It shocked me, as a New Englander moving to Oregon, that the forests were wreathed in lichens and dripped from heights above my view to an ancient sponge of duff on the forest floor. I had never seen first growth forest before.
Rainforest.
Every child in the United States knows that we are killing the Amazon forests. Many of them are probably aware of the meaning of "edge effects" -- how cutting back the edge of the forest creates even worse degradation of the margins, until the forest begins to die, as an organism, from the outside in. Atrophy.
But outside of the Pacific Northwest, nearly no children know that the last temperate rainforest in the world is within US borders, dying from edge effects, and being sold off piecemeal to private interests.
And now, the Bush Administration is selling off nearly a billion dollars of our National Forests, including fragile old growth areas in Oregon. Teddy Roosevelt, his Republican elder, must be spinning in his grave.
This is only the newest idiocy from the federal and state governments, putting temporary private profit over the worth of a heritage we can't replace or regrow for our children. These forests were established in a different climate than we experience today. They can't be re-established or replanted.
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Comments: 2
Well, that's the best version of his comment. Another version: "If you've seen one redwood tree, you've seen them all."
This seems to be Bush's attitude toward the great natural resources of our country. Drill in the ANWR? Sure, only a few Caribou will suffer...who cares? Mine and log the west? Sure, sell the land cheap to our big campaign donors.
Republicans compalined bitterly when Clinton "rented" the Lincoln bedroom in the White House to big donors. What the current bunch is doing is far, far worse. They are giving away OUR land. We the People own it! Bush doesn't. It's theft, plain and simple!