SOMETIMES

Sometimes
if you move carefully
through the forest,

Turns out the Scouts are not so pro-conservation that they won't sell off tracts of woodlands to developers, or loads of lumber from their "camps", for a pocketful of cash. And there are other distasteful things about them, not the least of which is a long record of homophobia. I learned something of their culture when I was working as a riverguide. While it's important for someone to teach values to the youth, I'm not sure exactly what values are being taught these days by the scouts. Are any of you scouts? My father was an eagle scout. Here's a collection of articles that sheds light on the organization and what they're up to:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/specials/scoutslogging/

The rain started earlier than usual today. I was out walking in the recently shorn forest, taking picture of the big logging machines. There was one machine picking up the trees, sawing off their remaining limbs, and tossing the tops in one pile and the even-length logs in another. There was another machine with four claws that picked up piles of logs and put them on a semi truck. There were lots of guys in orange standing around beside their trucks. One of them said good morning to me. I was almost surprised that nobody chased me away.
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