Oliver_Bill_PineAwayPineBarkBeetle.mp3

Bill Oliver [00:00:04] I wouldn't want to be a pine tree,

Bill Oliver [00:00:08] Living on a pine plantation with nothing but other pine trees in every single direction.

Bill Oliver [00:00:19] No, I'd rather be a wilderness with a mix of tree species,

Bill Oliver [00:00:27] Than back at the pine plantation where the chainsaw waits for me.

Bill Oliver [00:00:37] The wilderness is protected from cutting of any kind.

Bill Oliver [00:00:44] At least that's what the law says.

Bill Oliver [00:00:48] But that's not what I find.

Bill Oliver [00:00:52] Crews from the Forest Service are over-protecting my trees.

Bill Oliver [00:00:59] From a beetle that eats the weaker pines that are over-crowding me.

Bill Oliver [00:01:09] They say that that bug is bugging their profits.

Bill Oliver [00:01:13] So they come in the forest and they kill and they chop it.

Bill Oliver [00:01:17] But that method never stops it anyway.

Bill Oliver [00:01:24] The beetle doesn't affect the hardwoods.

Bill Oliver [00:01:28] Many pines are even immune.

Bill Oliver [00:01:31] They're the genetics we should be saving.

Bill Oliver [00:01:35] But we're cutting them down, too.

Bill Oliver [00:01:40] They've got to cut these buffer zones.

Bill Oliver [00:01:43] That've got cut buffer zones and zones of their own.

Bill Oliver [00:01:47] Let the wilderness handle the beetle in a wilderness way.

Bill Oliver [00:01:54] I say, "Pine away, pine bark beetle.

Bill Oliver [00:01:58] Turn the wilderness over to nature.

Bill Oliver [00:02:02] Let the woods be like they would be if they weren't a business venture."

Bill Oliver [00:02:10] Back at the pine plantation,

Bill Oliver [00:02:13] We got pine enough for the whole nation.

Bill Oliver [00:02:18] So pine away, pine bark beetle,

Bill Oliver [00:02:21] Turn the wilderness over to nature.

Bill Oliver [00:02:59] Burning down the barn to get rid of the rat is a foolish solution, is a foolish act.

Bill Oliver [00:03:07] And that's what the Forest Service can't seem to see.

Bill Oliver [00:03:15] Saving the wilderness by cutting it down,.

Bill Oliver [00:03:18] Is like a saving a village by bombing it out.

Bill Oliver [00:03:22] They're barking up the wrong solution,

Bill Oliver [00:03:26] And cutting down the wrong tree.

Bill Oliver [00:03:29] That beetle has been around a long, long time,

Bill Oliver [00:03:35] And you know it always will.

Bill Oliver [00:03:39] Poison just makes it stronger.

Bill Oliver [00:03:43] And cutting won't cure its ills.

Bill Oliver [00:03:46] It's selective in its pace.

Bill Oliver [00:03:48] It's selective in its kills.

Bill Oliver [00:03:50] It leaves homes in the forest where the woodpecker drills.

Bill Oliver [00:03:54] Just making its place in the wilderness, while they're taking the wilderness away.

Bill Oliver [00:04:03] So I say, "Pine away, pine bark beetle, turn the wilderness over to nature.

Bill Oliver [00:04:11] Let the woods be like they would be, if they weren't a business venture."

Bill Oliver [00:04:19] Back at the pine plantation, we got pine enough for the whole nation.

Bill Oliver [00:04:27] So pine away, pine bark beetle, turn the wilderness over to nature.

Bill Oliver [00:04:35] Pine away, pine bark beetle, turn the wilderness over to nature.