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HuffPo: South Dakota Pine Beetle Epidemic Finds Loggers And Native Americans Joining Hands
SPEARFISH CANYON, S.D. (AP) — Joe Shark's Native American heritage taught him to be leery of the timber industry on the South Dakota reservation where he grows apples and gooseberries, but a threat from an enemy no larger than a fingernail impelled him to grab a saw and join the loggers.
For more than two decades, tiny pine beetles have been a colossal pain for two competing camps in the forests of the Black Hills region — the American Indians seeking to preserve the trees and the timber workers who are chopping down thousands for profit. The infiltration of the bug has left countless trees dead, severely threatening both missions.
It has reached such epidemic levels lately that Shark and other tribal farmers with longstanding opposition to logging aren't just muting their resistance but chipping in. They're helping to clear the infected trees in order to save the non-infected ones.
"I don't agree with logging, and I never have, (but) I know in my heart I'm doing the right thing," said Shark, who spent a week this spring training to join the scores of loggers. "We are warriors for the land, and we have a duty and obligation to take the steps to leave something for the next generation."
For more than two decades, tiny pine beetles have been a colossal pain for two competing camps in the forests of the Black Hills region — the American Indians seeking to preserve the trees and the timber workers who are chopping down thousands for profit. The infiltration of the bug has left countless trees dead, severely threatening both missions.
It has reached such epidemic levels lately that Shark and other tribal farmers with longstanding opposition to logging aren't just muting their resistance but chipping in. They're helping to clear the infected trees in order to save the non-infected ones.
"I don't agree with logging, and I never have, (but) I know in my heart I'm doing the right thing," said Shark, who spent a week this spring training to join the scores of loggers. "We are warriors for the land, and we have a duty and obligation to take the steps to leave something for the next generation."
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/07/south-dakota-pine-beetle-epidemic_n_1495513.html
