1269_UgliesFreeBook

UGLIES 233
wanted to use them just to cook a meal? She looked at Shay
for support, but her friend’s expression was carefully neutral.
She probably agreed, but didn’t want to argue with
David in front of everyone about how to run his project.
“Yes, burning,” he said. “And after we’ve salvaged the
track, we’ll replant. Put a row of useful trees where the railroad
used to be.”
The five others looked at him silently. He spun a saw in
his hand, anxious to get started, but aware he didn’t have
their full support yet.
“You know, David,” Croy said. “These trees aren’t useless.
They protect the underbrush from sunlight, which
keeps the soil from eroding.”
“Okay, you win. Instead of planting some other kind of
tree, we’ll let the forest take back the land. All the crappy
scrub and underbrush you want.”
“But do we have to clear-cut them?” Astrix asked.
David took a slow breath. “Clear-cutting” was the word
for what the Rusties had done to the old forests: felling
every tree, killing every living thing, turning entire countries
into grazing land. Whole rain forests had been consumed,
reduced from millions of interlocking species to a
bunch of cows eating grass, a vast web of life traded for
cheap hamburgers.
“Look, we’re not clear-cutting. All we’re doing is pulling
out the garbage that the Rusties left behind,” David said. “It
just takes a little surgery to do it.”