Ramping Up Logging

[wowzers]

The amount of lawfare some of you guys describe being waged in courts against even small-scale tracts of land to get logged is extremely interesting - I didn't realize it was so systemic, organized, and methodical. It's pretty damned disturbing.

It's because the Equal Access to Justice Act allows them to make money doing it.

 

[BigredRusch]

Not trying to hijack the thread but I think we all need to be more concerned about the sale of public land than we do with public land logging.

 

[dr.mooseknuckles]

To answer the original question, I think it will only help. New browse forms after clear cuts, allowing for new growth, thicker cover and vegetation.

The NF I hunt here in SC is logged all of the time on different tracts. Haven't seen anything bigger than a 30 acre clear cut. Replanted and thick as all get out in 5 years time. Great bedding habitat for deer with plenty of browse. Can be tricky hunting it, but can also be very rewarding. They burn huge sections of it at a time and generally helps out the turkey and quail. I've seen some pretty big wild bobwhite coveys over the years in this NF. I've also gotten pictures of really nice bucks over the years, just haven't gotten a picture of me holding one!

 

[RockAndSage]

It's because the Equal Access to Justice Act allows them to make money doing it.

Oh, now that's incredibly interesting...

 

[cnelk]

Nothing like new clearcuts to have good elk and deer hunting - at least that’s what I experience in N Colorado.

In the past couple years there’s been several hundred acres of clear cuts logged.

 

[riversidejeep]

It's because the Equal Access to Justice Act allows them to make money doing it.

I'm no legal scholar but it seems that a way to fix this is that if suit is brought against the USA by some enviro law firm that the judgement can go both ways. If the USA loses the case they pay the lawyers and court cost, same goes if USA wins, they get lawyer fees and court cost. As it is now they file a 100 lawsuits and maybe get one to stick.

 

[Easydoesit87]

This is just a fraction of the large clearcut done in the Snowies, they are doing plenty of logging over here and clearcuts are the preferred method of removing timber.
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Clearcuts are a valid silvicultural prescription. Especially in monocultures, outside historical stand densities, and some even-aged forests. We learned it in forestry school before they became the "School of Natural Resources" or some other pink haired derivative.

 

[bowhuntercoop]

South Carolina’s 2nd highest form of state income is pine forest logging. I see logging trucks every single day in the western part of the state, way of life around here. Killed a truck load of deer on clear cuts and thinings. I actually prefer a fresh cut compared to hunting the hardwood mtns anymore.

 

[limpet]

Yup some species need stand replacement to regenerate. Also sometimes things have been so messed up a reset button needs to be hit. People don’t realize how many prairies and meadows have been swallowed up by tree encroachment over the last 200 years. Most of our forests were patchworks of openings and clumps of trees and the only way to get back to that is cutting them and removing the biomass.

 

[TheTone]

Clearcuts are a valid silvicultural prescription. Especially in monocultures, outside historical stand densities, and some even-aged forests. We learned it in forestry school before they became the "School of Natural Resources" or some other pink haired derivative.

It would be especially nice if they weren’t replanted as monocultures and with less stand density. Around me they plant so many trees they go back in a few years and seemingly thin more than 50% of what they plant and then leave it lay creating an absolute mess to walk through.

 

[Easydoesit87]

Yup some species need stand replacement to regenerate. Also sometimes things have been so messed up a reset button needs to be hit. People don’t realize how many prairies and meadows have been swallowed up by tree encroachment over the last 200 years. Most of our forests were patchworks of openings and clumps of trees and the only way to get back to that is cutting them and removing the biomass.

Bard owls are a perfect example of prairie encroachment of trees - leading them to the PNW; whereupon, they easily outcompete and displace the incompetent northern spotted owl.

 

[RockAndSage]

Yup some species need stand replacement to regenerate. Also sometimes things have been so messed up a reset button needs to be hit. People don’t realize how many prairies and meadows have been swallowed up by tree encroachment over the last 200 years. Most of our forests were patchworks of openings and clumps of trees and the only way to get back to that is cutting them and removing the biomass.

Absence of beavers adds to that problem.

 

[Easydoesit87]

South Carolina’s 2nd highest form of state income is pine forest logging. I see logging trucks every single day in the western part of the state, way of life around here. Killed a truck load of deer on clear cuts and thinings. I actually prefer a fresh cut compared to hunting the hardwood mtns anymore.

Check your 2x4's (or other dimensional lumber) for the SPIB (Southern Pine Inspection Bureau) grade-marking of SP (southern pine) or SYP (southern yellow pine) and you're keeping the U.S. logging industry in business! It is unfortunate; however, southeastern forest timber receipts fund the Secure Rural Schools Act (SRSA). SRSA funnels money to the PNW to make up for the destruction of a once viable and thriving forest products industry.

 

[Pony Soldier]

We have a number of clearcuts behind my house that are measured in sections. Farther than you can shoot. Another issue is tons of woody debris per acre. Might work a couple thousand feet lower but we still have stumps from the 1890s that haven't rotted. 18" of slash on the ground is tough to walk through and hard on horses. One size fits all rules don't work in a lot of places.

 

[limpet]

Bard owls are a perfect example of prairie encroachment of trees - leading them to the PNW; whereupon, they easily outcompete and displace the incompetent northern spotted owl.

Yup. Incompetent is. Great description for those semi domesticated birds at this point.

Absence of beavers adds to that problem.

Yeah but beaver only work in the bottoms. There’s a lot between the valley bottoms and the ridges. They mostly target valley bottom hardwoods too, that leaves a lot of conifers that are the problem untouched. Where I’m at our rivers and creeks are so steep and deep that they don’t really do any building of dams and only eat small willows and alders.