Dear Commissioner Crotty,

I'd like to add my voice to those opposed to any logging operation on Mt.
Nimham. I can understand the value of a model, managed forest, but this is
the wrong place for it. The natural areas on Mt. Nimham attract visitors not
only from throughout the county, but from throughout Westchester County and
the New York metropolitan area. To degrade this resource so that a handful
of people, who presumably are too lazy to drive the extra couple of hours to
get to the Catskills, can see how to "environmentally" log their private
land, flies in the face of what is best for the majority of people. With the
mountain laced with old arsenic mines, it's hard to believe that stirring
this up won't result in additional arsenic leaching into the New York City
reservoirs. This is on top of the problem of erosion from the logging and
logging roads, with the resulting soil washing into the reservoirs. Surely
you wouldn't be happy with logging trucks rumbling by in front of your home,
especially when the value is only to a handful of wealthy individuals. It
would be cheaper to helicopter these land owners to the Catskills rather
than to offend so many people, and cause a potential ecological disaster.
Please reconsider this decision on the basis of all the facts, not just
those provided by loggers.

Sincerely,

WB
Carmel