Is Southern Oregon still cutting down its old growth / ancient forests? (Medford: house, live)

[TxinRearvyew]

Has the rate slowed?
And / or ... what will happen to towns like Grants Pass and Medford when all the clear cuttable trees are gone?

Gracias.

[Larry Caldwell]

Logging does not cause deforestation. Any area that is clear cut is replanted within the next growing season. It only takes about 40 years for a tree crop to mature, so land that was clear cut in 1974 is ready to go again. Trees are a renewable resource.

There never were any ancient forests in Southern Oregon. It's a fire climax ecology. A tree is lucky to survive to be 100. The best commercial tree is Douglas fir, which is a short lived opportunistic weed that needs bare ground and direct sun to reproduce. The PNW climax forests are western red cedar and spruce. You will still find some climax forests near the coast where it is wetter and fires don't burn so hot.

The feds have essentially shut down logging in the national forests, and the BLM has not had a good track record of timber sales. It has reached the point where excess trees are damaging the ecology. Birds and animals need open land. We can expect more massive forest fires as the fuel load continues to build up. The terrain is very mountainous, and without logging roads there is no way to get equipment in to fight fires.

The State of Oregon has started selling off the state forest system, because it is too expensive to maintain if they can't log it, and logging receipts don't even cover the tab for the lawsuits. Once the land is in private hands, it will go back to being managed for timber production.

The end choice is either to log the trees or burn them down. There are only two ways of getting rid of them. Recent political pressure has pushed for "natural" fires but I expect the political pendulum to swing back. Meanwhile, there is no shortage of timber.

[oldtrader]

The Indians were burning the forests in Oregon long before the white men came. Deer and other game they relied on for food, need to be able to have food like grass provides. Thick tall trees, cut off the sunlight to grow the grass to feed the deer, rabbits and other animals the Indians ate for food. The Indians burned sections of forest to open up the food supply, so they in turn had a food supply.

[sholomar]

In most cases it's the lack of fire that has become a problem, for example when you hike around the black hills of South Dakota, the effort they've gone through to keep fires from starting means the forest floor is just a mess, filled with dead branches and vegetation... a good fire really is part of the natural lifecycle of a forest and people who build homes in forests should know this going in...

This is something the left never addresses when they propose various things like banning campfires and the like...

[Billy_J]

Think of logging as farming...

Each year they cut down the corn stalks in Iowa, then replant for the next year.

Same thing with logging, trees are replanted after harvesting. Weyerhaeuser was replanting trees a hundred years ago.

For people who want to "save the trees", simply stop using the following products...
Products Made From Trees - Wisconsin County Forest Association

[Steve Pickering]

You cut 'em and use them or you stand and watch then burn. They are a crop, and if the crop gets too old it rots.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Billy_J

Think of logging as farming...

Each year they cut down the corn stalks in Iowa, then replant for the next year.

Same thing with logging, trees are replanted after harvesting. Weyerhaeuser was replanting trees a hundred years ago.

For people who want to "save the trees", simply stop using the following products...
Products Made From Trees - Wisconsin County Forest Association

When I took Silviculture, they told us it was Boise Cascade that pioneered replanting after logging. You have the time frame right, though. It has been going on for about a century. The Oregon Forest Practices Act mandated it for all state and private lands in Oregon in 1974, but almost everybody was on board with replanting by then.

[Nell Plotts]

I agree with Steve. Forests need to be thinned. Before the arrival of Europeans Native Americans would start woodlands fires to prevent buildup of too much fuel. Because they kept on top of that they did not have huge forest fires. Our current logging restrictions are setting us up for another Tillamook Burn.

[Terryj]

Back to the OP, old growth forest don't offer much, even in the line of lumber material. Most old growth timber are concy and the center of the tree is rotted out, one might be able to harvest half of this tree. To the OP, when was the last time you were in an old grown forest? Did you see much wildlife?

I all for thinning out old growth forest, make room for more younger tree to grow, provide better wile life habitat.

Either we manage the forest or Mother Nature will manage it for you, and Mother Nature does not care on bit if someone's house or property in in the way.

[delta07]

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