🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <31BF7DED.2468@tidepool.com>,
Keith G. Wagner <keithw@tidepool.com> wrote:
>Recently I was having trouble understanding why we need to
>cut down our Ancient Forests.  

>Last July President Clinton signed a landmark forest 
>health law calling for the expeditious removal or "salvage" 
>of dead, dying, and diseased trees from our national forests.  
>The timber salvage provision was enacted after catastrophic 
>fires consumed huge areas of forests in the Northwest.  

The fires were in eastside forests dominated historically by
Ponderosa pine (now, after decades of logging, by lodgepole
pine).

The old-growth being harvested is mostly Douglas fir, in the
wet western portions of the northwest, where I assure you
no catastrophic fire has recently occured.

>The buildup of dead and dying trees has reached extremely 
>unsafe levels and the timber salvage provision allows for 
>a reduction in this fuel load.

It forces removal even when the damage from harvest exceeds
to potential for damage from fire, but of course he fails
to point this out (damage as measured by the USFS itself, not
us "envirowhackos").

>(I would start the flaming right here and now, but my mother
>taught me that a good host always lets their guests have first
>pick at the hors d'oeurves.)

Ahhh, but did she insist that a good host always lets their guest
have first crack at the turkey, a term which well-describes your
Congressman?
--

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb@rational.com>
  Nature photos, site guides, and other goodies at:
          http://www.xxxpdx.com/~dhogaza