Dave King: Letter reveals bias on forest management

Published: 02-07-2023 4:43 PM

A recent letter in the Gazette alleged that the “forest industry” through some mysterious means is responsible for the consensus among most Massachusetts conservation organizations, many land trusts, all universities and state agencies, and the federal government, that forest management is generally speaking a benign and even beneficial form of land use. The writer didn’t present any evidence for this ludicrous and libelous statement, and falsely claimed that this consensus is based on “outdated science.”

To the contrary, the position that forest management is a tool to promote water quality and yield, biodiversity, resilience and in some cases carbon sequestration is based on decades of controlled, replicated and peer-reviewed science, with new contributions demonstrating these values emerging each day. Perhaps the writer would suggest that the reviewers of these articles and the journals that publish them have also been infiltrated by the “forest industry?”

In addition to failing to present any evidence, the writer fails to explain how such widespread influence would be exercised by an industry that comprises less than 0.001% of the Massachusetts GDP. Like QAnon and other similar conspiracies adherents cling to with no evidence, it is hard to know what motivates people to adopt such delusions and make such shameful accusations about the organizations that have created the conservation infrastructure of the commonwealth and the nation. To the reader, the next time you read or hear a person supporting their position not with reason and evidence, but with demagoguery and character assassination, you can be confident their position has no actual merit.

Dave King

Amherst

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