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LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG.

Article Excerpt
Byline: The Register-Guard

Use ground data in Biscuit plan

The article in the July 7 Register-Guard titled "Biscuit Fire harvest protests grow - the Forest Service nears a plan to log 370 million board feet of dead timber" leans toward industry rhetoric.

The Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area is not dead. The Forest Service plan is derived from aerial photographs. Ground truthing the burn has provided new information as to the steepness of the slopes, the thinness of the soil and the mosaic pattern of the burn. Many of the oldest trees survived, and millions of seedlings of a vast array of trees are popping up. Many places remain unscathed.

The timber industry's insistence that "harvesting burned trees helps pay for and hasten reforestation" is thinly disguised greed. The term "harvest" is best applied to corn or wheat crops, not to ancient ecosystems.

As the first of the timber sales of the Biscuit Fire go to auction, remember that if another country were to do what America does to its rivers and forests, we would call it an act of terrorism.

NICOLA CALVERT

Eugene

Bush will win values debate

Those who have followed Gary Crum's tirades through the years were probably not surprised by his latest (letters, July 23).

Slowly but surely, we are learning what the top item on Crum's agenda is. He lists several problems in the country and, of course,...

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