May 09, 2009
Saturday

I have been to the Maybeso experimental forest! For such a place to be chosen as an example of a good one, is beyond my belief. The alder after 60 years in the Maybeso is still profuse, the reprod which was never properly thinned makes human and animal passage difficult at best. The reasoning of destroying our forest for profit of corporations and publicly funded logging should be as dead as a spawned out salmon.

I remember when the road ideas to open up logging areas was sold to the public. It is a lie and a sham, the public get's to use any roads after the corporations,finish clear cutting, only at the whim and discretion of the forest disservice who promptly throw up gates and limit entry to their own. While the general public whom essentially built the roads with their tax dollars are kept out by iron gates.

You live in a unique spot on earth, there is not another Tongass rainforest, it will not come back in hundreds maybe thousands of years as it is now. A natural state contains all phases of life, especially in a forest, to say a mature or dead or even diseased tree in a forest has no place is in itself out of step with nature.

If you go deep into a natural old growth forest you will begin to feel a sense of belonging that does not come from a clear-cut or an experimental forest. You will begin to feel what others who seek to protect our natural legacy feel connection with nature.

An old growth forest by its nature is a sanctuary, that is why down through mankind's history, when we were destroying each other instead of the forest people always fled to the old forests of earth. Old growth forests are a nursery, a place of safety, a true proven sanctuary, no wonder the machinators, the corporators, the people who bring you destruction and death in the name of progress wish to destroy our forests. Well I for one declare "KEEP YOUR EVIL HANDS OUT OF MY TONGASS", you have destroyed enough!

Draw the line in the muskeg people this is our home and people and corporations wish to defile our home and our heritage without consequences. Please go into your forest to find out why people like me cannot imagine a future where it does not exist!

James Schenk
kwagiutl[at]att.net
Ketchikan, AK

About: " I have spent most of my adult life in places and Forests some people may never see. Some on Prince of Wales Island which no longer exist, even below the ocean's surface"

Received May 08, 2008 - Published May 09, 2009

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