🚀 go-pugleaf

In article 6f7@skeena.ucs.ubc.ca, taganov@unixg.ubc.ca (Robert Edgar Froese) writes:

[Good discusion of natural reforestation deleted]

->>Steve Holland writes...
->>It is interesting that the logging companies seem to prefer cutting in
->>old-growth areas rather than regions that they have replanted in the
->>past.  This suggests that either old-growth wood is not as poor as they
->>tell us that it is, or that the replanting efforts of the past were 
->>very badly done.
->_____________
->Large scale forestry has not taken place in B.C. for a very long time,
->thus there are not many second growth forests ready for harvest.  We are
->beginning to do so as they come into maturity, an example of which are the
->roadside logging areas along the highway immediately north of Campbell River.
->Large scale planting did not occur until the '50s or so and even then it
->was not done with great knowledge. In many cases the wrong species were
                                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
->planted for the type of site planted on and the forest establishment rate
  ^^^^^^^
->was slowed as a result.  Modern planting follows much more strict
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
->ecological assessment of forest sites prior to harvest to determine the
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
->ecologically appropriate species or species mix.

Exactly!  The replanting that has been done in the past was often of the wrong species.
In other words it was screwed up because the people organising the replanting
thought they knew what they were doing but didn't.  Today we hear exactly the same
arguments from the next generation of replanters: "Trust us; this time we'll
get it right".   Perhaps modern replanting methods will work, I don't know.  My
reading in this area suggests that modern replanting methods are still somewhat
experimental.  Where I have real trouble is when someone with a vested interest in
the forest industry tells me that all the problems have been solved and the mistakes
of the past could never happen again.