It didn’t matter that the plants provided nests for birds and food for squirrels, hiding cover for deer and shelter for bear cubs, or that they added nutrients to the soil and prevented erosion—they simply had to go. Of no concern was the nitrogen added to the soil by the leafy-green alders, now clear-cut and burned to make way for seedlings. Or that the bunchy pinegrass provided shade for new Douglas-fir germinants, which otherwise ended up baking in the intense heat of wide-open clear-cuts. Or that the rhododendrons protected the smaller prickly-needled spruce seedlings from hard frosts that
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