The recent letter by forester Joe Zorzin criticizes Gov. Maura Healey’s planned moratorium on logging in state-owned forests (“The forestry wars,” Recorder, Feb. 14). He notes that “policymakers do not appreciate the full complexity of forests.” I agree. However, the temporary moratorium would be used to bring in independent climate scientists and forest ecologists to better analyze this forest complexity and the environmental impacts of logging by state agencies on public lands. Sound forest policy requires objective evidence from scientists who are not financially tied to the logging industry.
The letter writer also claims that we need to consider “tradeoffs” between financial interests and ecological considerations. It seems that whenever there is talk of allowing wild nature to exist, even on public lands, there are always calls from financially interested parties for considering tradeoffs, as if responding to the climate emergency should be traded off against private logging revenue.
He also refers to an earlier article, which falsely stated that the Massachusetts Forest Alliance was a “forest advocacy” organization, when in fact it is a timber industry trade association which does PR and lobbying for its members.
Finally, the letter states “there is no urgency to change existing policies for public forests” because a visioning process took place more than 12 years ago and that what is needed is a “more balanced discussion of the debated ‘climate emergency’.” He justifies this by referring to writings of physicist and climate change denier Steven Koonin, whose book, “Unsettled,” got negative reviews in Scientific American, Inside Climate News and Yale Climate Connections.
But really, does anyone living in New England doubt that our climate is changing, and that we need to act now? Let’s fully support Gov. Healey’s Moratorium on logging on our publicly held forests.
Stephanie Gelfan
Shelburne Falls