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The Beauty of Clearcuts
"THE BEAUTY OF CLEARCUTS" by Ms. Bonnie Chasteen I kid you not. Above is the title of an article by Bonnie Chasteen, in volume 68, Issue 12, page 11, December, 2007, Missouri Conservationist. The article, shallow and basically nonsense, implies that the "ugliness" of a clearcut is what offends thinking people. Of course a clearcut is ugly!! A clearcut is ugly to nearly everyone, whether you are a thinker, or you are on automatic pilot. The article "teaches" us that upland birds such as quail are helped by clearcuts. Oddly, I observed my first clearcut on public lands in about 1976-77, and for the next 30 years saw an exponential increase in public land clearcuts, accompanied by a commensurate decrease in quail numbers in Missouri. The declines in quail numbers may remain a mystery, but one thing is certain--clearcutting is not the answer to reviving quail populations. Another bizarre statement is that "clearcutting can play a useful role in sustainable forest management. It removes the canopy providing sunlight to young seedlings struggling to survive.", proclaims Ms. Chasteen. The article, I suppose, is meant to evoke "sympathy" for those poor "young seedlings struggling to survive". I have news for Ms. Chasteen and all of the MDC. All of life is a struggle and all organisms are basically struggling to survive. Hey, I have an idea--instead of hiding behind the term "remove the canopy", the Missouri Department of Conservation should admit the truth, that they favor the practice of chipping, shredding, and otherwise destroying all older trees in order to help those poor struggling seedlings. Finally, in the event Ms. Chasteen failed to convince us to love the MDC's totally unsustainable forest management tool of clearcutting, the magazine resorts to subliminal programming of readers. The article in question is strategically placed immediately adjacent to a huge one-quarter page color photo of some very beautiful, long. tall, native shortleaf pines in the Angeline Conservation Area, a photo which literally grabs the attention of anyone glancing at the page. Well, I'm not convinced clearcuts have any positive value. Not even partly convinced. My grade for the article: D
These photos are of a "beautiful" MDC clearcut in the Angeline Conservation Area overlooking and visible from the Jacks Fork National Scenic River near Alley Spring. You can view more pictures of logging in Angeline in the Photo Gallery
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Here's the link to the
Here's the link to the original story:
http://www.mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2007/12/forest.htm
In the printed issue this appears as a side bar next to a story about Angeline Conservation Area:
http://www.mdc.mo.gov/documents/conmag/2007/20071201.pdf
Ms. Chasteen is listed as staff writer, and questions about printed content presumably may go to the email Magazine@mdc.mo.gov.
beauty of clear cuts
Linda, I was so glad to see your post on this article. Who would ever thought, the beauty of a forest, was to see what was left after it was liquidated by industrial harvesting practices.
mike s.
Missouri Conservationist
With such brilliant conservation writers as Bonnie Chasteen, I now just pitch that rag into the recycling bin. It isn't worth the paper or ink it's put on. This is confirmation that MDC is a lost cause.