Georgia forest cutting

Who should dictate a forest’s health?

Mother Nature? Or man?

The U.S. Forest Service is attempting to "revitalize" large swaths of the 750,000-acre Chattahoochee National Forest in far north Georgia. Plans call for thinning and burning much of a 30,000-acre chunk of mountainous terrain near Blairsville.

Critics, including a variety of environmental groups, oppose the logging in the Cooper Creek watershed due largely to potential erosion and impacts on streams and old-growth trees.

The public has until Feb. 5 to comment.

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Dan Chapman

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