Journalist Tom Brokaw coined the phrase "Greatest Generation" in part to refer to the accomplishments of Americans, starved by the Great Depression, who achieved great productivity both at home and abroad. The legacy of this great generation included forest restoration work done by the Civil Conservation Corps after the tragedy of the cutover. This generation also developed silviculture methods in the United States Forest Service's Argonne Experimental Forest in northern Wisconsin - practices still in use today.
The work of that great generation of foresters - "heroic," as I described in my testimony before Congress - is crumbling.
Some say tourism should take forestry's place. Then why are Forest County property values plummeting? Others say there is no demand for forest products. Then why does every Canadian National train enter Wisconsin loaded with Canadian forest products, and why have Canadian pulp imports to the U.S. increased 50 percent in the past decade?
The memory of the Greatest Generation of foresters deserves better than an under-budgeted forest service. Let's leave a better legacy to future generations and work to restore the health of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest through collaborative efforts.
executive director, Forest County Economic Development Partnership,
We must recognize the following in the management of our national forests: We can take a plant species out of the forest and it is still a forest. We can take an animal species out of the forest and it is still a forest. We can take humans out of the forest and it is still a forest. We cannot take the trees out of a forest and still have a forest!
It is ironic that the forest management policy of our national forest is led by those who reside in areas where the forest have disappeared because of development and agriculture, or who are supported by federal money to "study" the forest, while those who live here have little influence on that policy.
We must prioritize the management of trees in our national forests. We must "see the trees for the forest" or we will lose it!