It is important when reporting on Gov. Maura Healey’s planned logging moratorium to include the importance of keeping our forests wild for the benefit of the people, who should be the ones to benefit from our public lands.
While it is true that some conservation groups and most if not all forestry groups oppose the moratorium, they do so for their own financial interests. Some conservation groups get funding for logging their forests. Foresters are trained to manage forests as a crop, for the purpose of logging large swaths of trees for wood products. It is their livelihood.
Independent environmental, climate scientists and ecologists have nothing to gain or lose from searching for the truth. They are absolutely in favor of stopping logging our public lands for wood profits, it is only those with specific financial benefits that are upset by Healey’s plan.
Independent experts are working to find the truth about the importance of forests in helping solve climate change, biodiversity and species extinction issues. The latest science repeatedly has demonstrated that we need wild forests to sequester and store the most carbon, keep our forest ecosystems healthy, keep forest soils rich, moderating weather, feeding the water cycle, clean air, clean water and supporting a vast array of species in every part of the forest (the canopy, leaves, branches, trunk, roots and soils).
While foresters have a right to be concerned about their livelihoods with a moratorium, the moratorium also can include offering job trainings for better jobs in our state forests and parks (such as leading educational talks and walks about plants, trees, invasive species, insects, soils, biodiversity and the importance of rich, clean forest ecosystems).
Miriam Kurland
Williamsburg