Editor:
The community forest and other proponents of clear cutting, which means the liquidation of natural forests and their replacement with tree farms, are still trying to tell us that we will have more biodiversity in a clear cut than in the existing old natural forest.
In answer to Tony Greenfield's letter (Coast Reporter, Nov. 16) about one species of bird that likes openings in the forest, I would like to share the following, and invite comments. In the existing Wilson Creek forest we will have at least five species of woodpecker living and nesting, at least five species of owl, eight species of amphibians, at least seven species of flowering forest plants, two or more species of reptile, bats, many other species of birds and mammals, dozens or hundreds of mosses, dozens or hundreds of fungi, the list goes on. None of these will live or breed in the clear cut for 50 or 60 years, and then it will just begin to support some life.
I invite the community forest to provide a list of hundreds of species that will immediately thrive in the clear cut (besides fireweed and bees, for a couple of years only), which we do not have now in the natural old forest with old growth characteristics.
Rick O'Neill,
Roberts Creek
