I have lost patience with arm-chair foresters who think they know all about forest management. Or as Chronicle columnist John McCroskey calls it “lousy forest management.”
I have spent 55 years in the Northwest woods and I know something about forest management. I didn’t gain this knowledge at home sitting in my rocking chair.
McCroskey, you should get out of town and into the woods. I don’t mean drive the roads and look out the windshield. Walk the woods mile after mile and see what the forest actually looks like. Look at both public and private forests of different ages, species composition and number of trees per acre.
Include both the Cascades and the Olympics in your walkabout. You will find that the forests are more complex than you ever imagined. After you have completed your field work please give us a report on how you would manage the Great Northwest Forest.
Marshall Murray
Centralia
