At 11:43 AM 4/16/95, Warren Flick wrote:
>Dear netters:
>
>I have been receiving flaming appeals through "forest" to stop one thing
>after another. Most have to do with extractive uses of public lands.
>
>Let's all write the president and tell him we approve of extractive uses. I
>hope the Timber Salvage Rider passes.
I am now in reciept of a flaming appeal through "forest" to support a piece
of legislation that denies 25 years of science-based environmental law and
masquerades as science the fear-mongerin tactics of the timber industry
that coldly and disingenuously use the "threat" of wildfire to scare up
support for a bill which exempts from ALL environmental, scientific and
public review the logging of millions of acres of sensitive of forest
ecosytem lands, including and especially roadless areas.
To me it looks like this salvage rider is the environmental equivalent of
the anti-Jewish laws passed by the Nazis in the mid-30s and which paved the
way for the Holocaust.
>It is high time we stopped converting our Nation's forests to little more
>than preserves to sooth the delicate sensibilities of those elitists who
>abhor timbering in almost any form. These people care little for the men and
>women who depend on employment in manufacturing industries such as forest
>producst. They care little for all the science that underpins sensible
>forest management.
What about the science that underpins ecology? You and your wise use
cronies like to rail against "elitists" and puff yourselves up as defenders
of the working class, but truth be told you are the sycophantic apologists
for the captains of one industry that's been responsible for the most
widespread ecological destruction in history of the planet. Your
industrial timber philosophy denies any value to non-consumptive forest
uses, and demeans those who dare to challenge your well-financed propaganda
claim.
It's too bad that so many working class people have been snookered by your
lying ad campaigns ("we're the tree growing companies!") into thinking that
you and the bosses care about them, but they'll eventually see how you used
them long enough to get the politicians to hand over the last of the old
growth. When they have their pink slips in hand and there's nothing on the
horizon except for stumps, they'll understand what "cut & run" means in the
90s. It's no different than it was in the 1890s.
>Let's defeat this fringe element and help our national forests return to
>sensible programs in which timber can be harvested, reforested, and grown to
>provide products that all of us buy and use.
"Fringe" element? What a laugh. If the timber industry wasn't so afraid
of the overwhelming public sentiment against it, they wouldn't be spending
over $50 million this year to manipulate the attitudes of the people who
know just what these companies are doing.
I say, let's shine some the light into the dirty dark closet of corporate
timber, and give the public a say for a change in how forests are managed.
I bet they'll take sustainability and ecosystem preservation over
liquidation and short-term profit considerations any day.
David Orr
dgorr@ucdavis.edu
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