I was struck by the word “message.” If you take it apart, it becomes mess and age. I know many of you would agree that we seem to be in a mess for the ages. Our timber industry is on the ropes with sawmills closing left and right. Loggers and truckers are either not going back to work or are wondering if the job they are on will be their last. Ranchers who always thought “stubble height” was what kept their wife at a distance now understand it also refers to the height of grass left behind after their cows have grazed. If your stubble is too low, your cows have to go. I just read we can’t stock our streams because the stocked fish eat the native fish, even though the native fish aren’t around anyway because the streams are too low due to global warming caused by the CO2 you exhale – that is not near as severe as the methane you expel – as a result of the beans you are eating since you can’t afford anything else because your taxes are too high. To top that off, in a couple of days you will have to vote whether to support the tax hike foisted on you by Sacramento – and if you vote it down, the very politicians who got us into this methane expelling mess of all ages will blame you for not fixing it!

After re-reading the start of this message, I should have just stuck with “Greetings!” But I know most of you share the same anger and bewilderment over where we are and what got us here. But I also know this alliance. Most of us are ready to fight back. We don’t put our faith in subsidies, but instead stand ready to produce the commodities this country will need when this recession ends.

So here’s my real message. TuCARE is preparing for the end of this recession. During the past month we have met twice with the Stanislaus National Forest staff to find ways to boost the timber sale program past the current 35 million board feet annual harvest to over 50 million board feet per year. It can be done by streamlining planning processes and recognizing our Tuolumne County timber situation for what it is… a state of emergency. And guess what? Not only are they listening, they are agreeing with us! TuCARE will be hosting a public forum June 19th to help inform those who attend what can be done to move our timber industry forward.

In addition, TuCARE has formed a “coalition building team” made up of eight of our board members to form a stronger partnership between us and the Farm Bureau, the statewide water coalition, ag and energy producers, with the goal of strengthening our political voice. Congressman Radanovich and Senator Feinstein’s staff have recommended we do this and are ready to provide us support. Soon, it will be time for our annual Natural Resource Summit. We may get Governor Schwarzenegger to appear as our keynote speaker. His staff is expressing keen interest in scheduling his attendance followed by a helicopter flight over our forests which hopefully won’t be on fire. While all this planning, meeting and organizing goes on, TuCARE will continue to run its “Tours for Kids” and other education programs.

Unfortunately, nothing TuCARE plans or does will take away the fear and pain that so many of our sawmill workers, loggers and truckers are feeling right now. For that, I can only share with you something my Grandmother wrote during World War II right after she found out one of her sons (my dad) was wounded and her other one was dead. “God is good and we trust Him. He knows. He loves. He cares. Nothing this truth can dim…” I believe God is at work in Tuolumne County. Our community is preparing to pour out its heart and its support to those in need. If you can, please consider donating to the Sonora Area Foundation May SOS Program. They will match you dollar for dollar to provide help to those who will need it.

TuCARE is preparing for the end of the recession. We plan to see a sawmill back in our county, supplied in part by a 50 million board foot harvest from our National Forests. We plan to see cattle grazing in our forests for the next generation of ranchers. We plan to build a stronger coalition between other natural resource providers so that our political voice, spoken by a strong majority, will finally be heard above the din of our opponents.

In the meantime, we plan to help our community in any way we can. And 20 years from now, at our 40th anniversary annual dinner, TuCARE will celebrate the fact that it still remains a strong voice of reason and common sense and that there is no greater place to live than Tuolumne County. We must fight on…don’t lose hope.  As Congressman Doolittle encouraged us, “We will prevail.” Nothing this truth will dim.