FOREST: Old growth has a cycle

The article regarding Mike Garrity is very interesting. However, I do not agree with his opinion on old growth timber. Having spent well over sixty years in the woods as a logger and hunter, I have watched both the animals and the timber and how they live together. Old growth trees are like all living things. There is a time and place for all living things to go, including trees. They have a growth cycle and when that cycle has used up its usefulness its life cycle will be replaced by new and younger trees. Allowing those new growths to grow and become stronger, the forests will be reforested as they should be.

Had the Forest Service and BLM put small contractors in the woods over the years, those folks would have removed problem trees and cleaned up some of the problems caused by the mismanagement of the forests by those governmental entities.

This would have been a good thing for both the public and the forest.

ROBERT L. BALSER

Hayden