Things that could help manufacturing.....

It's interesting that you should say this. Here in Oregon the people who come to protest the cutting of trees don't live here. They come from all over the country. It's like they are on someone's payroll to protest timber cutting. So we buy our lumber from Canada to build houses here in Oregon. They only harvest timber on private land now which isn't enough to support all the mills. The state and federal government own most of the land here. So most of the mills have been torn down.

We have laws that force us to replant trees after harvest, which is a good idea since you can't use the land for anything else now. So now we have more harvestable timber than we did 100 years ago.

Also they drew a line in the dirt and said you can only build here. So the cost of buildable land went way up. We only live on 4% of the land and the rest is off limits, only because some politician said so on a piece of paper. Where I live you can only divide your property in 80 acre sections, so if you have less than 160 acres you can't divide it. You are only allowed one house on your property, unless you had more than one house before they made that law. Some farm land can't be built on unless you can show an $80K a year income from the farm. The only crop that has that kind of profit on small farms is pot.

They talked about a guy on the radio a few yeas back who couldn't build a house on his property, because the state said so. The illustration given was, "Imagine a piece of land 2 blocks wide going from downtown Portland past the city of Hood River by 6 miles." The distance from Portland to Hood River is 61.99 miles acording to mapquest.

Richard W.

Things are complicated. Cutting down trees can be good or bad. Maybe we need to protect older trees. Protect old forests, but cutting down younger ones is actually a good thing.

ssage

If we could only get the whack-jobs in on it. They want to protect ALL the trees.

"The Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing on May 5 to consider H.R. 980, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA). This legislation was introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D- NY). It will designate 24 million acres as Wilderness and components of the National Wilderness Preservation System in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. This Wilderness designation will make the land off-limits to off-highway riders."

Here's my question. Just what does a politician from NY get out of this? Why does she give a shit what goes on in Washington? Is she confused about which Washington she's trying to control? Maybe this explains it-

God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael, the archangel, found him, resting on the seventh day.

He inquired, 'Where have you been?'

God smiled deeply and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, 'Look, Michael. Look what I've made.'

Archangel Michael looked puzzled, and said, 'What is it?'

'It's a planet,' replied God, 'and I've put life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a place to test balance.'

'Balance?' inquired Michael, 'I'm still confused.'

God explained, pointing to different parts of earth. 'For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while southern Europe is going to be poor. Over here I've placed a continent of white people, and over there is a continent of black people. Balance in all things.' God continued pointing to different countries 'This one will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice.'

The Archangel , impressed by God's work, then pointed to a land area and said, 'What's that one?'

'That's Washington State , one of the most glorious places on earth. There are beautiful mountains, rivers and streams, lakes, forests, hills, and plains. The people from Washington State are going to be handsome, modest, intelligent, and humorous, and they are going to travel the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, high achieving, carriers of peace, and producers of software.'

Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but then asked, 'But what about balance, God? You said there would be balance.'

God smiled, 'There's another Washington . Wait till you see the idiots I put there.

Later,

Charlie

They no longer cut old growth timber, because all the mills retooled and can't saw a log larger than 36" in diameter. Also old growth trees use up more oxygen than they produce and they actually add carbon dioxide to the air. It's better to have the younger trees growing. On large stands of timber with controlled cutting you can have trees to harvest every year for ever. That is what the smaller timber growers do. I know one guy who was retired and he cut $50K of timber every year and then replanted where he cut. He retired at 58 and lived to be 92 if I remember correctly. He left his 2 kids about $3,000,000 in standing timber on his property. It looks like they are will continue to follow his example.

Richard W.

If we could only get the whack-jobs in on it. They want to protect ALL the trees.

"The Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing on May 5 to consider H.R. 980, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA). This legislation was introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D- NY). It will designate 24 million acres as Wilderness and components of the National Wilderness Preservation System in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. This Wilderness designation will make the land off-limits to off-highway riders."

Here's my question. Just what does a politician from NY get out of this? Why does she give a shit what goes on in Washington? Is she confused about which Washington she's trying to control? Maybe this explains it-

God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael, the archangel, found him, resting on the seventh day.

He inquired, 'Where have you been?'

God smiled deeply and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, 'Look, Michael. Look what I've made.'

Archangel Michael looked puzzled, and said, 'What is it?'

'It's a planet,' replied God, 'and I've put life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a place to test balance.'

'Balance?' inquired Michael, 'I'm still confused.'

God explained, pointing to different parts of earth. 'For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while southern Europe is going to be poor. Over here I've placed a continent of white people, and over there is a continent of black people. Balance in all things.' God continued pointing to different countries 'This one will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice.'

The Archangel , impressed by God's work, then pointed to a land area and said, 'What's that one?'

'That's Washington State , one of the most glorious places on earth. There are beautiful mountains, rivers and streams, lakes, forests, hills, and plains. The people from Washington State are going to be handsome, modest, intelligent, and humorous, and they are going to travel the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, high achieving, carriers of peace, and producers of software.'

Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but then asked, 'But what about balance, God? You said there would be balance.'

God smiled, 'There's another Washington . Wait till you see the idiots I put there.

Later,

Charlie

wow. That was tight man.

True, and my point was cutting down younger trees was good, they are very efficient. But old trees do things that are needed. They give us a history of our weather and past. The wildlife in old tree forests is abundant, in new tree forests they are basically non existant.

My point was is complicated.

Very little grows under old growth trees, because there is little light. There is more variety of plant life and animals in an area that has been clear cut or burned by fire. Deer would starve in an old growth forest.

Richard W.

Odd..the biggest deer herds in the world are in Michigan..and its been cut off at least twice and then replanted

Gunner