Here is a letter to the editor from the Nov. 7 edition of the Chewelah Independent…

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(BRANDON HANSEN/Managing Editor of the Chewelah Independent)

Despite the local 2019 election being very active with a Chewelah school levy, an overhaul of the Chewelah school board, a couple of city council races and even a mayor’s race in Colville, nationally it’s kind of a quiet.

So you will have to excuse me, but I’m already looking ahead to the 2020 election, because it’s going to have more fireworks than the 4th of July.

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( Timothy Coleman, Executive Director/Kettle Range Conservation Group)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an opinion column by Coleman not the reporting of the Chewelah Independent Newspaper)

On October 21, U.S. Forest Service Regional Forester Glen Casamassa signed the Record of Decision finalizing the revised Forest Plan for Colville National Forest in northeast Washington. The plan signals a major increase in logging – including clearcuts – up to 25,000 acres per year across the 1.1 million acre Colville Forest and above prior recommendations. The Colville’s 5-year logging levels are projected at 100 to 150 million board feet per year equivalent to about two to three thousand log trucks full each year.

The visual impacts are going to be very, very significant and increasing each year from now for the next 20 years as hundreds of thousands of acres are logged. The visual landscape-scale degradation is already in full swing and visible now on Sherman and Boulder Pass, but it’s just the beginning.

I and hundreds of local stakeholders participated in countless Forest Service-led plan revision collaborative meetings since 2004 and never once did anybody ask for more clearcut logging. The Forest Service told us ‘forest restoration’ would be the goal of the new Forest Plan. Apparently, their definition of ‘restoration’ includes clearcutting, which has been renamed a “regeneration harvest.” More

(BRANDON HANSEN/Managing Editor of the Chewelah Independent)

One of my favorite comedians is Jeff Foxworthy. I’m sorry if some of you comedy snobs out there think this is blasphemy in the highest order, since Jeff so famous and he’s made it largely on one joke “you might be a redneck.”

He’s still struck a cord with a lot of American people who live out in the sticks. And Jeff tends to celebrate our redneckness instead of making it a bad thing. Cousins that are a little too close in the family tree? A single-wide with one too many custom features? A super-powered lawn mower? What’s wrong with poking fun at these.

However, there is one local rural community trait that I cannot stand. Let me present it this way “You might be from Stevens County if you do nothing but complain about your town and say there is nothing good about it.” More

(BRANDON HANSEN/Managing Editor of the Chewelah Independent)

The little town that could.

It’s becoming a more common theme in Chewelah. Someone plans a little something, in this case Tara Sheppard-Anderson suggested or thought out loud on Facebook that businesses should decorate their storefront for Homecoming.

I figured it would be great if a handful of businesses would don the blue and white for everyone to see, and offered to take photos for social media and the decorating contest put on by the Chewelah Chamber of Commerce.

Instead, dozens of businesses decorated for homecoming, and not just a sticker here or there. Dr. Larson’s office had tarps, some businesses broke out balloons and I think someone even constructed a statue of Coach Gump, but that could just be me watching “Varsity Blues” too many times.Tons of people also seemed to be genuinely excited and happy for homecoming to be coming up. More

(BRANDON HANSEN/Managing Editor of the Chewelah Independent)

Hey did you guys know we have a high school in town? Jenkins Junior Senior High School, named for the great Colonel Jenkins. Chances are if you’re reading this you may have graduated from this school. The school has quite a few sports teams and through the years has put in plenty of “Rudy”-like moments where our small town does well on the state stage.

Chewelah’s fandom when it comes in ebbs and flows and understandably it kind of comes with how well the teams are doing. Like anything these days participation and attendance can be something of a struggle because do you want to sit out at Snyder Field and lose a few fingers or watch Netflix in the comfort of your home?

But, it’s time to get a little more crazy about our Cougars. We used to have a fan section known as the “Cougar Crazies” that was modeled after the Cameron Crazies out at Duke (I blame the Garner family and their noticeable love for Duke for these. GO HEELS!). Well the fan section is back. If you’ve been to a Cougar volleyball game lately, you’ve noticed the large student section. Its the biggest student section I’ve seen at a Chewelah game of any sort, and remember I went to school at JHS when we had perhaps peak enrollment in the 2A classification. More

(BRANDON HANSEN/Managing Editor of the Chewelah Independent)

I thought I covered nothing but small schools when I living in the metropolis of Centralia which is surrounded by farm fields and poorly painted barns with Seahawks logos on them.

Then, after moving back to Stevens County, all of a sudden there are a handful of 1B schools in our coverage area. Having covered several of them for years now, and seeing how Chewelah benefited from the drop from 1A to 2B, I feel like the WIAA should work more and more to facilitate small school athletics.

First, I would like to see private schools prevented from competing in these smaller classifications. Private schools usually end up having higher income parents and sports programs that are run like small colleges as opposed to schools.

To win these days, bigger schools are running programs – something that’s tough to do at Chewelah’s level or lower. You’re happy when you have a full roster, much less recruiting a top-level coach or athlete. More

(BRANDON HANSEN/Managing Editor of the Chewelah Independent)

One only has to buy modern-day products to discover that quality seems to be lacking compared to past years of hard-nosed American goods that could survive communism just as well as wear and tear.

Everything is plastic now; our iPhones crack if you stare at them wrong, bumpers on cars are essentially made of egg cartons and our economy is apparently in trouble again? Or at least that is what I’m told by a media already trying to drum up drama for the 2020 election.
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(BRANDON HANSEN/Chewelah Independent)

We all like to marvel about how far the human race has come since clay huts on the Fertile Crescent. We like to think we’re the most advanced thing ever since we have things like skyscrapers, electric cars and iPads.

And to be honest, it’s not like dolphins are walking around with Fitbits and getting lattes at Starbucks.

But with all this self-importance, could we take a step back and admit we’re ridiculous. Some would call it being humble or grounded.

It appears the more news you follow and the more history you read, the overwhelming evidence is that humans don’t know what they are doing, and might be making it up as we go. More

(BRANDON HANSEN/Managing Editor of the Chewelah Independent)

Nearly ever day when I roll out of bed, I immediately take to the internet to see if there is any news about NE Washington. Lately, it has been a stressful task because we have been inundated with several stories concerning Matt Shea and some activities that have allegedly been carried out in Stevens County.

While this is all a gray area of reporting, a level that this newspaper with its whopping everyday journalist staff of one cannot realistically keep up with while bigger newspapers can fling these stories out without fear of mass boycott movements or businesses pulling their ads, I have to wonder how much is real, how much can be a bit in the world of wonderment and where we all fit into the big jigsaw of society here in NE Washington.

Now, we could delve into the world of white supremacy groups and militias, but I don’t have enough official information to present to you. What does concern me is the fact that this is a spectre we can’t seem to shake here in NE Washington. More