Logging project raises concerns . . .
(Original publication: September 30, 2003)

Regarding the Sept. 26 story about a Putnam forest being tagged for a logging project:

While, in theory, it is commendable that state and New York City environmental agencies will use forest around Ninham Mountain in Kent as a model for a managed forest, I fail to see how anyone or anything will benefit by the agencies' plan for the "extensive use of herbicides" to remove invasive shrubs.

Won't herbicides, which are chemical agents, leach into the ground, run off into reservoirs, spoil food sources for wildlife and contaminate surrounding plant life?

Several organizations will be involved in this project, including the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, but none seems to have addressed this issue or even objected to the use of environmental poisons. There are too many organizations involved and no one in charge here.

Perhaps Dean William Schlesinger of Duke University, as quoted in the story, is right: Old-growth forests have their own aesthetic value and we should safeguard them, not pollute them.

Jean Fogarty , Carmel