Waving goodbye to a piece of Americana — the lumberjack

Clear cuts offer good wildlife habitat also.

 

Clear cutting is bad, it causes soil erosion and lost of habitat for wild life. I have seen the results of clear cutting numerous times and there is nothing good about it. My friend had his timber cut by a professional and you can not tell now that it was ever logged; because the guy did not clear cut but did selective cutting which is the proper way of logging. That is all I am going to say on the matter.

 

Asked a guy wearing this last year at the Freyburg fair if I could take a pic. It was "lumberman" day with sawing, hot saws, axe's. climbing, skidder races, frypan throw, log truck load, unload racing, etc. A bunch of equipment on display. A good time allways.

 

I am not a fan of clear cutting, but selective cutting can do a lot of good to a forest. But I think the more important reason that the lumberjack is going away is the same reason that the small farmer and manufacturer are going away - more machines and cheaper labor. Workers simply can't make a living wage doing these jobs anymore, their jobs are either taken by machines or by cheaper labor elsewhere.

 

It's a sad state of affairs, but that feller/buncher and slasher never show up for work hungover, does not get sick, will never be late for work, and won't cost you an fortune in attorney fees when they get hurt not paying attention. I may be wrong, but today's modern logger might have a saw in one of the trucks on the site. I think things might be different up in the PNW and an "eviromentally sensitive" site (I've watched them do heli logging in MT, no heavy equipment) but around here, it's all mechanical logging. It's all about the tonnage! There are some nervous guy's around here with quite a few (paper) mills closing. No market.

 

When the popple starts to mature it is time to flatten it and let it start over. A thick young grove makes great animal habitat.

We did some patch cutting on our land a few years back (3-5 acre 'clear cuts'). They are coming back in nicely. Root sprouts everywhere, raspberry in abundance. Birds took care to put in the raspberry seeds

A few things the forester said to me during that job echo the article. "The loggers are getting fat and lazy sitting in their machines all day long " was one of them. But the mechanical fellers are much safer to operate.

 

I love it, all the gooder stuff, Lumberman day!

 

I hear you about the paper mills closing, mine has been torn down.

 

Kimberly, you are looking at clear cutting in your world. Let me tell you about mine, NH is the most forested state in the nation. Fact at 87%. We have a rabbit here in NH, the "New England Cottontail" It is on the endangered species list. They have been rescue breeding them in secluded cages for re-introducing into the wild. But they don't live in woods, so the state of NH has found four areas of 500 acres to clear cut so they can release the these rabbits to multiply and hopefully become un-endangered. They need areas that have the undergrowth found with storm shattered woods or native american clearing for crops. So we have to help them by ................. clear cutting. All things everywhere are not always what they seem.

 

Okay, but the fact that clear cutting a relatively small area helps out this and other creatures that live in young forest, doesn't make large-scale clearcut logging a good idea. Logging can simulate some of the effects of the forest fires that once would've provided habitat for such animals but it's not the same thing and it has other consequences. The effects of logging, fire management policy, commercial and residential development, and conservation are all messy and intertwined, and nobody's perspective seems especially objective. It's easy to say "X is true" and support it with data, but it's much harder to proceed from that to, "therefore we should do Y." Maybe one advocacy group's position is weakened by romantic idealism while another's judgement is corrupted by economic incentives, and there's more than enough ignorance to go around? I don't see that it's at all helpful to frame this as city folks vs. country folks.

 

Just something to add about clear cuts... Many of the woodlots I have seen logged here may well have been better off as a clearcut. In my mind, its better to wipe it all out rather than leave only junk standing and altering the forest type/species through regeneration. May as well level it and let them all fight for room from saplings. I don't know if this is a mindset for some clear cutting or not, but makes sense to me.

 

Jon1270, you are so right.. nobody complained at turn of last century when great great grandfather cleared 200 acres for cows and built a farm to feed the town that had factory. he used doubled bladed ax work horses and 2 man saw and half a dozen brothers. and dynamite for stumps the wood was milled ... built houses
corn and hay planted to feed animals
animals provided milk butter cream, eggs etc

But a feller butcher can change landscape in days what took them week and months. not much erosion as crops were planted as fast as possible. Technology changes all things not necessarily always for better.

You would think by now instead of just labeling something as good or bad we could learn manage the side effects.

poisoning people is wrong unless of course you are a cancer patient having chemo

 

It was not at all my intention to frame this as city vs. country, if I came across that way I apologize. I was trying to frame it as a different region type of thing, as there so many in this country east to west, and north to south. My post was just trying to show that one size doesn't fit all, as far as land management goes. And believe me, I don't know much about other places. All I know is my neck of the woods.

 

Oh I know, I was responding to some of the stuff upthread. Your post was just a jumping-off point.

 

Good to know, thanks!

 

Sure, sorry I wasn't clearer about that.

 

I think we were both just victims of circumstance.

 

I still belong, don't get me wrong
And you can speak your mind...

 

NH mountain man, I don't think we took it wrong. I didnt. discussion is a great way to learn as is travel I learned that for ice, thumb tacks in boots give great traction down south in Alabama area you should skip a rock before you jump into pond to check for water moccasins etc etc

Hard to learn and understand if judgments are made instead of questions that was my point