Dear Mr. Moran:

The Amendment to the 1994 Unit Management Plan that would allow the
installation of a "Model Forest Program" on Mt. Nimham is a poorly conceived
plan to disturb a naturally growing forest within an important watershed
area that offers valuable recreation and respite to thousands of visitors
annually. The planned industrial use of 400 acres of forest with selective
thinning out and other plantation type procedures would deplete it of any
aesthetic value for the people who retreat to it for the serenity afforded
by its tranquility. The "experimental" use of herbicides so close to the
West Branch Reservoir is the most foolhardy thing I've ever heard of. This
reservoir is an important part of the New York City Water Supply system, and
the planned clearcutting of 40 to 60% of the forest area and its resultant
runoff and erosion, becomes an additional factor in the degradation of that
water supply, to which you can add the possible leaching out of arsenic from
the old mines in the proposed program area. The world needs timber for
construction and for paper manufacture, but it has a growing need for a
commodity that is more basic to life, a potable water supply. Let me add
that with our "faith-based" administration in Washington, people should now
begin to realize the importance of silent contemplation and spiritual
renewal and nothing could be more conducive to this than the silent forest.

I am a New York City resident and taxpayer and am opposed to the proposed
plan. I urge the Department of Environmental Conservation to abandon it,
for I see that on balance, it will not be a benefit to me or to the people
of Putnam County.

Sincerely,

AF,
NYC