A friend from long-ago college days now is a professor specializing in soil erosion: he has studied the Scot ecosystem and shares exactly those opinions. Once an area is clear cut, the erosion problem enters and often is devastating, both from erosion itself (degradation of topsoil) and rain runoff. 
 Russo's article was well-meaning, but he should have provided some sort of second, educated opinion: the last thing we need under our current national leadership is praise for destructive forestry practices!