Debate Over Owls and Timber in Northwest

In regards to your editorial on forest management, please be more careful. The issue is in fact better management of our forest resources. The issue is not addressed in any productive manner by emotion-charged, attention-grabbing editorials!

We are not running out of trees! We in the U.S. have had great success in harvesting and renewing our forest lands. Current estimates are that we have up to 70% of the trees that the country had when the Americas were discovered. The industry has for many years planted four to five times the trees it harvests.

When will the ancient forest be cut down? Never! We have already set aside the best of the best forever. Not just in the well-known parks like Yellowstone and Yosemite, but in the seldom-traveled and remote millions and millions of acres of our state and federal park and wilderness systems, 12 million acres (12% of the land base) in California alone!

Of the great California redwoods, the giant redwoods of the Sierra are for the most part totally protected from all but nature itself. Of the smaller, commercial specie, the coastal redwood, the protected forest lands are so large (more than 255,000 acres) that if consolidated in one strip, it would be 1 mile wide and stretch from Los Angeles to San Francisco (more than 375 square miles). Already preserved in Redwood National Park, the least visited of all the national parks, are the tallest and some of the oldest of the coastal redwoods.

Can we do a better job of managing the forests and protecting the environment? We can never stop trying to be better at it. What we need is more responsible efforts. That’s why we should not support Prop. 130 or Prop. 128. They don’t offer a reasoned and responsible approach. We need to vote yes on Prop. 138 for reasonable forest management and responsible protection of the environment.

DENNIS L. RICHARDSON, President

Oregon-Canadian Forest Products

of California, Orange