Dear Editor,
I am shocked that 11,800 acres are slated to be logged in the Green Mountain National Forest’s Telephone Gap Area. While the Forest Service’s Plan is attention grabbing, it misses the fact that the best protection for biodiversity and earth’s climate is to let forests mature. Animals of the forest need wild untrammeled mature forests. Old growth forests are the best means to store carbon. Science tells us that young forests do not store carbon adequately.
The Forest Service’s plan is wrong-headed and destructive to the wild places, which have been able to come back in the last 60-100 years. This project is primarily of benefit to the lumber industry. Nature knows what it is doing concerning adaptation and does not need to be engineered for “best yields.”
We can source local wood in Vermont, but 96% of our wood products come from the private sector. Let the Public Forests become old forests for the benefit of all species and earth’s climate: This has been mandated by our federal and state governments.
If you are concerned about the Telephone Gap logging, please write the Forest Service before April 8. The Public Comment form is here: cara.fs2c.usda.gov/Public/CommentInput?Project=60192.
Frank White,
Worcester
