Opinion for Saturday 6/09/01


                            Letters to the editor

                            Help us protect the Finger Lakes Forest

                            Drilling for natural gas and oil in the Finger Lakes National Forest is a distinct possibility.

                            In fact, because of the Resources Protection Act of 1974, which allows for development of
                            available mineral resources for the possible good of our country, the Finger Lakes Forest
                            Service either can't - or won't - consider not leasing the natural gas and oil, or at least
                            collecting royalties.

                            A group of local citizens has joined to share our concerns.

                            For example, we wonder how extensive the damage from seismological exploration could be.
                            Access to road construction, clear-cutting trees from test sites are destructive procedures
                            that are only part of an exploratory phase.

                            Drilling and piping will wreak further destruction of our roads, water and air, aside from the
                            obvious waste of forestland.

                            The Forest Service has released a 2-inch thick document, the Draft Environmental Impact
                            Statement.

                            Anyone can have one, or the much shorter summary, by visiting the Forest Service Office on
                            Route 414 in Hector and asking for it.

                            We have until July 3 to offer our comments at public hearings.

                            The Finger Lakes National Forest, a long, slender, more than 16,000 acres, located between
                            Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, is highly fragmented.

                            Drilling operations will create even more fragmentation.

                            We could be sacrificing quiet, serenity, relatively clean water and air.

                            We will be sacrificing roads and trees and habitat.

                            We ask everyone to help protect the sanctuary of the Finger Lakes National Forest. Check
                            our Web site, www.flfwe.org.

                            Stop at the Forest Service Office. Visit the forest.

                            If we do nothing, the forest may be lost.

                            DONNA BECKWITH

                            Finger Lakes Forest

                            Watch Congress

                            Hector