Ancient Forests

Your editorial, "Protecting Trees--and People's Jobs" (July 2), really hit the mark in exposing the weakness in the President's ancient forest plan. As you point out, the President's plan creates a huge loophole that would allow logging in the so-called "reserved" areas. This would result in continued destruction of this priceless public resource. Great doubt remains whether the very agencies that brought us this mess can be trusted to fairly implement the President's plan. We hope the Administration understands this problem and begins cleaning house at the top of the Forest Service.

The Frontier power line may bring renewable energy to energy-hungry California, but it shouldn't spoil the real frontier in doing so ("Utilities to Weigh New Power Corridors for the West," April 18). Both the Frontier line and the U.S. Department of Energy's West-Wide Energy Corridor must be designed to avoid California's last remaining wild places. From the chaparral canyons of Magic Mountain in the Angeles National Forest to the ancient forests of the Mill Creek area in the Lassen National Forest, California's road-less forests are prime targets for energy corporations.

Horrors before your eyes! Unbelievable atrocities! Great entertainment! It's "The Oregon Chain-Saw Massacre!" The sly folks at the National Audubon Society are calling it "Ancient Forests: Rage Over Trees," all gussied up as a documentary that premieres Sunday night at 7 on TBS cable. A grim Paul Newman narrates.

Tidy symbols tend to be more attractive than messy facts, and this is especially true in environmental politics. But choosing symbols over facts can be self-defeating, on both sides of conservation issues. And it isn't good for the environment either. One such symbol is the forest fire.

The full disaster that President Clinton and Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt represent for America's ancient forests is now becoming clear. It has taken a Democratic Administration to arm-twist the major environmental groups into signing the articles of surrender. Our story starts in the aftermath of the Forest Summit on April 2. Experts mustered in Portland to formulate a White House plan. They worked under fierce constraints.

California forestry officials suspended Pacific Lumber Co.'s license to log in ancient Northern California forests Tuesday, turning up the pressure as authorities negotiate with the company to purchase the largest stand of redwoods still in private hands. In an order delivered to Pacific Lumber President John A.

I'm writing this letter in response to "Among the Giants" (March 16) about the ancient forests of Humboldt County. The writer goes into much depth about how beautiful the trees are and how nice it is to walk around amid the "primeval" beauty. However, I don't think this writer has his priorities straight. He dismisses the Earth First! protest to preserve 60,000 acres of the most ancient of those trees in two sentences about Bonnie Rait getting arrested and how he wouldn't fit in to the protester ambience.

The California Assembly handed Gov. Pete Wilson a defeat Friday as lawmakers overwhelmingly registered their opposition to a measure that would restructure the state's forest protection laws. With a majority of the governor's own party voting against the bill, the Wilson-backed proposal to control logging on the state's 7.1 million acres of private timberlands was defeated 47 to 18 and its legislative sponsors held little hope that it could be revived in the final days of the session.

The Frontier power line may bring renewable energy to energy-hungry California, but it shouldn't spoil the real frontier in doing so ("Utilities to Weigh New Power Corridors for the West," April 18). Both the Frontier line and the U.S. Department of Energy's West-Wide Energy Corridor must be designed to avoid California's last remaining wild places. From the chaparral canyons of Magic Mountain in the Angeles National Forest to the ancient forests of the Mill Creek area in the Lassen National Forest, California's road-less forests are prime targets for energy corporations.

Hewitt's call--with the Bush Administration--for revision of the Endangered Species Act reveals that the act is protecting our abused environment. Anyone concerned with the quality of his environment should resist attempts to rewrite the act which, after all, was a compromise with the ideal when it was passed. Lumber, only one element in building, has become an issue because of the industry's abuse of their harvesting practices on both private and public land. In view of their scarcity, were forest harvests priced as other building materials, the industry would long ago have adjusted building schedules, land usages, and pricing policies consistent with long-range costs.

There is indeed hope for the forests of the Sierra Nevada, as set forth in your Nov. 23 editorial, "A Living Plan for Forests." The decision by the chief of the U.S. Forest Service to uphold the Sierra Nevada Framework means the plan will be allowed to stand along with the ancient forests of the Sierra Nevada--and that is good news for the Range of Light. This landmark plan focuses the Forest Service on protecting the remaining old-growth forests in the Sierra Nevada and reducing the risk of wildfire, especially near homes and communities, through prescribed burning, strategic thinning and brush removal.

California forestry officials suspended Pacific Lumber Co.'s license to log in ancient Northern California forests Tuesday, turning up the pressure as authorities negotiate with the company to purchase the largest stand of redwoods still in private hands. In an order delivered to Pacific Lumber President John A.

Like gnarled fingers rising from the surf, hundreds of stumps from an ancient forest buried at the time of Jesus are slowly being uncovered by El Nino's pounding waves. People have been making almost a religious pilgrimage to the rugged coast to see the more than 200 stumps poking up from the beach. "When I look at these, I'm just in awe to think that this was a forest when Jesus Christ was on the Earth," said Jane Seeborg.

The House of Representatives on Friday approved $250 million sought by the Clinton administration to purchase the heart of Northern California's besieged Headwaters Forest, but the measure still faces a veto threat from a White House critical of "anti-environmental" provisions attached to the bill.

I'm writing this letter in response to "Among the Giants" (March 16) about the ancient forests of Humboldt County. The writer goes into much depth about how beautiful the trees are and how nice it is to walk around amid the "primeval" beauty. However, I don't think this writer has his priorities straight. He dismisses the Earth First! protest to preserve 60,000 acres of the most ancient of those trees in two sentences about Bonnie Rait getting arrested and how he wouldn't fit in to the protester ambience.

Thirty miles north of this dusty outpost, along a bumpy and treacherous dirt road, an ancient forest stands as a Berlin of sorts, a green island amid a sea of deforestation. It's a forest that is fighting back. The owners and friends of the Mbaracayu Nature Reserve say it is a model for conservation, an attempt to thwart civilization's advance on eastern Paraguay's dwindling forests. Nearly 400 square miles of forest are lost to loggers every year in this California-size country.

There is indeed hope for the forests of the Sierra Nevada, as set forth in your Nov. 23 editorial, "A Living Plan for Forests." The decision by the chief of the U.S. Forest Service to uphold the Sierra Nevada Framework means the plan will be allowed to stand along with the ancient forests of the Sierra Nevada--and that is good news for the Range of Light. This landmark plan focuses the Forest Service on protecting the remaining old-growth forests in the Sierra Nevada and reducing the risk of wildfire, especially near homes and communities, through prescribed burning, strategic thinning and brush removal.

The federal government presented fresh evidence Monday that the remaining old-growth forests of the Pacific Coast are wild lands in distress--adding kindling to what may be the most inflammatory environmental fight of the decade.

For 117 years, family-operated Pacific Lumber Co. was a model corporation. As owners of the Headwaters Forest in Humboldt County, Pacific Lumber's conservative logging practices left their forests healthy long after other timber companies had liquidated theirs.

Standing in the ruins of a U.S. Forest Service fire lookout, Lou Gold told a group of schoolchildren the story of how a fawn saved the mountain from an evil demon. Gold, shaking his rattle of deer hooves, said people once lived in harmony with the spirits on their mountain, but traded the mountain to a demon for vacuum cleaners and cars.