Douglas Hunter’s fascinating piece “Temperature Rising” [Spring 2007] contained a sidebar that made my temperature rise. The sidebar promotes the erroneous idea that uncontrolled, rapacious logging operations in the boreal forest must be stopped because they are “a cause of global warming.” Included in the sidebar is the statement, “At the same time that greenhouse gas emissions are increasing, forests – which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and are our best defence against global warming – are being cut down.” In a subsequent comment attributed to ForestEthics about the rate of harvesting, most readers will be left with the impression that climate change can be stopped if logging is stopped, and that forestry is a significant “cause of global warming.”

A glance at relevant publications produced by reputable organizations will confirm that the contribution of sustainable forest management and the forest products industry is much more beneficial than detrimental.

The website of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resource (MNR) confirms that the harvest of wood on Crown land is highly regulated, and that MNR and the forest industry are working very hard to practise holistic “sustainable forest management” in the process of harvesting that wood and regenerating the forests from which it comes.

– Kandyd Szuba, Domtar Inc., Nairn Centre

Correction: In the article “The lessons of the Spanish” (Summer 2007), the Spanish River Waterway Provincial Park is described as 400 kilometres wide. Wishful thinking on our part perhaps. The park is only 400 metres wide.