[BCNnet] unlogged forests are not necessarily healthy

[Evan WW Craig]

Anyone who thinks logging is necessary to maintain a healthy forest is
confusing forests with clear-cut re-growth plantations.

Thinning tree plantations can accelerate the return to a healthier
successional forest. And natural regenerative events, like fire, are also
essential to maintain forest health. However, logging is driven by financial
gain, not for forest ecosystem improvement, and the US Forest Service is all
too ready to serve the logging industry rather than the ecosystems. Together
with Congress, they've proven time and again that they can't be trusted as
ecosystem stewards. It's time to end commercial logging on federal lands.

See http://www.sierraclub.org/logging/
---
Evan Craig
Chair, Woods & Wetlands Group of Sierra Club
http://illinois.sierraclub.org/w&w
847-680-6437
... Work to Live, Live to Ride, Ride to Work!

On Sat, 31 Aug 2002, Dennis Nyberg wrote:

People who think they are protecting the environment by stopping all 
logging have probably not been in many forests.  Many species depend on the 
more light penetrating canopy that can be generated by logging as well as 
other means.  Forest that are never logged, burned or subject to 
destructive natural events are much different and much less diverse than 
the historical forests of the USA.
If you can't distinguish the parts of a plan from simple slogans the 
environment will not be protected in any meaningful way.

Dennis Nyberg
Department of Biological Sciences m/c 066
University of Illinois at Chicago
845 West Taylor St.
Chicago IL 60607-7060
http://www.uic.edu/depts/bios/ecoevo/nyberg.htm

312-413-2435 FAX
CSNP@uic.edu


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