ELECTION: GOP agenda distasteful

Before going to the polls, know your candidates’ positions on the following natural resource issues: 1) coal trains traveling along Lake Pend Oreille, polluting our air and water, to ship America’s energy to China; 2) federal protections for endangered caribou — an animal that the Kalispel Indians hunted because they were more numerous than deer — so they thrive again; 3) using herbicides in Lake Pend Oreille at City Beach where children swim, instead of non-toxic alternatives; 4) continued use of persistent herbicides to kill native serviceberry [in full bloom right now, and a major food gathered by the Kalispels as well as local pickers and wildlife], syringa, ocean spray, elderberry and other trees along state highways and county roads for “sight clearance,” i.e. so motorists — especially truckers — can drive faster and exacerbate greenhouse gases; and 5) the 2012 IDFG plan to decimate grey wolves, even after 400 of them have been killed in only one year — half of the population — and despite federal taxpayer-dollars of more than $35 million spent to bring them back from the brink of extinction, as well as ignoring new science that shows the important role the wolf plays in maintaining a healthy forest ecosystem.

From all the Republican literature I’ve received on expensive, glossy, non-recyclable card stock practically every day in my mailbox claiming to support the protection of our natural resources; well, I seriously doubt that any of them really do. Fellow voters, be aware!

JANE FRITZ

Sandpoint