Trees do not make a forest
This letter is in regards to Scott J. Kane’s commentary on logging practices (“Anti-loggers should re-check facts about forest thinning,” ODE, Oct. 16).
Kane mentioned that lumber and paper companies have been planting millions of acres of trees per year. This fact is often offered up to show that we can cut as many trees as we like, as long as we are planting more than we cut and keep the right time schedules.
What is overlooked is the fact that the forest being cut down is actually an ecosystem; there are many species of trees, shrubs, mosses, fungi, insects and animals that are necessary for the forest to function. These are almost all lost when an area is clear-cut or heavily logged. What is replanted is not a forest, but a monoculture plantation of the most economically valuable trees. These new plantations cannot support the ecosystem and accompanying species that once lived there.
In fact, it is this lack of species diversity, not “overgrowth,” as Kane said, that can make forests more susceptible to disease and insect infestations. A healthy, in-tact ecosystem is the best weapon against insect infestations and diseases.
Even the most brilliant ecologists of our day do not know how to replace a perfectly functioning ecosystem. For this reason and many others, our first goal must be to preserve our forests.

Rudy Dietz

junior

psychology