From Fbcatchpol@aol.com Mon Jan 22 21:18:39 1996 Return-Path: Received: from mx4.u.washington.edu by lists.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW96.01/UW-NDC Revision: 2.33 ) id AA16333; Mon, 22 Jan 96 21:18:38 -0800 Received: from emout06.mail.aol.com by mx4.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW96.01/UW-NDC Revision: 2.33 ) id AA22781; Mon, 22 Jan 96 21:18:37 -0800 Received: by emout06.mail.aol.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) id AAA13779 for consbio@u.washington.edu; Tue, 23 Jan 1996 00:18:36 -0500 Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 00:18:36 -0500 From: Fbcatchpol@aol.com Message-Id: <960122200731_124184699@emout06.mail.aol.com> To: consbio@u.washington.edu Subject: Re: CONSERVATION BIOLOGY & PUBLIC LANDS Hi Charles; Don't know about your specific forest, but in much of the USA, the forest service has performed a truly astonishing reversal of priorities. The last few years have seen a massive shift towards ecosystem management, and a wholistic view of the forest as a functioning ecosystem, which must be nurtered in order to produce timber and maintain biodiversity and health. This is why the latest response by those who only see dollars when they look at trees has been to attempt to privatize the public land, so the timber can be extracted. Environmentalists have won the war for the heart and soul of the USFS, and now we must rally round the USFS to keep the land public. I have looked at a lot of public and private land, and it is the public land which holds most of our finest, healthiest ecosystems. Think about it. Our best hope for the future is with public lands, influenced by both industry and environmentalists (not just industry, as it once was), for a balanced and truly wise land use policy. Floyd Catchpole Kansas State University, Biology Dep't., Ackert Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506 USA phone (913) 587-4630 e-mail: FBCatchpol@aol.com "About 90% of our native flora is restricted to the stable habitats provided by our original plant communities, so an understanding and stewardship of such areas is critical if we are to carry forward into the future a possibility of association with living things other than ourselves, a few weeds, and cultivars." - Floyd Swink & Gerould Wilhelm. Plants of the Chicago Region pp 42. .