Keri Anne

Keri Anne, age 11, lives in a small logging town in Oregon. Her father is a logger who helps to cut the big Douglas fir trees and haul them to the sawmill. Some of the trees are very old and large. Her father said that some of them are 2,000 years old.

When the trees get to the sawmill, they are cut into lumber which is sold and shipped all over the country. Her father's company is starting to clear out a large section of old growth forest, which has a certain ecology that has existed for thousands of years. After the company clear-cuts the old-growth forest, it will plant the area with new seedling trees to make a new forest. When those trees grow up, there will be a new forest there, but the ecology will be different than the old growth forest.

Environmentalists have legally stopped the cutting of the old growth forest because of a bird called the Spotted Owl, which can only live in this environment; it can't live in new growth forest. When all of the old growth forest is cut down, the Spotted Owl will die out and become extinct. However, because there is no work, Keri Anne's father may lose his job. The family may lose its house. Keri Anne has listened at her bedroom door while her mother and father talked about it in very serious tones. If they have to move, she will lose her friends and her school, and she loves them both. She is scared and angry at the same time. The trees have been there for thousands of years and were there before people even came to this country. How can the government tell people they can't cut them down because of some rare bird!

Questions

1. Why does the company cut down the old growth forest?

2. What is more important­a few big, old trees, or jobs for people so they can provide for their families?

3. Does it really matter whether the Spotted Owl dies out and becomes extinct? Some birds have already become extinct, and life is going along okay.

4. The lumber is used for construction and to make paper. Are there ways to reduce the demand for lumber? List some.

5. Who really owns the forests? Who should own the forests? Give reasons.

6. Give your solution to the problem. Be creative and imaginative.

7. Be prepared to give a two-minute summary and/or solution to the problem.

	Copyright © 1996 Society for American Archaeology