Somehow Iogic tells me that fawtsc's doubts are more compelling than your confidence, matty
Each participant in this forum could well imagine himself sitting in Steve Brunner's chair as he reads these daily posts. (He tells Jan he doesn't, but he also said thinnings would occur at 7,13, etc. years). As such consider this:
Visualize the main topic of this forum as a slowly spreading wildfire (suspicion of company negligence or connivery with fear of investor financial loss) which threatens to engulf us all. It developed slowly over the past two years and now is accelerating. There is one person (the owner) who all along could immediately slow its progress, if not put it out. That person stands back and lets it gather force instead of extinquishing it with truthful information about the status of his investors' trees.
Why would he not do such a simple thing to ameliorate such a huge and painful problem for so many people who believed in his enterprise? There can be only one answer to this.
belmontx
