Dominic DiPaolo is a field botanist and vegetation ecologist who lives and works in the Klamath-Siskiyou region of southwest Oregon and northern California. For the past fifteen years he has studied the ecology and history of the forests, woodlands, shrub lands and grasslands of this diverse and complex region as well as gotten to know as many of its non-human inhabitants as possible. He has recently published work on the historical vegetation of the Applegate Valley in Oregon and is currently developing vegetation cover maps for Crater Lake National Park and Lava Beds National Monument. Today we talk about some of the excuses used by the timber industry, the government, and “environmental organizations” like The Nature Conservancy to facilitate deforestation.