Way out West on the western border of Crater Lake National Park timber and environmental groups are debating a logging proposal. The Forest Service has a choice which – in theory – should incorporate the late, great Will of the People. Okay. The Opinion of the People. Will the Service approve logging or conduct a more exhaustive environmental impact statement? Tomorrow the public comment period will crash and burn, leaving us once again at the mercy of the Private Sector.
Just to reiterate: A ‘managed’ forest is a tree farm. Forests manage themselves very well, in fact they manage far better than man-managed forests. The corollary to that equation is: You can’t ‘plant’ a forest; forests happen to the earth. The timber industry is the keystone (I know what you’re thinking!) of the privatization of Nature.
Comes the night…
And the Ilahee Institute brings us a lecture by Buck Parker on ‘Who Owns the Environment’.
Says Buck Parker:
"When I was 12 or 13 we watched the dam at The Dalles being built.... It was my first introduction to the damage that could be done, environmentally and culturally, when you let others define what is progress."
Says George Sexton of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center says the operation would run logging roads into an area functioning as wilderness in one of Oregon's highest-value recreation areas.
Says Dave Schott of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association says annual growth in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest is outpacing the annual cut by at least 10 times. He says the logging would follow the Northwest Forest Plan.
- KBOO