Forest Health

[cmon4day]

Dave54,

Where do you get your information? Private forest land with a mono crop of one species is more vunerable to castastrophic disease and infestation than selective forests. Once one tree gets it the rest all follow because there is no diversity in the forest to slow the progression.

I take you do not like to fish. Because what do you think the herbicides are doing once it enters the water.

Vic

[dave54]

LOL!!!

I should ask you where you get YOUR information.

Have you ever visited privately owned forestlands in the Sierra Nevada? From your post I believe you have not.

The companies mentioned in the earlier posts rarely, if ever, practice large scale regeneration harvesting. SPI is probably the most aggressive, but if you have ever looked at their forests you see a few clearcuts, but a lot more variable retentions units and group selections (those are NOT synonyms for clearcutting as the environmental industry likes to proclaim, they are different forest management techniques that enhance biodiversity over time). There is nothing wrong with clearcutting, anyway. In the right forest type under the right conditions it is the ecologically best thing to do. Due to misguided public opinion and a deliberate disinformation campaigns by the environmental industry there is too little clearcutting being done in the Sierra Nevada. The forests would be healthier if the amount was increased.

In the Sierra Nevada forests, both public and private, around 80% of the replanted acreage is with multiple species. The other 20% are sites where a single species is best suited and most likely was a pure single species stand to begin with. Even within a single species, multiple seedlots are used, and the individual seedlots are often comprised of seeds from several different stands.

In a native conifer forest stand all the trees of the same species are commonly siblings. Cousins at best. There is not a lot of genetic diversity within a single species in any individual stand. The replanted forest nearly always has MORE genetic diversity than the original forest.


I was involved in a major herbicide project in the late 80's. As part of the monitoring we had to drill wells downhill/downstream of the individual spray units. We took surface and ground water samples for 3 years following the spraying. The testing was done by two independent laboratories. Both had the same results -- no residual chemical -- ZERO!

The units we sprayed are now healthy actively growing conifers stands. The units not sprayed are now choked brushfields with a few struggling scraggly surviving conifers poking through the brush. This pattern is repeated up and down the Sierra Nevada Range.

[BSquared]

Good to have your informative posts, Dave. Environmentalists (myself sometimes included) tend to lump "industry" together under the broad heading, "bad guys who don't care." This is obviously simple-minded and short-sighted. Keep the information flowing!

[Rosabella]

Slightly off-subject, but I'm office manager for a surface-mining operation (sand and gravel) here in Washington, so I'm also looking from the "Industry's" perspective. Part of my job description is working with Department of Natural Resources, Department of Ecology, S.W. Washington Clean Air and M.S.H.A. , as well as D.O.T., Dept. of Fisheries, etc.

We dredge the rock from a mining pond, then it's crushed for gravel or washed for sand, drain rock, etc. We tend to get lumped into that "bad guy" group also. Unlike some operations like gold mines, nothing is used to process the crushed/washed rock but fresh and/or re-cycled water. We are located near a river but are not in the flood plain, and all the process water is directed back into the mining pond. Our reclamation plan with D.N.R. will leave this property in better shape than when the operation started.

I am proud to say that we have excellent records with all of the above mentioned agencies.

There's a lot of money tied up in equipment, so the last thing we want to do is jeopardize our operation by careless handling of materials, spills, or unsafe work conditions. With the unfortunate underground mine fatalities this last January, the "bad guy" stigma for the mining industry has been reinforced. The sad thing, though, is that I do know of some portable rock crushing operations that don't comply and never seem to get caught. I'm sure that some of the timber industry falls into that category, also.

Anyway, thanks. This has been an interesting thread to follow - both sides.

[dave54]

Rosabella --

Yep. Everyone loves to pick on the mining industry. It's everyone's favorite whipping boy.

How many of the critics realize, or even are capable of realizing, that the electronic glowing box in front of them right now is 100% made from materials extracted from the earth?

[AldeFarte]

Right on Dave. Excellant info. Even without ample textual research ,if one lives long enough and is OBSERVANT they can see that what you say is indeed true. Mother nature has no scars ,or wounds. Just an ever changing face. jls

[cmon4day]

Dave 54,

I have visisted private forest land and seen the devestation for myself! It's in my backyard. I have a cabin off of highway 4 near Calaveras Big Trees. There are timber harvests going on all over the place. You state that there are few clearcuts. That may be so if you stay on the main highway. Just travel on forest roads and you will see the devestation. The best way to prove you are wrong about clearcuts is board an airplane and fly over anywhere in the Sierra any you will see the patchwork of clear cuts. It is EVERYWHERE. It is more evident in the winter because of the snow.

During the clearcut all of the trees are removed and only replanted with one species, Pine. In my area no White Fir, Incense Cedar, or Mountain Oak is ever replanted.

"There is nothing wrong with clearcutting" Boy what a statement. There is everything wrong with clearcutting. Watershed degredation through erosion and siltation, loss of oxygen producing trees, loss of habitat for animals, and the use of herbicide. You state that you worked on a herbicide study and found no residue 3 years later. The chemical breaks down, but what about the 1st and 2nd years? Agent Orange was a herbicide and it too breaks down, but look at the damage it has done to the people of Vietnam. The use of of glyphosate causes a negative impact on mammals, birds, fish, microflora, aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates.

The bottom line is that lumber companies do not care about anything but profit. If left alone the forests will be gone. Pure and simple. If you dont think this is true look what is happening in Malyasia, South America, and Africa. Vast forests are being decimated leaving a scared earth that contribute to the degredation of environment. If there weren't environmentalists who care about the forest, there wouldn't be any forest left. So go hug a tree.

Vic

[AldeFarte]

VIC baby. You gotta do some better research. It is very short sighted of you to think of any forest as something that won't change, shouldn't change, or is even healthy to stay the way you see it today. Clearcutting of MATURE forest is usually the best way for regeneration in most terrain types. Hey, I don't like it either.It is ugly at first and heartbreaking, but in the absence of unchecked fire, it is a good way of doing things for the ultimate health of the forest. It has been my observation that visible clearcutting accelerated after the eco nuts foisted that phony spotted owl crap on us and large scale logging came to a standstill on guberment {public} lands. Sooo, timber became very valuble and every joe blow with nice timber on the back 40 sold it. Anyway, I think you are barking at the wrong country. We pretty much have a handle on sustainable yield forest here and you probably should make a pilgrimage to one of them third world places where they truly don't give a damn and they are ravishing their forest and try to change their collective thought process. Might do some good. jls

[caddis]

During the clearcut all of the trees are removed and only replanted with one species, Pine. In my area no White Fir, Incense Cedar, or Mountain Oak is ever replanted.

It's been my experience that after walking through a logged area or burned area, these trees comeback as thick as weeds so they probably do not need to be replanted. You come to respect them the more for it

loss of oxygen producing trees, loss of habitat for animals,

More "life" can be found in areas after fires and logging...ask any hunter who searches those areas out.

The bottom line is that lumber companies do not care about anything but profit. If left alone the forests will be gone. .... If there weren't environmentalists who care about the forest, there wouldn't be any forest left. So go hug a tree.

Vic

You can keep telling yourself these things but it doesn't make them true

[hikerduane]

Pine is more valuable than other species, it will bring in more money when harvested. White fir, (piss fir to wood cutters and loggers because of its smell) doesn't have as much value. Where I live, about 5 miles away, the Tussock moth came in and killed off many of the thicker stands of predominately White fir over a couple years, then the Forest Circus came in and clear cut it and replanted. One area, maybe five miles away from the first spot, they had a logger cut healthy White fir trees around 20" or so in diameter, pile and burn them. I had connections with the logger because they bought fuel where I worked, so I had them skid a few logs out to a landing so I could buck them up. That was a waste, seems to me the trees could have been sold to the mill.