, as in the Bend Central District and less like recent developments that are far from any services, requiring people to drive. We need to give people a choice for how to get around: better buses, sidewalks, bike lanes, and slower, safer streets for us all.

More people are coming and unless we plan ahead, the cars coming with them will swamp our city.

— David Green, Bend

Don’t sell public lands

Oregon is home to 32 million acres of public land. It ranges from the cliffs of Hell’s Canyon to the streams supplying drinking water for Bend. This public land makes up an essential piece of Oregon’s identity, economy, and traditions.

Throughout the country and in Congress, efforts to sell public lands are gaining momentum. Recently, legislators have made two backhanded attempts to sell public lands via the federal budget reconciliation process. Lawmakers in distant states see our public land as a way to make money, rather than something to be conserved and enjoyed. These proposals will lead to corporate development, restricted access, and loss of the places we hunt and fish.

Fortunately, the recently introduced Public Lands in Public Hands Act in Congress would ban the sale or transfer of most public lands managed by the Department of the Interior and Forest Service. This common-sense, bipartisan legislation would ensure public access and ensure our hunting and angling traditions can continue. In a time when it is hard to find common ground, access and the use of public lands is something that many Oregonians support. We must continue the fight for our public lands because once they’re gone, we will not get them back.

— Bryant Atanasio, Eugene