Mollie Eder, Powell Butte resident and now resort activist, printed a short letter in the October 8th Bulletin in which she bemoans the impact of destination resorts on the ability to drive cattle down country roads. Eder writes:

Many ranchers and residents of Powell Butte have told me that adding more than 2,000 cars each day on our country roads around this fourth proposed resort is what worries them. How will we be able to move cattle down the roads or transport large, cumbersome loads of hay out of the fields? Building a resort with all its traffic this close to ranching operations will cause irrevocable detrimental impacts to the agricultural operations of this area,

This is, to me, the epitome of a "new west" vision that really has nothing in common with its alleged ancestor, and is in fact incompatible with modern day farming and ranching practices. What will be the cost to the Powell Butte region if the farming and ranching operations near the four approved/proposed resorts collapse? What will happen to the picturesque landscape that the resorts rely on to satiate their new residents?

Elected officials in Crook County need to ask themselves if they're pro-agriculture, or pro-resort. They really can't be both, and I imagine that this won't be lost on Crook County voters when terms come to expire.