LETTERS: MINERAL EXPLORATION DOES NO HARM

To the editor:

Doe Run Co.'s mineral prospecting permit should be approved immediately.

Mineral exploration drilling does no longterm damage to its surroundings. By opening areas of dense forest cover to sunlights ad roads and drill pads are cleared, drilling operations diversify the environment and benefit local plants and animals.

Many thousands of holes have been drilled during this century without causing environmental damage. Most old holes have disappeared entirely from surface indication and can no longer be found without accurate land surveying showing the hole's location.

Forest land exists to be used. It provides wood for peoples' homes, mineral products needed for living and recreation.

There is really no valid point of advocacy groups that appeal every timber sale, mineral development or other use of our forests. Radicals abandoned true science and resource management long ago and embraced the doomsday vision. They confuse environmental issues with social issues, bastardizing environmental science to promote anti-corporate, class-struggle positions.

That's not the way to run a forest, a country or a life.

WILLIAM F. JUD

Fredericktown