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aiguments that our forests and ova air and our water must be protected. When we moved 

 to Hill City in 1976 for inK*ance, I used a minimum of paper products — no paper towels, 

 no paper plates, no paper napkins, etc.— in the mistaken belief that I was 'saving trees'. 



It was quite a shock to me when Bruce took a job cutting trees. I was not able to talk him 

 into changing his mind, so I started researching. I wanted to be able to show him how 

 'morally wrong" his job was. I talked to lifelong Hills residents, I spent hours in libraries, 

 and I found old written accounts and photos of tiie Black Hills. 



The fact that I am sitting here today shows that my research backfired. Instead of learning 

 about the 'evils' of logging, I learned that we have more trees in this coimtry than we had 

 100 years ago. I learned that many wildlife species that were on the verge of extinction at 

 the turn of the century are now flourishing because of the efforts of loggers and himters. I 

 learned that wood is the most environmentally-safe and cost-effective building material 

 that we have, that logging has helped to reduce by approximately 90% the amount of trees 

 lost each year to carbon-spewing wildfires, and that insect and disease infestations have 

 been dramatically reduced because of the sensible management of our forests, using 

 logging as the primary tool. I learned that responsible logging can mimic natural processes 

 to increase the health and the beauty of our forests and to rejuvenate them with young, 

 vibrant trees that supply our worid with the oxygen we require. 



I learned that our National Forest system was created in large part to "furnish a continuous 

 supply of timber for the use and necessities of the citizens of the United States" (Organic 

 Act, 1894), and diat the harvesting of timber on these National Forests has actually 

 increased the amount of timber available for future generations while improving the forest 

 environment itself I learned that we harvest only about 1/2 of 1% (.5%) of our National 

 Forests each year. I learned that our forests will be managed — if not by man, with the 



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