> ...
> I'm not in any way endorsing clear-cutting or slash burning, but there's no
> question that they (or the natural burning that preceded them) maintained a
> mosaic of environments that has actually become less varied in recent
> years. It doesn't have to be either-or. I think we can have both a timber
> industry and an abundance of natural environments if we humans could just
> *work together* constructively. But our emphasis on free enterprise,
> profit uber alles, and personal freedom (and you can add private-property
> rights) seems to promote an in-your-face attitude that prevents such
> cooperation.
>
> Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
> Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
> University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
> Tacoma, WA 98416
>

Dennis' cogent remarks remind me of an interview in a recent "Eastside Week"
with a former logger who is now a writer. (For those of you not in the
Seattle area, Eastside Week is a free, sort-of-alternative paper for the area
east of Lake Washington.) Sorry I don't remember his name, but he made a few
very interesting points about the logging industry vs. environmentalism.

1) He says that it was the old veteran loggers who first became concerned
about newer logging practices after World War II. (I don't know exactly how
practices changed; more clear cutting and less recovery management? ....)
They were the ones who first went to biologists, etc., after the timber owners
refused to consider their concerns.

This leads to point #2:

2) The biggest mistake made by the environmental movement, in his view, is that
they did not court the rank-and-file loggers, who were at odds with the timber
owners. Instead, the industry was able to convince its workers that
environmentalists are yuppie scum who want to destroy their way of life.

Food for thought, and future, corrective action.

Dean
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