The Never Ending Battle

ED ERHAPS it might be more understandable f when an Eastern newspaper commits errors in fact in an editorial excoriating the lumber industry for its logging practices near the Redwood National Park, but when a major Western newspaper scrambles the facts as badly as did the San Francisco Chronicle in a recent editorial, it gives pause to wonder if they are ever going to get their facts straight on the redwood park.

It certainly is not for lack of industry effort. Correcting the neglect of decades, the lumber industry began in the 1960s to do all it could reasonably be expected to do-and then someto get its message across to the press, particularly in California, home of the Redwood National Park. But somehow, the old misconccptions, fed no doubt by the zealots of the Sierra Club and like preservationist lobbies, continue to pJague the truth.

In an exceptionally effective letter to the editor of The Chronicle, William D. Walsh, executive vice president of Arcata National, precisely uses facts to present what is really occurring in connection with the logging being done in the area around the park. Arcata National is the parent company of Arcata Redwood, one of the three lumber companies involved; the others being l,ouisiana-Pacific Corp. and Simpson Timber Co.

Briefly, part of his letter stated: "The essence [of expert testimony] was: current logging operations are not having a significant adverse impact on [the] Redwood National Park." Additionally, that "although the environmental unit of the Attorney General's office and the Natural Resources Defense Council filed suits respectively one and two years ago alleging improper logging practices, neither has seen fit to prosecute their actions."

Closing his letter, Walsh observes "You might also discover that the operating timber companies, for obvious reasons of economic self-interest, if nothing else, take better care of the areas around the Park than does the underfunded. understaffed National Park Service."

We regret we lack the room to present this letter in full for it is a telling argument of facts and reason against the ill-based emotionalism of a supposedly responsible metropolitan newspaper that should know better.

And so the never endine battle continues.

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