This from the Arizona Daily Sun (9/11/03) Original Article is he

http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/na...?storyID=72888

This is a frightening prospect. It even seems that the Sierra Club
has backed off somewhat on their usual obscenely harmful position on
forest health. (But don't bank on it.) Of course he had to bring in
the WUI (Which of course has no relevency to forest health.) in his
reference to the Aspen fire. The Sierra Clubs position on diameter
caps remains, and diameter caps aren't relevent either.

Covington is a man to be believed. The 5% of the trees talked about
may make saving the forest financially possible rather than just a
hope.

Here's the article:

Arizona Daily Sun
September 11, 2002

PHOENIX -- Arizona's pine forests will be gone within 20 years if
management practices do not change, a Northern Arizona University
professor warned Wednesday.
Wally Covington told members of a special legislative panel there has
been a geometric progression every decade of the amount of land
consumed by fire. Complicating matters now is the bark beetle
infestation along with other factors such as the introduction of
non-native weeds.
"Our forest conditions are continuing to decline," he said. "The
acceleration is such that if these trends continue we really have
about 20 years left before every acre is affected and degraded by
these disturbances."
Covington, a professor of forest ecology since at NAU since 1975, said
the way to reverse the trends is to get at the underlying problem: An
overpopulation of young trees coming at the expense of older trees
that provide important wildlife habitat and aesthetic values.
"We need to restore forests to more nearly natural conditions," he
said. "We need to remove the excess trees, reintroduce periodic
low-intensity surface fires, control aggressive exotic plants."
The task force, formed by House and Senate leaders, is charged with
finding ways to restore the health of Arizona forests based on "sound
scientific principles." Covington's report was at the first in what is
expected to be a series of meetings.
Panel members also heard from Rob Smith of the Sierra Club. He and
Covington found common ground on much of the problem but with a
crucial difference -- a difference equal to about 5 percent of the
trees.
Smith said 90 percent of the trees in pine forests are 12 inches in
diameter or less, with little dispute over cutting them. He wants to
preserve the last 10 percent which are the most fire resistant but
also the most commercially attractive.
Covington, however, said another 5 percent of larger trees -- perhaps
as many as two or three an acre -- could be cut without affecting the
ecology of the forest. But those trees would bring in the cash from
commercial logging operations that could help pay the cost of clearing
out the smaller ones.
He said restoring the forests would cost about $1,000 an acre. But
allowing the cutting of some larger trees might produce $300 an acre.
Both agreed, though, that state and federal governments will have to
pony up some cash for removal of the remaining smaller trees.
Smith said that is a good investment, as it cost $40 million to fight
the Aspen fire that destroyed Summerhaven on Mount Lemmon. But an
additional $1 million spent on tree thinning around the other side of
the community -- the side from which the fire struck -- might have
saved the town