Letters.

APPRECIATING WILDFIRE

editor: This is the kind of information that needs to be relayed to the people of America: the fact that fires don't necessarily kill trees. That there is a recycling process done by nature to start off a new forest. That fires can be beneficial in killing off trees that need killing, like diseased trees.

It's interesting that nature has a recycle process that ranges from 100 years to 500 years. Since man sometimes causes these fires, it's important for all of us to plant trees after a major forest fire and to maintain our balance with nature.

I was a firefighter with the California Department of Forestry and I used to be amazed at how new tree seedlings started to grow after a few years. Nature is a wonderful thing and all we have to do is learn to appreciate the process of nature (American Forests. Autumn 2001).

Paul Dale Roberts 

Elk Grove. California

THE NAKED TRUTH

editor: Reading the Autumn issue I was struck by the photo of the nude female body from the waist to the neck, with hands chastely covering a portion of her breasts. I was even more intrigued by the thought of Ms. Dona Nieto, standing stark naked, along a road greeting loggers as they headed into the woods to cut redwood trees.

Frankly, I'm unable to grasp how this act could have any impact on whether the Mendocino Redwood company cuts these trees.

A few ideas crossed my mind.

The company is a subsidiary of GAP clothing stores. They might hire her as a model for some of their clothes.

American Forests could feature Ms. Nieto as a "centerfold" as part of "ReLeaf" campaign, holding a few small leaves in a pose of pseudo-modesty.

But on reflection, I must confess that the whole idea of parading stark naked before any audience to prove a point is as senseless as having Ms. Nieto pose for a centerfold in American Forests to prove a point.

Robert E. Wolf

St. Leonard, Maryland 

editor: I find it hard to believe that it was really necessary to publish the photo of the naked woman on page 19 of the Autumn 2001 issue of American Forests. Really, is it necessary to lower your magazine to tins level? I am disappointed.

Ramona M. Worden

Via e-mail

PLANT A TRADE CENTER TREE

editor: You gave blood, you sent a check, you donated work boots and D batteries. You bought a flag before the stores ran out. You want--you need--to do more. Plant a tree.

If you have a patch of ground to hand and a chunk of sky above, put in a tree. A tree of remembrance and a tree of hope for the future. It could be a fine American native, like white pine, used for ships' masts, or tulip poplar, which can grow to 190 feet, straight as a tower. A sugar maple, winch will flame up so brilliant orange in autumn it seems to warm the air around it.

Beloved indigenous trees, such as the cathedral-branched elm, the stolid chestnut, and the dogwood, have suffered terrible killing blights. Dedicated arborists are developing resistant varieties of the elm and are laboring on the chestnut, by crossing them with Asian strains. Take a chance on one of these genetic wagers; increase their odds by increasing their numbers.

Or choose an exotic, an immigrant tree. We, the fortunate, live in a time and a country where magnificent trees from every nook and niche of the blue-green globe can be found and purchased for the price of a dinner out, gathered like a botanical United Nations, at any local nursery.

Somber and dignified blue atlas cedar from the mountains of Algeria and Morocco, the hardy yet ethereal Japanese maple. From China two fossil trees: the dawn redwood and the gingko, enduring and ancient beyond imagining yet amazingly at home on city streets.

There are trees which speak to us of loss and mourning in their very shape and posture: deodar cedar from the Himalyas, the pendulous European beech and weeping Higan cherry.

One wise and comprehensive treeman has warned against the 'foolhardy landscaping" of monoculture. He recommends, rather, a landscape "encompassing many different species and cultivars."

So pick a tree, plant a tree. No matter what land its ancestors left behind, a tree will thrive wherever it finds the soil, the water, and the atmosphere to its liking. And it will provide oxygen, and shade and strength and coolness and rustling in the breeze, to any passerby, grateful or heedless.

In some civilizations of the ancient world, the planting and care of trees was a fundamental of education and upbringing. Even in war, destruction of palm trees or orchards was looked on as an act of unthinkable, unpardonable barbarity. Planting a tree, helping it grow to green glory is the simple opposite of cruelty and barbarism.

Plant a tree next to your American flag. Dig a big wide hole the size of the pain in. your heart. Fill it with good earth. Bring home your balled and burlapped bet on the future. Spread out the roots and water it in. Tie a yellow ribbon around the trunk if you want--gently.

The ribbon will fade and fray, but the tree will grow and spread its life-giving comfort ever higher and wider for seasons and generations to come. And each time you pass your tree, you will remember and have hope for the future.

Its fall. It's a good time to plant a tree.

Barclay Walsh

Via e-mail

PLANT MORE TREES

Would you in your editorial urge farmers to plant trees on stream and river banks to stop eroision. Also, in plots of 3 or 5 or 10 acres to have building materials for the future. This makes a place for birds and animals as a haven of safety and a home. It also would make a place for meditation and prayer and places for recreation.

Kenny Weaver

Edgerton, Ohio