Cutting trees to save the environment... seriously!!

[Power Wagon]

http://www.ens-news.com/ens/jan2002/2002L-01-25-06.html



The link above is a story from some apparently slightly wacked out people who have much to gain from some good old fashioned scare mongering.



However, the solution is very simple - and profitable too!!!



We GOT TO GET LOGGING AND GET TO IT FAST!!!!



It's time to start on a studied and carefully planned system of cutting down older growth trees and replacing them with new... According to these guys, it's imperative for our water and air quality. Go figure!



I just knew we were on the right track all along. Logging solve so many ills, and creates non that I can find (provided it's done with just a little sense), and now it's demonstrated to be absolutely necessary. Cutting and planting... it's our only salvation.

 

[WyoJim]

Thanks Power Wagon... I am retired now, but I spent a good part of my life logging in PA. One thing though, I don't know of any Virgin forests in PA.

 

[DaveN]

This article talks about nitrogen, but the same thing applies with carbon dioxide. The younder trees absorb more carbon dioxide (as they are fast growing carbon based life forms) versus the older more mature trees. So if you want to scrub the air and soil, you remove the older treees and allow the younger trees to grow. of course this needs to be balanced with reducing environmental emmisions... .



I do have to agree though that an old growth forest IS a nicer place to be than a younger forest. But you don't need all of the forests to be old growth, just some... .

 

[Crazy Horse]

Well WyoJim,

While were here, where abouts in PA? There sure is some nice country up there in those Allegenies. I did allot of running around up Bull Hill out of Sheffield if you know that area.

 

[Alaskaskiff]

Support earth first, we'll log the other planets later!



Seriously, new growth has real value. Might as well get the $ and use from the wood instead of fires and having to pay to put them out.



Additionally, the animals (deer, etc) can be supported in larger numbers with the regrowth process. While those big old trees look nice, there is little to nothing for the critters to eat. This also creates more animals for me to hunt and eat!

 

[Power Wagon]

Andy, you nailed it down very tightly.



A healthy, growing forest is dramatically more effective and productive at the things forests do, than an old and dying one.



Amazingly enough, environmentalists campaign with fanatical fervor to "save" old-growth forests, which tend to be monospecies or nearly so, and are no longer useful to man or wildlife.



Yet, many environmentalists rant on fanatically at preventing our forests from becoming "monospecies tree farms". Except for small areas of private land, I have never seen a planting project produce a monospecies forest. Invariably, there's a natural mix between the planted and existing regrowth. It may favor, or be heavily single species, but then often so do "natural" forests.



I wonder why it's good when nature does it, and bad when man does it.

 

[illflem]

I agree that a logged forest is a healthily forest, but since less than 1% of the nation's forests are old growth I say let them be...



Sure can't beat old growth for lumber quality though. The new fast growing hybrid trees that are replanted after logging make for lousy lumber when the growth rings are 1/2" apart.

 

[Power Wagon]

We have some tree farms around here that grow pulpwood trees. These things get 70 feet or so tall in 7 years. They cut them down 8 years from planting. And they're big by then! Good paper trees, I understand.



As far as planting hybrids... Comparitively little land is planted with hybrids. I'm talking about a nationwide, every-place-but-the-parks-and-preserves program of select cutting and replanting in a reasonable variety of species. Funny, the places I logged in Montana... I drove by one of them last summer on vacation. I coiuld NOT find any trace of evidence of our logging it in 1978-79. It's greener, lots of young trees, and the erosion that was going on in a small ravine has has stopped.



It wasn't even replanted, for that matter. And now it looks like they are planning to select cut log it again. It needs it. Lots of older and dying lodgepole left.

 

[Sled Puller]

Pennsylvania has more harvestable hardwood right now, than when th old Bill Penn got here in the first place.



I believe Cooks Forest is Virgin, or dang close to it.



Our biggest problem is grapevines killing the trees. If let go, they can destroy thousands of acres. But it is natural, so that is ok, right?

 

[WyoJim]

Crazy Horse... Spent my first 52 years around Bradford PA. Had logging jobs in McKean, Warren, and Potter Counties and what ever County Marionville is in. Also over around Salamanca NY next to the Indians. I could go back to Sheffield, but an unfamiliar with Bull Hill. Am planning on looking Alaska over this summer. (From the highway)



MGM... you are probably right about Cooks Forest. I had forgot about that. Since I have relatives in Seigel, Brookville and Clarion I should have remembered. Getting old I guess.

 

[brucew]

old growth timber

i lived in the northeast section of pa. till about 4 years age when i moved to sunny florida. there was a state park called ricketts glenn. i believe a couple of years before we moved the state sold about 50 acres of sec\lect cut requiring(due to the terrain) a chopper to remove the timber. i believe state forresters said that select site was as close as it got in pa. to virgin timber. the park was located in sullivan, wyoming and luzerne counties , i believe.

 

[illflem]

PW, you may be right about forests not being replanted in 1941, but not anymore. It is the law in at least WA, MT and OR that logged areas be replanted, most often done with hybrid nursery raised trees.

http://www.woodcom.com/woodcom/woodcom/ftf-03.html

 

[Alaskaskiff]

Bill,



Those states listed have at least decent, and in some cases good management of state forest lands. You can include Idaho in that as well. They (ID) even make a significant profit off their forest lands. The state has a minimum of one section of each township. Funny thing is the same plots right next door that are run by the Forest Service lose money...



As a side note my brother works for the ID Dept of Lands...

 

[LarryB]

FWIW



I have been importing Keruing shiplap and plywood flooring for the ocean container repair industry for over 10 years now. I have been to Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Borneo on buying trips. I have visited the forests, mills, ports, forestry associations and others.



It is amazing to realize that select harvesting of rainforest wood gives the forrest value needed to support the native people. If these forests are not select harvested then they have no value to the local economy, and are cut and totally destroyed to create farmland. It makes very poor farmland as the topsoil is thin and after a few years the farmer needs more land to feed his family so destroys more forest. The history of forestry in that part of the world, as in others, is quite interesting.



My conclusion? Too many people, too little planet. And Yes, Cutting trees to save the environment... seriously!!