ILLEGAL ALIENS HARM OUR FORESTS

The other day I about fell out of my chair when I read Hasso Hering's
Sunday column on opening the borders with Mexico and Canada. I am an
avid outdoorsman. I have spent a lot of time in the Cascades and
Coast Range mountains over the years. I have seen first-hand what
illegal aliens have done to our pristine mountains and streams. If
you look close, you see where illegal alien crews have stripped our
forests of bear grass, salal, mushrooms, Oregon grape and moss.

I have also seen where complete cedar and noble fir trees have been
stripped of all the limbs, usually killing the tree, so they could
sell the limbs for Christmas wreaths.

You can usually tell where an illegal crew has been because they
always litter the forest with their garbage, food wrappers and beer
cans. Granted I am sure there are some people that harvest forest
products that are legal and comply with the law, but the majority
don't; otherwise they wouldn't always hide their cars in the bush.

Very seldom will you see any cops out in the forest, but if you do,
take a few minutes to talk to them and you will be surprised to find
out what's going on in our forests.

It's my understanding that a lot of illegal aliens that are stealing
from the forests are actually linked to the Mexican crime families.
Since most of the local pot growers can now legally grow their own
dope with their medical marijuana cards, most of the marijuana in the
forests is being grown by the Mexican families.

These Mexican grows aren't 15 to 20 plants -- they are the super
grows with several hundred or more plants. It's my understanding that
when the illegals are out stealing from the forests in the winter,
they are also out scouting for new areas to plant super grows. The
illegals in these super grows are almost always armed and have
confronted hikers that have stumbled into the wrong area. Oregon
doesn't have it as bad as some of the border states, but it's
steadily getting worse here. It's getting to the point that we aren't
safe in our own forests and Hasso Hering wants to open the borders to
everyone. He may want to rethink that one.

Jerod Williams, Harrisburg