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Re: [RC] Fires and the environment - Barbara McCrary

We select only about 30% of allowable timber take in this part of CA.  These are all trees that are 18" or over at chest height.  Being redwoods, they resprout from the stump and the sprouts are 2-3 feet high within the first year.  This means that there will be at least 6 new trees where there was once only one.  This is why, after the "clear-cutting" done before and during the turn of the 20th century, the forests are more dense now than ever.  This species of tree, harvested properly, would produce a perpetual supply forever.
After the harvest, we send crews in to "lop", and all the slash (limbs and foliage) removed during logging is cut into smallish pieces so it all lies close to the ground and deteriorates more quickly.  The understory is opened to sunlight, which encourages growth of the forbs that deer prefer to grass.  After a harvesting job, the forest looks untidy for the first year.  By the second year, it is beautiful.  We harvested in May, about 5 years ago, right on the site of our ride camp.  We pointed this out to our riders...that the spot where their trailers were parked had been a log deck about 30 feet high.  We had helicopters bringing the logs out of the forest and dropping them right into the ride camp meadow.  By fall, when our ride took place, everything was all cleaned up.  Now, 5 years later, all you can see are masses of young trees growing.  If one stands on top of the mountain overlooking the area we harvested, you absolutely cannot tell where any trees were taken.  We will go back in 10-15 years to harvest the same area again.
Incidentally, it is the young, vigorous, growing trees that scrub the carbon dioxide out of the air, not the old, stagnant-growth trees.
You have just received your Forestry 101 lesson for today.  :-))
 
Barbara
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2007 4:59 AM
Subject: [RC] Fires and the environment


BTW - don't know if it's done in the same manner - but the 'selective loggers' around here - leave these HUGE piles of unwanted wood debri all through the woods. Which is a BIGGER fire risk - than the minimal undergrowth that once was there. And they only take the BIG trees, which opens the understory to the sunlight - then you get a hillside FULL of imprenetrable thorns and small trees.. An even bigger fire risk than what was originally there!

- LP

Replies
[RC] Fires and the environment, Spottedracer