Consider all issues when going to vote

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 service berry, which is 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