Y’all know I work for the forest Industry. We try to manage things the best we can. It’s just a shame when resources are wasted like that.
Guess folks do not want to actually work hard at finding legal firewood around here.
Theft up here is a major problem. The cutting permits for long term (public land) ease holders is pretty well run. Even the Bonafide commercial firewood ops are pretty good.
The problem is the illegal ops. I guess folks just don’t see how BIG the problem really is.
Case in point.
A local saw mill here turns out REALLY HIGH QUALITY Birch lumber. They have an annual allowable cut of over 500,000 m? of birch. They can’t get all their wood This year they will be CLOSED for over 9 weeks … shortage of wood. At the same time, … we (convervatively) estimate the annual THEFT of birch on public lands for fire wood at over 150,000 m? (that’s about 750,000 birch trees).
The problem all stems back to demand. Ever wonder why you can get commercial fire wood for so cheap, … the guy wants to be paid cash?
If you buy firewood, … ask the spplier where he gets his wood from … ask to see his permit, his cutting plan, his Gov’t inspection results, his ISO 14000 certification or his FSC, SFI or CSA certification.
Responsable consumers help to “control” irresponsable harvesting
(like when my colleagues in the PacWest boycotted a restaurant chain for putting wild steelhead on the menu)
Chris, you certainly don’t need to apologize to Me about your rant, I was a forestry major too. Down here in Tennessee, there is NONE of the certification that you mention. Most of the folks selling firewood are farmers and the like who have less to do in the winter or they are people who get the trees that are cut to clear land for building. Land is mostly in private hands. We still have a problem with timber poachers, though. As law enforecement fails and or the judges seem to treat the matters as though they are NOT heartbreaking, then more and more people lose faith in their governments to protect them. The mentality, referred to on another board, of “Shoot, shovel, & shut up” grows. These are not just property crimes. Large trees, as you know, can take centuries to grow. They CANNOT be replaced when they are stolen. There was a story in a local paper here a few years ago about a walnut tree over 4 feet in diameter that was stolen. The perpetrators were caught as they were bucking the stem. At least that judge had the decency to recognize heart-sick when he saw it in the family that had refused to sell the tree and gave the thieves some significant jail time. How much jail time is appropriate? Maybe the answer is: Until the replacement tree(s) are as big as the ones that were cut down. That might cause a pause for thought.
Ed
Mediocrity has become the norm, even less; anti-social dress, attitude and action are considered fashionable. Youth must always rebel and sever its own physiological umbilical connection. When adults ignore this activity, the youth are by nature forced to seek further, often approaching bazaar, steps for independence. This is natural and necessary for the development of the human race and its cultural societies. That this gained independence can, when left unchecked and unguided by the adult, destroy the society of any culture is an assured and accepted fact. Rules, laws, guidelines, ethics, codes and morals are essential even in the most primitive of society’s. Experiments have shown that when just one more rat is introduced into a culturally content and static environment, chaos shall ignite and rules are disregarded as if they never existed.
I agree on all counts … and it is applied to ALL ages.
The thread has taken two tangents:
unthinking waste of valuable resources (and in some cases irreplacable) …
Old school mentality which says "Always done it, … to **ll with the “new” rules and regulations.
We had a heck of a time getting poachers in check here on salmon rivers 'cause for generations, … salmon fishing was reserved to private companies and their guests. This means, … the “locals” weren’t STEALING from the collectivity, … but rather “Pulling one over on the Company”.
Happily, … times DO change.
It is the responsability of all resources users to “Lead by example”. (imho)
I am as much a tree hugger as the rest of you guys but look at the bright side. The old blue spruce lying across the river is now a natural structure and it should be a nice shady spot for a trout to sit under. It is a shame that it was cut down but at least all its stucture will provide habitat for a few years and its nutrients will be recycled back into the environment that produced it instead of as someones house or out int the atmosphere as CO2 from being burned.
Who has time for stress when there are fish to catch.
Nick
People and their toys, will ruin the beauty of our recreational area we all should be able to enjoy.
I suggest that manufactures of 4x4 vehicles be banned for TV advertising, that shows their product kicking up dirt and mud, zooming through the outdoors on trails or off of trails, and charging across streams at full throttle.
Same applies to Bass Boat manufactures, makers of Jet Skies, and off road motorcycles.
I would suggest that those ticketed be required to do community service time, repairing damaged areas, done by other of their kind, to whom this open land is their private playground to destroy.
~Parnelli
[This message has been edited by Steven H. McGarthwaite (edited 04 May 2006).]
Micropteris – I’ve been fishing that water a few times since ice-off now, and while I still have to look at the tree damage, I agree the new fish habitat will be good. Caught a nice brown from under it yesterday.
In thinking about it, it’s probably not kids (high school or college) since they are unlikely to own a chainsaw. More likely adult dummies. But still inexcusable. Talked to a ranger the other day, she had already seen it. They may do some more hike-in campground checks this summer because of it. I hope they catch 'em red handed.
I don’t know about where you live, but here the per-capita chainsaw ownership is approaching double digits. I doubt I could find a high school senior, male or female, who is not familiar with a saw, and half of them would be fair to middling timber fallers.
Thats too bad. I dont approve of that and I dont even really care about the tree. I like rivers for fishing, And I seem to develope an attachment to my favorite fishing spots; I dont want anyone near there to do anything to it.
As for cutting a tree down for firewood, sorry, but I fail to see what is wrong with that. Nothing wrong with heating yourself and saving the money of buying it. People have been cutting down their own trees for firewood for a LONG time.
<Long Post>
Anthony, the initial post in this thread implied that the tree had been cut on US Forest Service land. That is not private property. I get the impression that none of the large trees being mourned, for lack of a better word, was owned by the people who cut them.
For centuries, if not millennia, people cut smaller trees for heating their hearths. Larger trees were felled for firewood only to fuel industrial processes, and often then illegally. It is easier to cut, move, and cure wood of smaller size. Furthermore, small wood can be grown even more quickly using silvicultural techniques such as coppicing. Coppicing cuts younger trees close to the ground, using species that produce vigorous sprouts. The trees grow for a number of years and are then cut. The trees send up new sprouts from the stumps. The roots continue to grow too. As more and more of these cycles are repeated, the amount of root for each tree becomes quite large in relation to the amount of surface growth being sustained and the trees can grow very fast indeed. I saw a “drought killed” redbud that was 15 feet tall cut one year. The church that cut it didn’t get around to digging out the stump “in time” and by next fall, there was a 15 foot tall sprout about an inch in diameter. It grew into a lovely tree, the same tree. It was just new growth on old roots.
Coppicing is still practiced around the world to produce firewood, even in the U.S. and U.K. Where this sort of sustained practice is not followed, it is still practical to cut smaller wood for one’s fireplace. Where trees have been planted for timber, they are usually planted close together and often need to be thinned. The thinned trees can be used for firewood. The slash (tops and other waste from logging) can be used. Slash is sometimes available for free. Using slash for firewood also clears the ground for reproduction of the next generation of trees more quickly than leaving it to rot. It also prevents the slash from harboring tree pests. (Down here the Southern Pine Bark Beetle is a forest pest that can reach epic proportions. The is a wood of standing, but quite dead, Loblolly Pines killed in the last outbreak, about a mile from where I am sitting.)
It becomes a matter of wisdom and best use of resources. We can use wood for fuel that is much too small to be sawn into boards. It make good sense to be wise with our use of resources and save our large, old, and relatively rare trees for better uses. Those uses include leaving in place and enjoying the beauty that they provide.
People are upset over the rash, thoughtless waste of precious resources and the sad lack of respect that these actions show, not the idea of cutting one’s own trees to heat homes, sell, or use in some other way.
I am a forester and timber buyer for a logging company in NW Wisconsin and it absolutely disgusts me when I hear of things like this…it is these people who give logging a bad name.
This year they will be CLOSED for over 9 weeks … shortage of wood. At the same time, … we (convervatively) estimate the annual THEFT of birch on public lands for fire wood at over 150,000 m? (that’s about 750,000 birch trees).
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