"Environmentalists are trying to get back to a "pristine" continent that never existed - back before the evil Europeans came. The reality is that back then Indians were driving whole buffalo herds off cliffs, poisoning fish, cannibalizing each other, and lightning-caused forest fires burned uncontrolled from coast to coast.

It's true that the Indians didn't screw up the environment as much as do - but that's only because there weren't many of them. Environmentalists need to forget about Hiawatha and realize that an advanced nation of 300+ million people has to have a massive amount of energy and fuel. Then they should work constructively on minimizing the bad effects of the various ways we produce and use that energy."--Ozark

Ozark I think you may want to provide clarity to your answer as hillbilly has taken these words and constructed an argument against man interface with the forests

are you saying we should just leave them alone as Hellbender and hillbilly suggest or do we tap into this natural resource as I and everyone who lives near the damn forest suggests