November 23, 2003

By AL CARLTON

In your article of November 9, Bud McCrary said "That the forests are in dire need of thinning. There are at least five times as many trees in some areas as there were in pre-logging days." It appears that environmentalists don't understand the difference between first-growth and second-growth redwoods. Most first-growth redwoods are located in parks like Big Basin and not on private land. Logging opponents don't give credit to timber companies like Big Creek that go to great lengths to preserve original growth redwood.

County Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt and her anti-logging supporters are under the impression that they're trying to save first-growth redwood when, in fact, they are looking at second or third-growth trees that are far too dense and need thinning to assure a healthy forest.

They don't realize that the thinning of forests actually can improve the health of the remaining trees, providing more space for them to grow, allowing additional sun and reducing the danger of a major fire. Additionally, some research shows that removing trees can actually provide a greater water supply in local streams and rivers because huge clusters of trees actually consume a large volume of water.

My son was the park ranger who supervised the logging done by Big Creek Lumber on the Presentation Center of the Bear Creek redwoods. To give you an example of how the environmentalists distort the facts in regards to logging look at the quote made by Editor Neil Wiley in his Mountain Netwood News in an article titled, "A Hike with Sister Toni."

"We also saw the devastation caused by logging. Although Big Creek Lumber has a better reputation than most loggers, they had butchered this forest, leaving large clear-cut areas, big slides and hundreds of cut trees that had never been removed. The one good thing was that as an Open Space Preserve this forest would not be logged again."

My son was the ranger for the Open Space District that supervised the logging of this property. He can assure you that there were no clear-cut areas, no big slides and no hundreds of falling trees left to rot. I viewed the property with my son and I can tell you the forest is much healthier after being logged.

I grew up on a farm and graduated from an agricultural university. Forest management is very similar to farm management. To insure healthy forests, the trees must be thinned and selectively cut, followed by appropriate replanting. Unfortunately, emotions run high, as many people see any cutting of trees as evil. There have been some logging operators in California who engaged in poor forest management. The extreme environmentalists cite these bad apples as indicative of the practices of the entire industry. They seldom give credit to companies like Big Creek who place a high priority on assuring health forests for generations to come.

Today, logging opponents use whatever means necessary to oppose any logging plan. Most of these radical environmentalists are clueless as to the history of our forests and have no notion of what it takes to insure their survival. Over the past two years, this nation has reaped a harvest of devastation of monumental proportions as uncontrollable wild fires have raged through overgrown and overprotected woodlands. If we all have not learned our lesson by now, we are truly witnessing the death of common sense.

Al Carlton is a resident of Capitola.