Dale,

I probably over-reacted, and I know logging can be done in a more conservative fashioned approach, as you point out, rather than clear-cut.  Also, I appreciate the small percentage of forest this will include in the Tongass.  It worries me though, because this may just be the beginning of a much larger region of forestry in future, and also, because it is the last of the last old forest hardwood in the US.   Did they really need to go in there, or were/are there other options?

On another note..didn't know you were from Maine ( I think one or two of the other posters are as well?).  I spent a very memorable few months many years ago on Great Pond (it was the "Golden" Pond upon which the movie/play On Golden Pond, was based).   I had a little cabin there, lakeside (in that part of Maine they call them "camps").  It was replete with natural beauty, the warbling loons each morning and a canoe for me to explore the coves and shoreline.  There was an island in the middle of the lake, Hoyt Island, which was virgin when I lived there (1979 summer); I hope they didn't put houses on it since.   I remember walking down a little path from my cabin,  jumping in the lake for a dip each night before bed, and just letting the wind off the lake blow through my open windows, as I fell asleep softly on an old feather bed.  There was a beautiful panelled den, with wood burning fireplace and a stone chimney.  I spent the summer playing guitar, painting, and partying with some new-found friends from the South (Maine was the first place I lived in the US since moving from Canada, so meeting southerners was even more of a "first" for me).   I was taking a medical course at Colby college, but didn't study near enough...the beauty of the place was too distracting.  The last eve I spent there, cleaning out my kitchen from our last party, as the quiet began to creep in again, made me cry openly, because I knew I had to leave, and of all places to do my residency training in Cleveland, Ohio.   But I did get to go back and visit, around the time of my honeymoon a few years later, and the place hadn't changed.   Belgrade Lakes...wonderful memory.  

I'm long overdue for another visit...

Happy Holidays,

Gene