THE PUBLIC MIND: IT IS IN EVERYONE'S BEST INTEREST TO PAY ATTENTION TO THE FOREST CONFERENCE IN PORTLAND

To the Editor:

President Clinton's Northwest Forest Conference in Portland, Ore., will be April 2. It will focus on vanishing ancient forests primarily in Oregon, Washington and northern California. The Heartland may ignore the significance of this event in the mistaken opinion that what happens to forests out West do not have anything to do with us. That is incorrect.

Ancient forests are home to hundreds of species of wildlife and cannot exist in any other ecosystem. An example is the Pacific Yew, discovered to contain taxol, a treatment (or possible cure) for ovarian and breast cancers. People here in the Heartland need this drug to survive. Until just recently, the Pacific Yew was burned as worthless slash after clear cuts. We cannot afford to lose something we still do not fully understand.

Here in Missouri, our forest practices are (for the most part) responsible (you do not see clear cuts that continue for miles in every direction here). That is because, from 1840-1900, we clear cut all our ancient forests, causing the collapse of our forest industry, effects which lasted for years. We were forced by the folly our ancestors to become responsible with our resources, or become impoverished. This is the type of management both foresters and environmentalists are asking for out West.

Folly costs the taxpayer (that is you). It cost $25 million last year to log on public lands by timber companies, 25 percent of the timber going overseas as raw logs. Raw log sales cost 11,000 forest product jobs (jobs lost at a cost to you, the taxpayer, in the form of unemployment and increased demand on federal aid programs). The costs to you in federal aid, mismanagement by the Department of the Interior and the loss of potential lifesaving drugs is too high. The cost of the loss of forest biomass is even higher. Only 5-7 percent of ancient forests still exist. We are logged faster than the Brazilian rain forests and, at that rate, all remnants of ancient forests will be gone in 20 years. Clearly, this adventure is too expensive for us here in the Heartland, as well as those in the West.

The Four Season Audubon Society hopes that in seeking solutions, the president should make sure that science is the underlying principle in his plan. A better understanding of the resource will protect our investment. A reduction in raw log exports, and transitional assistance for timber-dependent communities (although 94 percent of all employment in Oregon is not timber related) must also be addressed. It is in all our best interests to be interested.

Mary Henson

Conservation Chairman

Four Seasons Audubon Society