THE UNKINDEST CUTS OF ALL

The word in Atlanta is that the city’s trees are being cut down by developers at a faster rate than the rain forests of South America.

So it seemed ironic that the Georgia Forestry Commission recently declared National Forest Products Week, a salute to the “building, furniture, pulp wood and paper products industries.”

Once a verdant and smog-free oasis in the foothills of the Appalachians, Atlanta is fast becoming the Los Angeles of the South, complete with air pollution and all-day traffic jams.

Across the rest of the state the piney woods are being chopped up into golf courses and vacation retreats.