Ok, here's where all the loggers in the northwest get out their axes and chain saws and come after me, but fellows, you better put on your knee pads and bring a lunch and lots of company, because you guys are only reactionary economic fanatics. I'm a religious one, and everyone knows those are the most virulent kind.

When I was eight my family moved to northern California.  It was a paradise of endless mountains filled with giant trees, and at the bottom of every mountain was a beautiful stream filled with suicidal fish that were just dying to get caught.  I scaled down the cliffs of Elk, California and sat and watched the wild life wandering through the huge fern-like seaweed in the ocean for hours on end, pried abalones off the rocks and took them home to eat, (although only a couple of times, the flavor didn't impress me much, and it took about 3000 calories of effort to obtain about 300 calories of food.) I waded up and down small creeks, sometimes from dawn to dusk, catching fish, eating black berries and thimble berries when I got hungry. I even tried eating raw fish, just to see if it would make me sick.  Sometimes I had these strange urges to just stay out there and never go home.  There was a sense of adventure, magnificents, power and freedom all mixed together. 

When I returned to those places in 1973 with my new wife to show her the wonders of my childhood, they no longer existed. The trees were all gone. I instinctively headed north to Humbolt County, thinking surely they couldn't possibly have cut all those forests, not even in twenty years. We drove along a dirt road on a ridge in Humbolt county from which one could see stumps as far as the eye could see in all directions. We went to where creeks once were and there were no creeks, the valleys had filled in with erosion. We went, in final desperation to Elk, thinking surely at least the ocean was safe from harm. Where once the rocks and bays were teeming with life, there were only rocks, and crystal clear water, totally devoid of life compared to when I was a child.  (We found a couple of sea urchins and maybe a half dozen starfish.  When I was a kid, all the rocks were covered in starfish, and sea urchins were everywhere.)  I don't know what happened to all the stuff in the ocean, but it's perfectly clear to me who killed the forests. You guys cleared forests, both private and public, from hills so steep there is no way they could avoid massive erosion under California's type of rainy seasons and regenerate themselves. You continue that kind of irresponsible and irreverent practice today. Even as an eight year old, back when nobody had even heard of the word environment, I had enough sense to know you were committing heinous sins against man and God, and if you don't, there's no sense wasting time arguing with you. I read some stuff about Theodore Roosevelt that led me to believe he and the American people had at least protected some of that grand, ancient forest from the likes of you. He did, but you and your political cronies dodged the system and took them anyway, all for the sake of a few measly bucks.

My becoming president of this country and you clearing another single acre of what's left of the original forests of America are disjoint sets. I read somewhere that we've already leveled 98% of this country's original forest land. If we can't somehow make do with that, then you certainly don't want me for president. Because if we can't agree on something as obvious as this, there's no point in us trying to agree on anything else. If you think the planting of a thousand acres of Loblolly Pines in southern Georgia somehow makes up for the destruction of even five hundred acres of virgin forest anywhere, much less in the Northwest US, all I can say is, first of all, there is an error in your thinking. You cannot duplicate a northwestern rainforest in southeastern US. Second of all, you've been too infatuated with the money to see the real value of the trees and the ecosystem they create and support.  (2011 update:  In fact, recent studies have demonstrated that contrary to conventional wisdom, old growth forests, especially redwoods, create more wood pre acre than young forests do.  And about two years ago, the government launched a ten million dollar study to try to figure out what caused the sudden collapse of the salmon population in the Sacramento River basin.  Duh, wuh?  Somebody need a lesson in the birds and the bees?  You took out all their baby making streams, dum dum!)

FORESTRY LAW #1: What's left of the National Forest that is virgin forest left standing, stands forever.

FORESTRY LAW #2. Logging in National forests that have already been logged over in the past is permitted, but will be done in an ecologically sound manner determined by the National Forest Service. Forest products will be sold to the highest bidder as long as this value is not below the current average market value. If the loggers decide roads are necessary, they will build them at their own expense, subject to the requirements and satisfaction of the National Forest Service.

PS : We're going to get rid of some dead wood in the National Forest Service, and take whatever measures necessary to make it more directly accountable and responsive to the desires of the majority of the people of America.