The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs wants to build a 600,000-square-foot casino, 250-room hotel and conference facility and a 3,700-space parking lot on 25 acres in Cascade Locks. Last week the Bureau of Indian Affairs released a draft environmental impact statement that both casino proponents and opponents insist strengthens their respective arguments.

All the more reason for the public hearings.

One view that should be presented at the first hearing is a comment made a relatively long time ago (in the overall scheme of this controversy), in September 2006, by U.S. Rep. David Wu, D-Ore.: "The Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area is our Yosemite, our Grand Canyon. It is wrong to build a 600,000-square-foot casino drawing 3 million people and 1 million additional cars each year for non-gorge purposes into the Gorge."

That is the strongest plank in the platform of foes, including Friends of The Columbia Gorge. Michael Lang of the group recently offered in a written statement a viable alternative: "...a casino along Highway 26 near the town of Warm Springs & would protect the Columbia Gorge, provide revenue for the Tribe and more jobs for tribal members and preserve Oregon's policy against off-reservation casinos."

Oregon is not alone in shunning off-reservation casinos. Recently the Interior Department rejected 22 of 30 off-reser vation casino proposals, including three in Washington and one in Oregon. The feds also favor reasonable commutes for tribal members. With Cascade Locks a 210-mile round trip from the reservation, this idea is even more illogical.

The public hearings (each 6-8:30 p.m.), will be March 3 at Kah-Nee-Ta resort in Warm Springs; March 10 at Port of Cascade Locks; March 12 at Rock Creek Center, Stevenson; March 13 at the Doubletree Hotel in Portland; and March 17 at Hood River Middle School.