Natural processes such as pine beetle, mistletoe, and fire are important components of the Medicine Bow ecosystems, without which they cannot be healthy. Unfortunately, the Forest Service has suppressed these processes and has used them as an excuse to promote large scale logging operations-at great harm to the plants and animals which live here. The Citizens' Plan will work to restore natural processes to their rightful place in the forest ecosystems of the Medicine Bow.

Healthy forests need dead and dying trees.

• Natural processes create food and habitat. Owls nest in mistletoe. Woodpeckers nest in standing dead trees and eat insects that are tree parasites.
  
  
• Natural processes are essential components of the nutrient cycle within forests, promoting rebirth and growth of new plants and trees.
  
  
• Natural processes, unlike clearcut logging, don't kill all the trees. Some are left to provide habitat and to grow and thrive.

Even if it was a good idea to entirely stop all forest fires, it simply isn't possible. In fact, logging may actually increase fire risk.

• Logging operations target the largest and oldest trees in an area, even though these trees, with their thick bark and high branches, are the most fire resistant.
  
  
• Logging removes the forest canopy, which normally keeps a forest floor cool and moist. Without a canopy, the sun dries out potential fuels lying on the forest floor.
  
  
• A great deal of dead wood, called slash, is often left behind by logging operations. Logging slash quickly dries out and becomes extremely flammable.