To the Editor:
On July 27, 1995, Congress and the President of the United States sent a message to the citizens of this country -- they are willing to suspend all major environmental legislation to allow timber companies to log in previously protected areas. Public Law 104-19, Sec. 2001, the Timber Salvage Rider, is a spiteful law that must be repealed.
Since that fateful day in July, rare forest habitat for endangered species such as grizzly bears, salmon, blue ribbon trout and migratory songbirds have been logged. A total of 4 billion board feet of timber are scheduled to be sold and logged under this rider.
Now, Senator Larry Craig has introduced a bill, S. 391, under the guise of "Forest Health" that will make the Timber Salvage Rider a permanent law. This bill would allow timber harvesters to cut large amounts of healthy trees in addition to "dead and dying trees."
The basic foundations and assumptions of this bill are faulty -- there is no "forest health crisis." According to professor of forest disease and insect problems at the University of Idaho, Arthur Partridge, forest disease as well as insect activity is at the lowest level in 28 years. Even the Forest Service studies confirm there is no health crisis in forests.
Many foresters are working under an outdated paradigm. Tree plantations and single species forests are not healthy forests. Dead and dying trees should not be removed from a forest, they are a necessary part of the forest ecosystem. They provide a vital habitat for birds, insects as well as necessary nutrients to soils as they decay. In addition, skidders and other heavy machinery used in logging operations act as vectors for non-native plant species and diseases that damage forest health.
In short, the real "forest health crisis" is instigated by the rapacious logging practices of the timber industry. Natural forests have survived thousands of years without the help of humans. What the forests really need is an end to "salvage logging" and a repeal of the Timber Salvage Rider.
As concerned citizens we must do what we can to stop this Rider. "Dartmouth is Brown," a group of student activists, is holding a press conference on May 16 to hold accountable the senator who introduced this bill to congress. Senator Slade Gorton, Dartmouth Class of 1950, will be given the "stump" award for being the most environmentally destructive Dartmouth alumnus. We have a unique opportunity to tell Gorton that we will not allow his frontal attack on all major environmental legislation to stand.
