LETTERS: MANAGING THE FOREST

To the editor:

When it comes to managing our valuable forest resources, the public should know that scientific professional judgment denies proposals that originate from federal representatives propounding the so-called Contract With America.

In an attempt to promote logging, but doing so under the pretense of promoting healthy forests, bills have been introduced into and passed by both the House of Representatives (HR 1158) and the Senate (S 391) and subsequently signed by President Clinton. These are bills that could have seriously detrimental consequences for the health of U.S. forest ecosystems and, thus, on the ability of our forests to sustain longterm productivity. These shortsighted bills promote salvage logging of trees that are either dead or are susceptible to disease up to a total of 4.5 billion board feet. These categories, of course, include any and every tree in any and every forest in the nation. These bills, furthermore, preclude any serious study of the ecological or environmental consequences of the harvest.

As a review by wildlife biologists published in the Wildlife Society Bulletin reveals, this concept of salvage logging results from four mistaken views about forest processes: 1. that salvage logging is effective at reducing frequency and intensity of catastrophic fires, 2. that clear-cutting and logging mimic natural disturbance regimes, 3. that diseases would destroy forests if they were not controlled by intensive management, and 4. that old forests should be logged to return them to early successional stages.

Like decisions regarding appropriate treatment for medical diseases, natural resource management decisions should be made by trained professionals. They should not be made by politicians acting under the direct influence and control of the special-interest lobbying of the timber industry.

The failure of members of this Congress to acknowledge scientific evidence and judgment in the matter of these salvage logging bills is a perfect illustration of why both medical and natural resource management decisions should not be made by politicians.

JAMES W. HORMANN

Cape Girardeau