Reforestation of America

Peter Huber and Mark Mills (“How Non-Green Cities Are Rebuilding the American Forests,” Commentary, Dec. 29) have spun a wonderful fairy tale about the “green” world being created by oil wells and agribusiness. I loved the line about how “by building the city up out of nonrenewable resources, by heating and lighting it with nonrenewable fuels and by feeding it with nonorganic foods preserved with chemicals or plastic packaging” we are actually improving the environment!

I almost fell off my chair laughing until I realized they were serious. Their article is a textbook example of how to cloud an issue by stirring random facts into an illogical stew of rhetoric.

DEAN KUBANI

Santa Monica

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Yes, yes, Huber and Mills are spot on point that the greens have mischaracterized the facts to hoax people into turning more of our America over to their fantasy of what’s best for us. Cities and their suburbs do only cover 3% of the contiguous 48 states.

However, the statement that “the continent is large, most of the land is privately owned” is absolutely untrue of those states west of the Continental Divide. Large, yes, but about 83% of California is owned by the federal government and run by the Bureau of Land Management with the U.S. Forest Service. City, state and county government are big in the mix, with large corporate and family holdings dominating the rest. I’m profoundly grateful for my half-acre.

The most threatened species around is our kids in L.A. County, who need twice the field space for team sports than is currently available. I’m an environmentalist, too, and the green meanies are fringe freaks in the environmental movement gone way off the deep end.

KEVIN J. McCARTHY, Pres.

Pasadena ICE Soccer Club