A Woodland Fantasy

The people of the United States are suffering from the consequences of a widespread belief in a forest fantasy that never was, and never will be, true. A little band of misinformed but vociferous zealots has convinced much of the American public and its legislators of the factuality of this myth, and of its current applicability. Now, thanks to the Reagan Administration, there seem to be grounds for some hope that this mistaken belief can be discredited and the disastrous program based on it brought to a halt and possibly even reversed.

What is this fantasy? It is that when the white man came to these shores he saw a practically unbroken expanse of lush, all-aged forest. This forest, so the fantasy goes, contained a heavy representation of our most attractive and useful tree species, and it was teeming with wildlife, including both vegetarian species such as moose, deer, and elk, and predators like wildcats, wolves, and foxes. There were birds of every kind, and the clear, free-flowing streams teemed with fish. The popular belief has been that all we need to do to restore this state of affairs is to establish tremendous “forest preserves,” protected from fire, insects, and disease, in which timber-management activities, including all timber cutting, are prohibited. Nothing could be further from the truth.

FS

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Fred C. Simmons

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The people of the United States are suffering from the consequences of a widespread belief in a forest fantasy that never was, and never will be, true. A little band of misinformed but vociferous zealots has convinced much of the American public and its legislators of the factuality of this myth, and of its current applicability. Now, thanks to the Reagan Administration, there seem to be grounds for some hope that this mistaken belief can be discredited and the disastrous program based on it brought to a halt and possibly even reversed.

What is this fantasy? It is that when the white man came to these shores he saw a practically unbroken expanse of lush, all-aged forest. This forest, so the fantasy goes, contained a heavy representation of our most attractive and useful tree species, and it was teeming with wildlife, including both vegetarian species such as moose, deer, and elk, and predators like wildcats, wolves, and foxes. There were birds of every kind, and the clear, free-flowing streams teemed with fish. The popular belief has been that all we need to do to restore this state of affairs is to establish tremendous “forest preserves,” protected from fire, insects, and disease, in which timber-management activities, including all timber cutting, are prohibited. Nothing could be further from the truth.