THE PUBLIC MIND: AREAS OF FOREST LAND SHOULD BE SET ASIDE FOR POSTERITY

To the Editor:

The on-going differences of opinion about harvesting timber on federal forest lands has become highly charged at times. The "harvest the timber" people have several strong points and so do the "save the forest" advocates.

The writer and wife have owned some "poor" land as far as crop-growing potential is concerned for 30 years. We immediately planted about 6,000 pine trees of several varieties and later bought adjoining land that had some good timber on it. We were immediately pressured to sell the good trees, which we refused for we had other plans for the trees. We now have volunteer pine trees and holly trees coming up in various places. (We had also set out small hollies.)

We do not cut down dead trees if they are not near a road. We now see various woodpeckers, including the large piliated woodpecker which depend upon dead trees. We have had several bee trees, our ponds are visited by wood ducks and the great blue heron. The large owls build nests in our pine trees but the two species keep some distance from each other. We see deer occasionally, one doe had twins twice and two years ago she had triplets. We see coons, a fox and sometimes turkeys and occasionally hear coyotes.

In the open areas we see gold finches, bluebirds, meadowlarks, cardinals, brownthrashers and many other species of birds.

Over 50 years ago we visited the "Big Oak" east of East Prairie. It was larger than our car was wide. We also visited the big cottonwood tree that held one end of the large chain that was stretched across the Mississippi about 80 years earlier. That tree was over eight feet wide.

Some forest trees could be harvested, others should never be cut and all vehicle and foot traffic should be kept 100 feet away to avoid packing the soil and shortening the life of the tree.

I recommend that some areas of forest land in each state, and preferably in as many counties as feasible, be kept for posterity. The forest plots could be from 100 to 1,000 acres in size and the trees never be cut, not even the dead trees. Other forest lands could have their trees harvested. This would leave forest land undisturbed for children to see and people would not have to move out and let the trees take all of the land.

Carl Penzel

Jackson