<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">In addition to the song, somebody wrote a Christmas poem about the Upper Lochsa Land Exchange . . .<div><br></div><div>———————————————</div><div><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">TWAS THE NIGHT AFTER CHRISTMAS<br>FOR THE LAND TAKEAWAY TRIO</span></b><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"> ‘Twas the night after Christmas when throughout the public lands<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Many creatures were stirring in the forests and sands.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">The animals hung their heads for they all had a care<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">And hopes they wouldn’t be traded along with their lair.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">The young were all nestled snug in their beds<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">While visions of their forest homes danced in their heads.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">The Big Trio in Washington, Missoula and Idaho<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Settled down for a long nap but sleep came slow<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Tidwell, Weldon and Brazell didn’t count on such a clatter<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">That sprang up from the people to find what was the matter.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">With the Forest Service plan to trade the people’s land in a flash<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">They were surprised the owners would make such a splash.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">The ‘crats were nestled all snug in their beds<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">As visions of the Lochsa Land Takeaway danced in their heads.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">What the ‘crats wondering eyes did not expect to appear<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Were the people in masse that generated such fear.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">As the people fought the Land Takeaway so lively and quick<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">The Trio must have been as surprised as seeing St. Nick.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">The moon on the breast of a new fallen snow<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Told the story of the Land Takeaway by the three so and so’s<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">The lands’ owners organized behind those brick walls<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">And the opposition were many, in fact almost all.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">They fought to keep their lands and will continue at all cost<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">So the Forest Service Trio doesn’t give them to their own Santa Claus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">The Forest Service legacy and the Trio as well<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Will forever be tainted, so far they have fell.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">The people hold their nose as the lands disappear<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">And the smell of something tainted appears and reappears.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">It’s the smell of suspicion as their lands may be lost<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">To a Forest Service Trio’s hand picked Santa Claus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Ah yes, there’s Rocky Mountain Elk, a once respected org, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Which now accepts cash so a private firm can gorge.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">The RMEF is paid money by a timber/realty corp<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">To help takeaway people’s lands—something here is warped!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">Ah yes, but there’s the law and courts to judge how far a non-profit can go<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-align: center; line-height: 20.799999237060547px; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Comic Sans MS";">To harm the lives of 150,000 before they must pay back and woe.</span></p></div><div><br></div><div>———————————————<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div></div></div></body></html>