Dear HCN,
We who live east of the
Rockies have looked on with dismay, disbelief and, I hope, with
compassion as people of the Pacific Northwest suffered devastating
floods, mudslides and resultant power outages. Another
billion-dollar disaster and the media blame it all on the weather
(HCN, 1/20/97).
The real truth must be told:
Deforestation has literally paved the way for the waters and the
mudslides to rush down the mountain slopes all over the Northwest.
The tragedy of it is that the taxpayers pay for
the logging roads which crisscross the mountains, and the
Department of Agriculture, through the U.S. Forest Service, gives
tacit approval by approving timber sales almost everywhere in the
national forests. Only the wilderness areas and national parks,
protected by the law, escape such fate.
To
prevent future disasters, federal, state, corporate and private
entities should work together on reforesting the mountains of the
Northwest – a daunting but essential task.
Arvin
W. Roos
Strasburg, North
Dakota
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline We made it flood.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
