Managing' forests harmful to wildlife
(Original publication: November 4, 2003)

In response to the scheme to "manage" forests in Putnam County as described in the press: As someone trained in the New York State College of Forestry and Environmental Science, I must stress the reasons for opposing this.

As a student, I was shown magnificent mature forests in the Adirondacks as our "waste of lumber." Since I was interested in wildlife research rather than becoming a forester, I was alerted to the bias of those whose career depended on promoting forest "management."

Unfortunately, this bias includes eliminating less desirable tree species if one's focus is on lumbering rather than on preserving the natural variety of trees serving as wildlife food sources as well as the dead and dying trees with hollows serving homes for wildlife. In fact, this bias in favor of manicured forests by forest "gardeners" was so blatant, I was disgusted and began my career of exposing the wide variety of fools and knaves blighting our planet.

Being yanked out of college to fight overseas in World War II broadened my concerns and college majors and careers, but I was appointed by the Nature Conservancy to be its preserve manager for two preserves in Westchester County. There I was especially impressed by the research being done concerning the increasingly rare flying squirrel so dependent on hollow trees, along with the wood duck, screech owls and other birds.

It is one thing to encourage transition zones around forest edges, including preserving meadows, but to lumber forest interiors to allegedly "improve" them is a sham if one cares about the overall environment.

Martin Brech, Mahopac