Doug Fir "Ranter"
I've live in Oregon for 50 years and watched it happen. Good fir
plywood is not very good for builing boat, to many checks. All that's
left now is bad fir plywood, because all the Big Peeler logs are
gone.
It's gone. Except for a few protected areas.
Douge Fir "trees are crops, just like broccoli",I don't think so. I
can grow a crop of braccoli in a a year, till the soil, and do it
again the next year, but an "Old Growth Forest" takes many hundreds
of years to grow. Not just the trees, but all the unknow biosphere
that goes along with it.
It is not just big 400 year old trees, but a complete ecosystem.
Just come to Oregon and walk though one of the few that are left.
You will see. There are so few left that most Oregonians have
never had the experience to see a real "Old Growth Forest", and I am
still awed every time I see one.
They are gone, and it will take another 200-400 years for them to come
back.
As a capitalist, you know to follow the money. The big companies
have left Oregon because all the 200-500 year old trees are gone,
they know.
Gone. Trees and companies. That says somethign right there.
They cut the trees that were saplings when Chris Columbo got here.
Sure,they plant new trees, but they plant them like your broccoli,
but have found that they have to cut them in about 50 years, because
the strains they planted are being attacked by a roor fungus that
kills the trees in about 50-60 years, and there is no stopping it.
I know. I live on a very small timber lot of 9 acres with a few
"Wolf Trees" trees about 200 years old that were not cut when this
land was clear cut about 60 years ago, and they are just fine, but
all the 50-60 year old trees are dying, and I am cutting them and
sending them to a local mill to be made into 2x4 and 2x6 studs befor
they fall an my house. One, about 20" chest high and 120+ tall
already fell on, and destroyed my delivry truck. Not the same as
an "Old Growth Forest", and never will be.
All the trees that were "Replanted" 50-60 years ago in this area
have the same disease, and will never live to make an "Old Growth
Ecosystem." They are not like "broccoli"
"National Geograhic" or not, there is such a thing as an "Old Growth
Forest", and if you would like to come here to visit, I'll put you up
at our home and take you out and show you a few that are left.
It will "Make you a believer."
As far as the Socialist part, I don't care what people or companies
do on their own land, (If you are as smart as you think you are, just
check how Weyerhouser got their "Private lands". By paying drunks on
skid road $5.00 for 160 acre land claims, trading "Private Lands"
above timberline to the US governmet for prime low elevation Big Tree
land, and working with the Railroad companies to buy their every
other land section the railroad companies were given by the US
government for building the railroads (look at some of the maps of
BLM and private lands, and that will explain the checkerboard pattern
of ownership. (talk about socialism, why couldn't the RR companies
build their own lines without help from the US Government.)But I do
think literally "giving" the timber companies the timber (the forest
service has been losing money for years on the sales of "Our Timber",
by building and maintaining logging roads for the timber companies.
(Who's the Socialists there?) Why don't the timber companies have to
build their own roads?
And giving 95% of our trees from from the "National Forests" should
be fair enough for them. I'm sure in this democracy we live in here,
there are 5% of the people who think we shouldn't cut every last tree.
Sorry I started this, but I live in Doug Fir Country, and even
my old local logger friends realize now that we have to protect what
we have left.
It's only the multinational companies that really don't care. They
are just looking at the bottom line. They are actually taking apart
local mill here and shiping them to South America and Siberia, where
there are still some trees, and no "Bleeding Heart, Tree Huggers".
I think enough on this subject. The trees are gone. 400 year old
trees won't be back till we're all long gone, and mayby never real
"Old Growth Forests" Maybe our
great,great,great,great,great,great,great,great, grandchildren will
again have Clear VG Doug fir to build boats with, and I'm sure
they will appreciate it for what it is, and not waste it.
I wish you all peace, and good boat building.
See some of you at the Depoe Bay show this weekend.
I'll be the one in the neck brace, with the big mouth, and the
little red boat.
Pat Patteson
Molalla, Oreagon
pateson@...
plywood is not very good for builing boat, to many checks. All that's
left now is bad fir plywood, because all the Big Peeler logs are
gone.
It's gone. Except for a few protected areas.
Douge Fir "trees are crops, just like broccoli",I don't think so. I
can grow a crop of braccoli in a a year, till the soil, and do it
again the next year, but an "Old Growth Forest" takes many hundreds
of years to grow. Not just the trees, but all the unknow biosphere
that goes along with it.
It is not just big 400 year old trees, but a complete ecosystem.
Just come to Oregon and walk though one of the few that are left.
You will see. There are so few left that most Oregonians have
never had the experience to see a real "Old Growth Forest", and I am
still awed every time I see one.
They are gone, and it will take another 200-400 years for them to come
back.
As a capitalist, you know to follow the money. The big companies
have left Oregon because all the 200-500 year old trees are gone,
they know.
Gone. Trees and companies. That says somethign right there.
They cut the trees that were saplings when Chris Columbo got here.
Sure,they plant new trees, but they plant them like your broccoli,
but have found that they have to cut them in about 50 years, because
the strains they planted are being attacked by a roor fungus that
kills the trees in about 50-60 years, and there is no stopping it.
I know. I live on a very small timber lot of 9 acres with a few
"Wolf Trees" trees about 200 years old that were not cut when this
land was clear cut about 60 years ago, and they are just fine, but
all the 50-60 year old trees are dying, and I am cutting them and
sending them to a local mill to be made into 2x4 and 2x6 studs befor
they fall an my house. One, about 20" chest high and 120+ tall
already fell on, and destroyed my delivry truck. Not the same as
an "Old Growth Forest", and never will be.
All the trees that were "Replanted" 50-60 years ago in this area
have the same disease, and will never live to make an "Old Growth
Ecosystem." They are not like "broccoli"
"National Geograhic" or not, there is such a thing as an "Old Growth
Forest", and if you would like to come here to visit, I'll put you up
at our home and take you out and show you a few that are left.
It will "Make you a believer."
As far as the Socialist part, I don't care what people or companies
do on their own land, (If you are as smart as you think you are, just
check how Weyerhouser got their "Private lands". By paying drunks on
skid road $5.00 for 160 acre land claims, trading "Private Lands"
above timberline to the US governmet for prime low elevation Big Tree
land, and working with the Railroad companies to buy their every
other land section the railroad companies were given by the US
government for building the railroads (look at some of the maps of
BLM and private lands, and that will explain the checkerboard pattern
of ownership. (talk about socialism, why couldn't the RR companies
build their own lines without help from the US Government.)But I do
think literally "giving" the timber companies the timber (the forest
service has been losing money for years on the sales of "Our Timber",
by building and maintaining logging roads for the timber companies.
(Who's the Socialists there?) Why don't the timber companies have to
build their own roads?
And giving 95% of our trees from from the "National Forests" should
be fair enough for them. I'm sure in this democracy we live in here,
there are 5% of the people who think we shouldn't cut every last tree.
Sorry I started this, but I live in Doug Fir Country, and even
my old local logger friends realize now that we have to protect what
we have left.
It's only the multinational companies that really don't care. They
are just looking at the bottom line. They are actually taking apart
local mill here and shiping them to South America and Siberia, where
there are still some trees, and no "Bleeding Heart, Tree Huggers".
I think enough on this subject. The trees are gone. 400 year old
trees won't be back till we're all long gone, and mayby never real
"Old Growth Forests" Maybe our
great,great,great,great,great,great,great,great, grandchildren will
again have Clear VG Doug fir to build boats with, and I'm sure
they will appreciate it for what it is, and not waste it.
I wish you all peace, and good boat building.
See some of you at the Depoe Bay show this weekend.
I'll be the one in the neck brace, with the big mouth, and the
little red boat.
Pat Patteson
Molalla, Oreagon
pateson@...