Jungle has gone

I read with dismay and disappointment the letter in the Oct. 7, 1995 issue of The Jakarta Post about the rolling, grassy hills in the area between Samarinda and Sanggata in East Kalimantan. When I used to drive through the area in the early 1980s the hillsides were covered not with scraggly grass, but with lush, seemingly vibrant jungle. But loggers and slash-and-burn farmers have shown how fragile the forest really is.

The letter writer may see it as a wonderful opportunity for someone to make lots of money raising herds of zebu cattle. He may come from a country where trees are considered obstacles to be removed instead of useful and beautiful parts of an ecology. He may not be aware that the top soil in the area is extremely thin and the soil underneath virtually free of nutrients. He may not be able to imagine that cattle would destroy even the grass that he finds such an opportunity, allowing the hillsides to erode into the gullies.

Then again, having read previous letters from the same gentleman, he may not care.

GARY GENTRY

Jakarta