The article “Squirrels and scopes in the line of
fire” misleads the reader on several points (HCN, 8/30/04:
Squirrels and scopes in the line of fire).
The 850 trees
removed from around the Mount Graham International Observatory were
dead, killed in the last several years by a spruce bark beetle
infestation. They were removed as a part of a plan to reduce the
wildfire threat to the observatory, while at the same time making
little if any ecological impact beyond the 8.6-acre observatory
site.
Robin Silver of the Center for Biological Diversity
states that the University of Arizona took advantage of the Gibson
Fire by removing more vegetation than normal process would allow.
This completely misrepresents who manages a fire-suppression
operation. The Interagency Incident Management Team, not the
university, did what it decided was necessary to protect the $160
million facility. The vegetation removal was done in an emergency
context with the best judgment at the time — not with
conspiratorial opportunism.
Silver’s statement that
“they’ve sterilized an area that’s now a 200-foot
radius” is nothing more than inflammatory hyperbole.
Jack
Cohen
Missoula, Montana
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Squirrels not victims of conspiracy.
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