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OPINION FORESTER GRADES PROFESSORS' REPORT: "A" FOR CONTENT; "C -" for PRESENTATION Ron Gosnell, a forester with 31 years experience working in Colorado's woods says of a new Colorado State University report, "You sure can't judge this one by its cover! I hope people will read it." Gosnell, who was on the advisory panel, says that, unfortunately, one of the cover photographs may perpetuate misunderstanding. He goes on to say, "We only get one chance at first impressions and people see the cover first. A county commissioner, city manager, environmental leader, water board member or forest supervisor may pick up this report, look at it and say, `If this is what they mean, then no thanks. "' Despite his disappointment with the cover photo, Gosnell is encouraged by the report's content. If people read it, he thinks it will help them understand most of what is known about Colorado forests and water. "Maybe it will help people take appropriate action," he adds. Gosnell offers the following comments about the recently published Colorado Water Resources Research Institute Report No. 196, Forests and Water: A State -of -the -Art Review for Colorado. At Last, the All- Inclusive and Up -To -Date Colorado Forests and Water Report by Ron Gosnell, Lyons, Colorado (retired, Colorado State Forest Service) Forally, Colorado has a state -of- the- art review of forestry and water. So promising are the new report's findings, that this document may serve to bring people together on previously controversial and misunderstood forestry and water issues. Colorado State University's Lee MacDonald and John Stednick suc- cessfully teamed with Colorado wa- tershed expert Charles T. Troendle and others. The product that the two professors produced is extensive and well documented. Reference literature cited will help anyone who wishes to further his or her knowl- edge on specific subject matter. However, in my opinion, their publication has a major shortcom- ing. Most glaring is the selection of one of the cover photographs, which shows an unattractive and regiment- ed patchwork of forest clearings used in some research. As a result of this photo and some others like it that have appeared in Colorado newspapers, a negative perception about forestry for water is perpetu- ated. Colorado citizens will not permit their forests to receive this kind of visually drastic forest treatment. Other similar research phographs have incited emo- tional opposition to forestry. Seeing this again, some important decision - makers may think that nothing else matters if this photo is what it's all about! The offending photograph is a commu- nications shortcoming because it does not convey the most critical concept about forestry and water to come out of research in the last decade. The breakthrough that I am referring to is by Troendle with others, and is explained in chapter two of the report. Stark forest clearings, as shown in the cover pho- tograph, are not necessary to produce greater water yields. The report tells us that additional water from a managed forest is inversely pro- portional to forest density. We can ar- tistically thin or selectively harvest trees and produce more water. In the extreme, one tree removed from a forest in snow country creates one small opening, and the tiny bit more water that is produced goes undetected. In a thinning; when you have many one -tree openings, you quickly achieve an effective threshold percent of open canopy that measur- ably increases water yield. A more appropriate cover photograph would be one that shows accumulated snow on a thinned forest's floor and immediately adjacent bare ground in an unthinned forest. Foresters encounter this scene quite often in Colorado snow country. The reason is that a dense forest canopy inter- cepts falling snow and holds it up high in the tree crowns (branches). Here, much of the snow's moisture sublimates back into the atmosphere before the snow has a chance to melt. A thinned forest, on the other hand, permits more snow to fall through the canopy openings and reach the ground where it accumulates in depth and stores water for later release during snow melt.