Law and order ignores trees By Curt Anderson News-Chronicle It is astounding how one man can screw up so much stuff. President Bush has bungled the economy, with an extra heaping portion of bungling in the stock market "irregularities." The Bush administration's contempt for the environment is affecting Wisconsin directly, allowing clear-cutting in the Chequamegon and Nicolet national forests, and ignoring the federal laws that aim to protect forests from clear-cutting. He should be called "George, George, George of the Bungle." It bothers me that a guy whose reputation for law and order can ignore laws that protect our forests. The last 100 years have given us laws that were passed because of the cut-and-run tactics of the timber barons that ripped off Wisconsin residents. The forests were snatched from us, with lawmakers using monumentally bad economics, but what's new? The barons defaulted on taxes, and absconded in the middle of the night, allowing logging towns to go bust. This after the loggers left piles of branches (or "slash") that were perfect tinder for wildfires (think Peshtigo Fire.) The U.S. Forest Service is required to update management plans for individual forests every 15 years. The old plan expired in August 2001. The new plan, in the making since 1996, has not been implemented. The old plan is a bungled pile of multiple-use and sustained-yield pretense that trumps ecological concerns, like protection of trout streams, rivers and lakes - those places where people fish, hike, boat, and camp, part of Wisconsin's annual $30 billion tourism income. The new laws are intended to use scientific solutions to insure that we have real sustained forestry into the distant future. It is possible to do so, and the Menominee Tribe has won awards for its forest management. They use the ideal of looking ahead seven generations. Modern timber barons look for how much then can make today. Sustained yield is a term that implies a constant supply of timber at the lowest cost possible, usually using clear-cutting to maximize profits. It does not include the state's cost (tax dollars) of replanting trees of various species. It is one thing that clear-cutting will destroy the habitat for many species of animals, birds and insects, and that resulting erosion will foul lakes and streams, but according to U.S. Forest Service economic data, we citizens have to pay $200 for every acre logged. If the government is going to sell trees, they should do it at a profit, not a loss. Alas, we have to kiss the plump rump of the paper mills and the timber barons with subsidies. (That's called "socialism.") Please write a letter protesting this shortsighted abuse of national forest trees. Express your concerns. Tell of your love for the forests. Describe how the shade from the trees cools the air, how the trees slow rainfall and erosion, or that the forests belong to all of us, not just parasitic paper mills and timber barons. Tell how the trees take up carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Tell how the smells of the forest take you back to sweet days of your childhood. Send the letter to: Comment Team, Chequamegon-Nicolet Forest Plan Revision DEIS, P.O. Box 221090, Salt Lake City, UT 84122-1090. Please take the time to write. You have until Monday to voice your concerns. Andersen is a lifelong resident of the Green Bay area and a Navy veteran. He owns a small business and is an adjunct instructor at NWTC. He is vice president of the Clean Water Action Council. His column runs Wednesdays. Contact him via e-mail at [email protected]