World Rainforest Information

Website Review

www.rainforestWeb.org/

This site opens to the Portal leading to information on World Rainforests. Links were available to Victory in Chile, Renewed Controversy as Disease Racks Camisea, Protect an Acre of Rainforest, and Pipeline Threatened Ecuador’s Rainforest.

Specific questions were listed.
Why are rainforests important?
What is happening?
Why are they destroyed?
How are they protected?
Finally, how can I help?

There is also a “take action site”.

Since I lived in Sitka, Alaska for nineteen years in a cool rainforest area, I have a different view point than many. The commercial trees in this forest were the Sitka Spruce. It is a fine hardwood for making pianos, tag board, boats, and planes. When we first arrived in town there was a pulp mill that was owned by the Japanese. This mill helped pay our national debt by the trees that the Japanese bought from the U.S. (the Tongass National Forest area and the native population tree area). By the time we left Sitka, the pulp mill was shut down. There were hundreds of law suites to stop the harvesting of trees. Eventually, the American owned pulp mill in Ketchikan, AK was closed down also. Loggers were not allowed to harvest the crop. Many people were put out of work. The forest is dead and dying because of the age of the trees. They will now just rot in the ground and not be harvested. This is a sad state of affairs. I hope that teachers will be able to give both sides of this argument and not just the one.

The Medicine Bow Forest is currently fighting a very serious bark beetle infestation. I do hope that people will be reasonable and let these trees be harvested before they either rot or burn up. This is a controversial topic. Ida M. Rounds