Forest bill leaves old growth unprotected
Arizona's Ponderosa pine ecosystems were open forests of giant pines before European settlement. Grassland fires and competition from giant pines once prevented formation of the dense, ignitable stands of small-diameter trees that dominate today. However, a century-old policy of fire suppression, overgrazing and clear-cutting has promoted the dense regeneration of these pole-sized trees responsible for spreading fires.
Only about 5 percent of Arizona's old-growth pines stand today. Ironically, it is these few giant trees that are being targeted by the Bush administration's Healthy Forests Initiative, which gives the secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture sole authority to further subsidize old-growth logging in remote forests.
Last July, only the largest trees were removed in a timber sale in Prescott National Forest, while the economically worthless but fire-prone trees were left under the guise of restoration. If passed, this national bill would leave such ancient, roadless forests in the hands of commercial logging companies that promoted the large-scale vegetation changes that finally led to catastrophic fires.
It is vital that the U.S. Senate draft an alternative bill that mandates fuels reduction around communities, an ecological restoration plan and preservation of ancient trees for future generations.
Jenny Rambo
GRADUATE STUDENT
SCHOOL OF LIFE SCIENCES
Nazi claim distracts public
I agree with Eric Spratling's general premise ("Nazi references cheapen history," Thursday's The State Press) that the memory of the Holocaust should not be cheapened or forgotten. However, rather than making clear exactly how Prescott Bush's war profiteering with the Third Reich means that the villainous "left" is calling Prescott's grandson a Nazi, Spratling simply dashes about knocking down straw men.
I challenge Spratling to produce a single example of a well-known and mainstream commentator, left or right, specifically labeling Bush or his family Nazis. War profiteers, demonstrably. Nazis, no. Pointing this out no more makes one a "Holocaust denier" than does acknowledging any other uncomfortable facts from history, such as the U.S. refusal to loosen quota limits on Jewish immigration during the Holocaust.
Indeed, his whole tiresome exercise is simply a distraction from the cancerous blot on U.S. credibility that Bush apologists like Spratling willfully ignore: namely, the administration's dishonest, panic-mongering rhetoric in the buildup to the Iraq invasion in comparison to the proven total absence of any real threat to U.S. or world security.
Tom Coffeen
JUNIOR
INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES
Random acts of kindness
Recently there has been a group of students who go by all of the dorms in the Hayden complex with trash bags and take the trash in everyone's room. When asked the reason for this kind act they replied, "Just trying to make your lives a little easier."
It isn't often that I see an act of kindness around school. With so many busy students, it is a lot easier and more common for people to ignore one another's needs.
It was impressive that these trash-bag bandits did not belong to any organization and that they were not trying to earn volunteer credits of any kind - they were just kind people doing a kind thing, not looking for recognition or praise. I respect that and feel they should be recognized for their effort.
Ty Okon
FRESHMAN
JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION
