James V. Hansen: “In 1934 a forester by the name of C. J. Buck wrote a letter to Forest Service supervisors telling them to use no more…”

“In 1934 a forester by the name of C. J. Buck wrote a letter to Forest Service supervisors telling them to use no more clearcutting, favoring a shift to partial cutting and concepts of studying trees. This lasted for 20 years. So we have tried this experiment for 20 years to see if we could get away from clearcutting. Then the Forest Service reversed their position and said no, we cannot continue that way. And the question you may ask yourself is why did they reverse their 20 year position on clearcutting? Because the Forest Service felt that they had lost a very valuable tool, a tool for wildlife management, a tool for handling lumber. Now if you go out to the West, where a lot of us live, you see these great big green carpets of pine trees. A lot of people say well, we should never touch them. I have environmentalists say to me all the time, never touch those. Leave them just as they are, so they look like a green carpet. No clearcutting, no cutting, do nothing in the forest, not even spraying the trees for the pine beetle. It costs about $8 a tree to take care of the pine beetle. The best way to do it is by cutting it out, and you get rid of the infestation, and you also take care of some lumber problems in the area. But if you do not cut them, what do you get? What you get is the same system we have seen since the beginning, since man was here. Eventually the tree dies, and then you have got all of these toothpicks sticking up in an area.”