Word: forester
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...floating in the azure sky high above Seattle. Down below, amid orange skyscrapers and forest-green mountains, the city's Space Needle -- a relic of the 1962 World's Fair -- juts up like a metallic blue mushroom. A ferry is steaming across Puget Sound, while a playful killer whale spouts and dives below the vessel...
Deforestation can set in motion forces that reduce the amount of rainfall in a given area. In a rain forest, for example, as much as half the moisture settles on trees and quickly evaporates into the sky, only to precipitate again in a continuous cycle. Thus when trees are cut down, rainfall may diminish...
...plan's proponents point out that only 3.2 of the forest's 10,930 hectares (eight of 27,000 acres) have been bulldozed so far, in preparation for installing a 25-MW, 12-well plant (only one well has been drilled). Even the most grandiose plan, which would generate 500 MW of electricity, would require only 142 hectares (350 acres). And while that would necessarily destroy some native plants and animals, at least one team of scientists from the University of Hawaii has concluded that Wao Kele O Puna has long since ceased to be pristine. Invaded by pigs, cats...
Besides, advocates say, although Hawaii is the fourth smallest state, it ranks seventh in state-owned forest land, with 364,370 hectares (900,000 acres). Another 109,320 hectares (270,000 acres) are wildlife refuges, and 11,740 hectares (29,000 acres) are solely or jointly managed by the Nature Conservancy. "To suggest that the state of Hawaii is a villain for recklessly demolishing its rain forests is insulting and unfair," said Senator Daniel Inouye in June, while asking Congress to appropriate $15 million for Hawaiian geothermal research...
Those opposed to the development contend that the state is being, if not villainous, at least reckless. For one thing, they argue, putting power plants close to an active volcano is foolhardy. Another objection is that using the total area of cleared forest land to measure environmental damage is misleading. The roads that connect cleared areas are also destructive, since they provide avenues along which species from one area can invade another (plant seeds, for example, can stick to vehicle tires). Wao Kele O Puna may not be the most pristine forest in Hawaii, but just 10% of the state...