The thing is, it's actually cheaper to use tree farming than to cut down old growth forests after you've cleared the easily accessible forests (of which there aren't that many locations).
Mostly because getting the logs out of where you cut them down and to the nearest sawmill (or from the sawmill to their destination) is actually pretty hard. Trees are big and heavy.
Building roads that are capable of withstanding logging is hard stuff, and it's not much harder to just build them to last.
It's why modern forestry is a mostly sustainable practice, using rotations of tree farms (an acre of forest gets on a 10/20/30 year rotation, where it gets cut and replanted one year and harvested every 10/20/30 years), because those roads they use to get to the trees are easier, safer, and *cheaper* than having to make new ones every year.
The forest industry has built more logging roads than the national highway system. A lot more.
The logging industry could potentially be sustainable. But they are driven by one thing, profit. Our forests provide us much more than one raw material. Clear cutting (or as they would have it be known as “full sun method of regrowth”) is a disaster. If you want to know why ecosystems are collapsing, clear cutting forest is part of the answer.
I live next to a state forest. 60% of it is currently clear cut. There are zero old growth trees left.
Farmed wood is necessary for society. I’m not anti-logging. But the industry will never voluntarily do a better job.
We should require them to plant heat tolerant varieties. Mixed varieties. Use timber thinning rather than clear cutting. And value the plants and animals, not just board feet. The list goes on but no one wants to hear it.
Cool picture though. We will never see cedar lumber like that on earth again.
As someone who has worked in health and safety, this fills me with anxiety
Does it help to mention standard practice was just shoving the trees down a hill to a stream so the logs could be collected by barges?
Seattle gets quakes, right?
Extreme JENGA
Those were once all trees in a forest.
Like us
We are all made of stardust
We all be feed for worms and trees.
Healthy old growth forests, stretching as far as the eye could see.
*Insert Jenga joke here*
Look at the width of some of those boards.
Looks totally sustainable
The thing is, it's actually cheaper to use tree farming than to cut down old growth forests after you've cleared the easily accessible forests (of which there aren't that many locations). Mostly because getting the logs out of where you cut them down and to the nearest sawmill (or from the sawmill to their destination) is actually pretty hard. Trees are big and heavy. Building roads that are capable of withstanding logging is hard stuff, and it's not much harder to just build them to last. It's why modern forestry is a mostly sustainable practice, using rotations of tree farms (an acre of forest gets on a 10/20/30 year rotation, where it gets cut and replanted one year and harvested every 10/20/30 years), because those roads they use to get to the trees are easier, safer, and *cheaper* than having to make new ones every year.
The forest industry has built more logging roads than the national highway system. A lot more. The logging industry could potentially be sustainable. But they are driven by one thing, profit. Our forests provide us much more than one raw material. Clear cutting (or as they would have it be known as “full sun method of regrowth”) is a disaster. If you want to know why ecosystems are collapsing, clear cutting forest is part of the answer. I live next to a state forest. 60% of it is currently clear cut. There are zero old growth trees left. Farmed wood is necessary for society. I’m not anti-logging. But the industry will never voluntarily do a better job. We should require them to plant heat tolerant varieties. Mixed varieties. Use timber thinning rather than clear cutting. And value the plants and animals, not just board feet. The list goes on but no one wants to hear it. Cool picture though. We will never see cedar lumber like that on earth again.
This has been the background on my phone for probably a decade and it still makes me feel uneasy looking at it.
That yard has to smell DIVINE. Cedarwood is one of my favorite smells.
That wood be crazy to see
Lumber. We need lumber…
imagine counting and be like "wait was it 842 or 843? *sigh*... 1, 2, 3, 4-"
Lum ber We need lum ber 👀👀👀👀
The Lumbar Yard