Bill Cook

ESCANABA — If you love forests, then you also need to love loggers, sawmills, papermills, and thousands of other companies that comprise the forest industry. What? Really? Yep. For too long, logging and the forest industry community have been unfairly regarded with disdain and mistrust. Certain elements of the environmental community have taken great pains to paint the industry with a long list of disagreeable labels. And, it just ain’t so. A hundred-plus years ago society viewed forests as an impediment to development and progress. The whole idea was to get rid of forests. …Forestry, today, is a multi-faceted and complex profession ranging from high-end harvesting technology to field research into climate change and the roles of forests. …Human beings require forest products and forest services, such things as wood, clean water, habitat, carbon sequestration, and so on. …Forests, forestry, and logging are one of the few elements in our economy that are truly green.