National forests
Dear President Obama:
I wish to register my opinion in support of your shift of US policy toward roads and access to our national forests.
As you know, these forests represent a tiny fraction of the magnificent stands that greeted the first colonists. As such, the need to be protected with vigilance and energy.
The forests give so much beyond the timber and other economic products generally recognized. They are havens for our wildlife, which is under siege from pollution, overdevelopment, and improper management of introduced species.
But more important, the forests are the local source of most of our rain. More than half of moisture that ends up as rain is held in the body of the forest or captured from the air by the trees when they intersect clouds or winds. When forests are cut, that moisture is lost from the system. Worse, the uncovered land then heats up and dries, and those conditions further desiccate the remaining moisture from other sources. The rain that then falls does not filter into the ground to support vegetation and replenish groundwater but it scours the ground of topsoil and the floods off to foul the waters of our reservoirs and fisheries.
Thank you for contributing to the future of our forests and the maintenance of all their great services to our country.
Sincerely,
Anna C. Roosevelt
Evanston, IL
