Jump to content

Tariff wars, they have began


Wally Fairway

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, flatdawgs said:

Clearcutting still exists here (although regulated to some extent by using buffer zones, variable-density harvesting, etc. and mandatory replanting) and although it has been severely limited (on federal lands) since the NW Forest Plan 25 years ago, it still occurs there under the guise of other NFS projects, most recently in the Colville NF. On private lands, which are extensive due to the checkerboarding of federal land grants to the railroads, it's more extensive and subject only to state regs. In WA these are relatively weak due to, among other things, the fact that the state constitution to this day allocates school construction funds from timber sales revenues. 

You're quite correct (as I'd expect with your background and experience) that more of this occurs outside the NF boundaries than inside, which can be pretty clearly seen in the checkerboard patterns on satellite images.

Yeah, and I guess clearcutting has its place in forest management as well.

But I would expect the Trump administration to do it for profit and without regard to good forestry practices.

Sadly, part of the South's ascendance in timber production is abuse of rural and rural minority families to take their timberland and put it in production when they hadn't properly descended their lands.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, flatdawgs said:

We already log in the national forests. We always have. NFs are for resource management, not preservation; side benefits such as camping and hiking are just that. I've spent my entire life spending time in the Cascades of WA and OR - most of which is national forest land - and I guarantee that not only does logging still go on in them, quite often you can't even get to where you think you are going because the Forest Service roads are gated to allow for timber extraction.

Oregon is still primarily a resource colony due to timber, despite most of the mills in the PNW having shut down 40 years ago - since then softwoods have been exported to Asia to be milled there. Washington's economy is far more diverse and the state is much wealthier (3rd highest GDP per capita in the nation, ahead of California [4] and Texas [16]), but even here the timber industry is important and a good deal of that occurs in the national forests. A tariff war above and beyond the three-decade long timber wars would hurt not because you can't get the trees, but because there is no longer anywhere to turn them into lumber. 

Gifford Pinchot out front should’ve told ya. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites



×
×
  • Create New...