Deforestation--Speak up Loggers

[338RUM]

Had a good conversation with an old family friend on the mountain this summer. He is a logger, STILL, somehow. With all the rules, Spotted Owl, Three Toed Woodpecker, etc., guess what one of his biggest complaints was. Yes, it's just because he (they) are tired of the bureaucratic BS that won't let them clean up a forest that has already been burned (Dutton), or take trees that are dying from Beetles, but I had to think about it for a bit. Christmas Trees....It's illegal for them to cut dead, burnt, trash crap out of our forests, but once a year, how many live pines are cut? Just curious and remembered that conversation tonight because of how many trees I've seen come by my house on top of vehicles today...What do you guys thing about this almost extinct business in America?

"We can have no "50-50" allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all".
Theodore Roosevelt

 

[excavator]

I am not a logger, but I have spent most of my life growing up in a logging community. I live in Douglas County, Oregon, which is the former timber capital of the world.

Seeing the demize of logging, and its impact on the people who live here and the hunting has been painful. Logging is tree farming, and it is too bad that the emotionalism and irrational thinking that defines environmentalism has destroyed so much.

Anyway, on to the hunting impacts of decreased logging. The Blacktail deer and Roosevelt Elk populations have suffered because of the lack of clear cuts (food sources), especially on Federal lands. I don't prefer hunting clear cut areas myself because they are magnets for other people, but it can't be denied that they provide the food to increase populations. I have seen populations go up and down in relation to the number of clearcuts in the one to ten year old stage. Around here, it is just common logic that more clearcuts equals more game.

It is a shame that we are kept from utilizing this renewable resource.

 

[Model_70_Guy]

LAST EDITED ON Nov-28-10 AT 07:39AM (MST)[p]+1 - Very well stated excavator.

 

[luckless]

+1

My hometown, Glendale (also in Douglas County), used to be home to two mills and a plywood plant. Now it has none, but meth has taken over. It is so sad for me to see "well-intentioned", but mislead city dwellers make irrational decisions about a topic they know little of first hand...

DC

 

[ktg]

I was in the timber industry for nearly 20 years up until 2 years ago. It was just like the deer in Utah. Every year became more of a joke.

 

[sageadvice]

There is a full functioning logging mill in the little mountain town that i live. When i moved here 27 years ago, seemed like most of the people here either worked construction or for the Mill. They are a very good employer to work for and though not real high wages, they do pay well and have benefits for the family man. Lucky for them, they own most all their own timber lands and are set up by their advanced harvest programs to NEVER run out of trees to harvest.

As far as Christmas trees, there are literally millions and millions of young regrowth trees about everywhere you look within 20 or more miles of here. There are rules against cutting the single isolated tree but some places you can hardly walk because the young trees are so close together. Those that think there a few trees really need to get out and take a look at this country or better yet, go up in a small plane and keep your eyes open.

We don't clear cut here, they pick and choose the individual trees. But i wish that they did clear cut. As said, it opens the earth to new growth and makes better habitat for our game animals.

Joey

 

[ktg]

LAST EDITED ON Nov-28-10 AT 02:25PM (MST)[p]The outlawing of clearcuts and chaining is one of the many factors leading to the decline of deer in Utah. I used to see tons of deer in clearcuts that were up to several years old. They loved those places. And one of my best places to hunt was an old chained area, until the trees got head high again.

 

[deerbedead]

Just for info my grandpa owned and operated a sawmill, and logging business, and my dad owned a timber cutting operation, and now operates a small sawmill. I grew up logging, cutting timber in So. Utah, and No. Arizona on the Kaibab. So I guess you could say I'm a third generation logger that has been forced to change my occupation because of treehuggers, s.u.w.a., special interest groups, spotted owls, queers, ...you name it.

I think we should keep cutting Christmas trees. It's the only use of the wood in the forest anymore. We don't cut live timber around here, and now we don't cut dead standing timber either, so we might as well cut a few trees for Christmas because they won't ever be used again unless someone happens to find a tree that has died, fell over, and they cut it up for fire wood.

I know I have a bad attitude about this because I think we have let the special interest groups sue us out of using the natural resources, and change a way of life that I wanted to keep.

Oh, and by the way the loggers on the tv shows are a bunch of foul mouthed, dangerous, idiots.

DeerBeDead

 

[ktg]

>... that
>has been forced to change
>my occupation because of treehuggers,
>s.u.w.a., special interest groups, spotted
>owls, queers, ...you name it.
>

I think that's the story with most of us. It was a sad day when only 30 miles from our mill there were millions of board feet of dead timber (which is what we used) and the forest service just let it rot on the stump. When the canadian exchange rate was about 0.60:1, we started having logs shipped in from British Columbia, 1400 miles. It was an even sadder day when the exchange rate went over 1:1 and we decided to throw in the towel. That timber 30 miles from here still rots on the stump.

 

[3blade]

>LAST EDITED ON Nov-28-10
>AT 02:25?PM (MST)
>
>The outlawing of clearcuts and chaining
>is one of the many
>factors leading to the decline
>of deer in Utah.
>I used to see tons
>of deer in clearcuts that
>were up to several years
>old. They loved those
>places. And one of
>my best places to hunt
>was an old chained area,
>until the trees got head
>high again.

I think its a major factor myself. Deer can't eat pine needles.

 

[eelgrass]

+1 on all the above.

It really is sad to see, and live through. Trees are a renewable resourse, and the healthiest forests are on private land now.

I used to have hope that America would wake up, but it seems we're slipping downhill faster all the time. Our best days are behind us. I truely believe that.

Eel

 

[opbuckslayer]

+1 more proof that anything our government manages will be screwed up.