Logging National Forests Doesn’t Destroy the Land

Never in Lee Green’s slanted piece on the U.S. Forest Service does he mention “multiple use,” the very mission of the agency (“A Bear in the Woods,” Nov. 21). Unless designated as wilderness, national forests were not created to be roped off and set aside. They were intended to be used. Logging is one of those uses. Environmental extremists portray logging as a destruction of the land. It is not.

You can go to national forest areas in Northern California that have been clear-cut, replanted and given time to grow back, and you’d never know the areas had been logged. And yes, people need timber. National forests are a good place to get it. (By the way, Lee, what’s your house made of?)

Mark Bedor

South Pasadena

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I would have thought that the U.S. Forest Service is an arm of the National Park Service. Perhaps vice versa. But never would I have suspected that this was a devil and angel duo. The name, U.S. Forest Service, emanates feelings that environmentalists, preservationists and ecologists would embrace. I came away repulsed. What has been taking place is sickening and maddening.

Why Congress, the Government Accountability Office and those in the know have allowed the agency to continue its practices with impunity (rebukes are not effective in converting arrogance to accountability) is a mystery to me. The sums involved ($5.6 billion from Congress in 2004) are staggering, and the slight to Americans scandalous.

Sam Theaker

Santa Clarita