To the editor:
The liberal, tree-slobbering critics of our state Division of Forestry need to grow up and seriously examine what a fine job our Division of Forestry is really doing.
It’s way past time to learn the real truth about what is actually happening in our state forests.
According to the cold, hard facts cited in the Indiana Department of Natural Resources “green” recertification processes for valuing and pricing state forest timber, we have somehow managed to bend the time/space continuum of the universe to our advantage here in Indiana. Check it out!
The Division of Forestry, led by our stalwart Jack Seifert, has in the last decade increased the annual timber cut by 1,000 percent over historical averages, now taking an average of 60 percent of new growth (measured in board feet) every 15 years.
Yet, you shrill critics should please note that we still have the exact same amount of healthy (albeit increasingly over-mature) timber inventory listed in each subsequent “green” evaluation over the last few years, proudly defying the “logic” of conventional thinking and math on such things.
It has thus become theoretically possible for us to now greatly increase the cut, as our efforts to this point have affected the nature and growth of the forest not even one little teeny-tiny bit, as our figures always show.
Even though we are facing the imminent demise of all ashes, (emerald ash borer) walnuts, (thousand canker disease), and most remaining hardwoods (Asian Boring beetle, sudden oak death), our DNR hardwood forests are finally being robustly managed, and they are very, very happy. We shall all continue enjoying the scientifically-parsed benefits of an increased harvest from what’s left of our woods in perpetuity, kind of.
Remember, an increased harvest does not necessarily portend anything more than the inconvenience of a little extra temporary cosmetic damage. Two hundred years from now, you won’t even know there was a forest here!
Respectfully,
Charlie Cole, Brown County
Send letters to [email protected] by noon Thursday before the date of intended publication.
Letters are the opinions of the writer.
Letters must be signed by the author and include the writer’s town of residence and a contact number in case of questions. Only one letter every two weeks, per writer, to allow for diversity of voices in the opinions section.
Please be considerate of sharing space with other letter-writers and keep your comments concise and to the point.
Avoid name-calling, accusations of criminal activity and second- and third-hand statements of “fact.”
