Forest Service Pamphlet Uses Deceptive Photographs, Urges More Logging

RENO, Nev. - "The Forest Service has been accused of misrepresenting forest conditions by using misleading photographs in a brochure that urges more logging to prevent wildfires in the Sierra Nevada.

The pamphlet, created by a public relations firm, explains that fire risks have risen as the Sierra's forests have grown more dense the past century. Six small black-and-white photos spanning 80 years appear beside descriptions of how the "forests of the past" had fewer trees and less underbrush, making them less susceptible to fire.

The 1909 photo shows an open, park-like forest with large trees spaced widely apart. More trees and underbrush appear in each successive picture — 1948, 1958, 1968, 1979 — and finally a photograph thick with trees in 1989. "Today's forests, dense with green, may seem beautiful, but in fact are deadly," the pamphlet reads. "Our old-growth forests are choking with brush, tinder-dry debris and dead trees which make the risk of catastrophic fire high."

However, the 1909 photo does not depict natural conditions — it was taken just after the forest had been logged. And the pictured forest is nowhere near the Sierra Nevada. It's in Montana. "I was looking at the picture and I thought it looked awful familiar," said Chad Hanson, director of the John Muir Project in Cedar Ridge, Calif. "I started looking around and sure enough, the industry has used it before in Montana. It's from the Bitterroot Valley."

EDIT

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x7156

--Peter

The link here does not require a user account to access and there are some differences in the two articles (mostly stylistic). It is (they are?) a good article in any case! :)

After all, the other thread was still quite small. :-)

--Peter