🚀 go-pugleaf

Larry Caldwell (larryc@teleport.com) wrote:
: In article <5qgq4k$emh$1@news.pacifier.com>,
: dhogaza@pacifier.com (Don Baccus) wrote:

: > It sounds like your on the verge of espousing that tired old myth
: > that "private timber lands are better managed than National
: > Forests", a myth that a quick climb to the top of Saddle Mountain
: > can disprove...

: For those reading from other areas, Saddle Mountain is the highest peak
: in the Oregon Coast Range, not a very impressive set of mountains, that
: qualify as respectable hills around here.  I think Saddle Mountain is 
: only about 2600 feet high.

Closer to 3000 ft.  And the basalt buttress that forms the top of
Saddle Mt. is impressive at any elevation.  Only Onion Peak, which
is just east of Arch Cape on the coast, has as impressive a basalt
crown.

: The Coast Range is marine rain forest,
: historically covered with doug fir, cedar, true fir and spruce.

And lots o' hemlock.

: Saddle Mountain is in the middle of what is known as the "Tillamook Burn,"
: actually a series of three fires that consumed about 800,000 acres of
: mostly virgin forest.  The worst of the fires was a firestorm of 
: astonishing proportions.  The updraft created winds of 80 mph blowing
: into the fire, and it spread a layer of soot 50 miles downwind.

Actually, Saddle Mt. had already been logged by the time of the Tillamook
Burn.  I've seen pictures of the loggers standing next to some big logs
taken from Saddle Mt. that were dated in the '20s.

: The Burn was never returned to private hands, and is now managed by
: the BLM.

I think the State actually owns most of the old Tillamook Burn.  The
Tillmook State Forest is quite large in terms of the acreage.

[snipped some historical stuff]

: In the 1960's, people were discussing a 70-year harvest cycle.  By
: modern standards, that's pretty long.  The original plan was to have
: The Burn in full production by 2020, but they're taking a lot of
: timber out right now.

Most of the timber coming from the Tillamook State Forest is from
thinnings.  It looks to be another 10 to 20 years before full scale
logging will take place.  Personally, out of the hundreds of thousands
of acres in the Tillamook State Forest, I'd like to see 50,000 or so
acres around King Mt. and Elk Mt. preserved as a park or state wilderness
area.  The slopes in this area are really too steep to log practically
anyway and the area has some spectacular scenary.  Other than that, I'd
be opposed to plans to not log any of it.  There's no ecological
reason not to log this land since the roads are already built and
state rules will protect the watersheds.  Plus, there are precious
few jobs in Clatsop and Tillamook counties and it would be a stab
in the heart to these communities to not allow any logging.

: The area around Saddle Mountain is still privately owned, and when the
: price of stumpage peaked about 4 years ago, the owner (a timber company)
: decided to harvest, which they did by clear cutting.

Cavenham.  The land was originally owned by Crown Zellerbach, which had
been responsibly managing the land for many years.  Then, during the
leveraged buy-out craze of the 80's, someone noticed that Crown Zellerbach
had a nice bunch of trees.  Junk bonds were floated to complete the
deal and then all the trees were cut to pay off the junk bonds.  Oh,
it was a big boom for about 8 years.  Then, when they'd cut all the
useful timber, the boom went bust.  A forest which CZ had managed for
steady and reliable timber production for decades was eaten up.  This
was a blatant return to the timber management styles of the last century.
Hardly what I'd call good management.  Cavenham replanted (was required
to by law or I don't think they would have) and then sold out to
Willamette Industries.  WI has been a much better neighbor and I believe
will manage the land better.

: The Coast Range
: gets about 40 to 80 inches of rain a year, so reforestation is easy.
: Saddle Mountain is on the wetter west slope.  The property was immediately
: replanted, then sold to another timber company interested in a long term
: investment.  

See above.  And while reforestation might be easy, it seems to me to be
a prime example of poor management to cut all the trees at once.  New
OFPA rules make this type of cut and run management illegal since
the maximum size of a clear cut is now 40 acres until the adjacent
trees get to a certain size.  What really cracks me up is that about
a year ago or so, right before WI bought out Cavenham, Cavenham was
airing TV ads extolling the virtues of the new OFPA rules limiting
clear cut sizes.  Didn't keep 'em from clearcutting whole watersheds
back in the '80s though.  Feh.

: This leaves a stump farm to look at until the new growth gets big enough.

It also leaves a lot of loggers and local mills with fewer jobs.  Forests
should be managed for sustainable and reliable production of timber so
that people can have steady and reliable jobs.  IMHO, the Clatsop
State Forest that is just adjacent to many of the private lands
around Saddle Mt. is a prime example of how this can be done while
still preserving recreational and other multiple-use features of
the forest.  Of course, private timber companies have no reason to
worry about recreational or multiple-use needs, but as good corporate
neighbors they should take into account the long-term needs of the
communities surrounding them and try to manage their forests for
a sustainable job base.

[snip]

: The fact that the owners decided to harvest says nothing about private
: vs. public management.  The publicly managed trees will be clear cut
: just like the privately managed trees.  

Well, not *just* like the privately managed trees.  The state of Oregon
does a much better job than just about anyone I've seen at managing
forests.  The feds are abysmal and private companies depend on the
current ownership for their management mindset.  There are some
companies that are doing an excellent job of managing their forests.
In my neck of the woods Willamette Industries and Stimson Lumber
Co. do a pretty good job.  Longview Fiber Co. isn't so good if you
ask me.

For my money, the best managed forest lands in Columbia and Clatsop
counties are owned by the State of Oregon.  The Clatsop State Forest
has been the biggest money maker for the state for many years running
and I assure you that there are still plenty of trees left.  The
Clatsop State Forest south of Westport is one of my favorite
recreational areas precisely because of the ease in finding nice
stands of good size timber to camp in.

I can find examples of poor forest management in both the public and
private sector and private ownership does nothing more to guarantee
good forest management than public ownership as far as I can tell.

[snipped remaining]

greg rose