Murrelets Are Just Sounding the Alarm Bells

Murrelets Are Just Sounding the Alarm Bells

I was disappointed in the front-page article ''The Northwest's Showdown: Murrelets vs. Millworkers,'' June 12. The ''endangered species'' list has long included the human occupations that were listed (loggers, millworkers, farmers, and fishermen) for the simple reason that the rate of resource extraction will eliminate both the wildlife habitat and human jobs in a few years. The need to find new ways of economic livelihood for workers should be seen as giving a wakeup call to unsustainable practices.

People in this country love to point to Brazil and shout, ''Save the rain forest!'' But in our own backyard the tragic loss of the great Pacific forest is obscured by arguments that sound like an angry child demanding to stay up past bedtime to watch more TV.

John Fago Bethel, Vt.