# This Just in



## Marky Mark (Dec 24, 2003)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/tongass_logging


Does this fall under Chainsaw related???


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## SilverBlue (Dec 24, 2003)

NOPE not a single mention of chainsaw.

Why is the Logger forum so unpopular?


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## eyolf (Dec 24, 2003)

Yeah, but I just can't imagine jumping into a stand of big Sitka spruce with a feller-buncher, can you?

Actually, I don't what to make of crap like this. Is there really enough volume to resuscitate an ailing industry? Will it just add a few scraps for the last survivors to fight over?

On the other hand, the Bush administration has made itself a name (mud!) among some classes of outdoorsmen (hunters and fishermen) for shenanigana in the east and southwest. Habitat and resource conservation must take a backseat to business interests.
Interesting to note that over the long term, tourism brings in more income, locally, than timber and minerals do...

In the end, it looks like the tongass gets something to piss everyone off, except for a few lucky loggers will get to use their big Stihls and Husky chainsaws for another season or two. Maybe a few will get to hang out their last couple of years before they can collect a pension.


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## tony marks (Dec 24, 2003)

i hereby now apply for employment 
from anybody thatll have me,, up in alaska. can bring crew of unemployed
factory workers,, with all the know how i can givum tween now an arival ..
u boys dont know how much i wish i could do that.. but triuth is,, artritus has been kicking my but with temps here in carolina.. i d never get back alive..
or at least i suspect that would be the
case. 
hope it helps a lotto u fellas up there.
ps a month or so ago i was splitting half cord a day with the maul,,after i got home.. and doing fine at it.. then it set in. whine whine whine.. it just stole my thunder. jesus turned the water in to wine.. arthure turned my thunder into whine


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## eyolf (Dec 24, 2003)

I hear ya, Tony. I gave up working for myself several years ago to get steady income, vacations, and health insurance for wife and kids.

Been gettin' temporarily laid off a lot lately, and was to Dr 'cause elbows hurt like crazy on recent time-off. His suggestion? Leave the chain saws and splitting maul home. Arthur-itis.

Dang, you'd think a body would last longer...I'm only 45!


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## Mountainman (Dec 24, 2003)

From what I have heard, logging is still alive and well in Alaska. It's not in the same temporary slow state that the Pacific Northwest is in. Personally, I was glad to hear the news. Besides, without more trees to cut, we don't build houses and wipe our little butts.


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## Marky Mark (Dec 24, 2003)

You boys are right again I will report myself and have it moved.

I will also try not report things I see on the web anymore.


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## Jacob J. (Dec 24, 2003)

MountainMan-

There is already so much second growth in the United States that we can keep logging for the next three hundred years ( at current and 15% increased levels ) and not even keep up with the rate of growth in second growth forests. Opening up the old growth on the Tongass national forest is merely satisfying special interests on behalf of the Bush administration.

Mark- Keep on pointing things out and stirring up trouble. You're one of the few more entertaining specimens here.


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## Mountainman (Dec 24, 2003)

Well, let's just agree to disagree. I saw it as good news, and I'm behind George W. 100 percent.


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## tony marks (Dec 24, 2003)

and ill agree wit u.


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## Mountainman (Dec 24, 2003)

By the way, the last time I was in Washington State (about a year and a half ago), about all I saw coming out of the woods was bean poles. From what I have read and heard, we do have an abundance of second growth timber at various stages of maturity. The problem is, we still don't have enough fully mature second growth to properly sustain the logging industry in the Northwest. In time, we will. But we're not there yet.


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## Newfie (Dec 24, 2003)

*"and I'm behind George W. 100 percent."* 

Is it a good idea to be behind anyone 100% ? Especially a politician??


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## Mountainman (Dec 24, 2003)

Maybe we shouldn't mix chain saws with politics, eh?


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## Jacob J. (Dec 24, 2003)

No, we should save that discussion for the "Off The Topic" forum.

However, back to chainsaws and cutting down trees, there are 700,000 acres of Federal forestland that is exclusively second growth available for harvest in Oregon under both Clinton's Northwest Forest plan, and Bush's Healthy Forests Initiative. This year, in 2003, 46,000 acres of that was offered under "stewardship" and/or thinning contracts available to the general public. Only half of these contracts received bids and out of those only half made it through the bidding process to actual implementation. Why?

Logging companies don't want to do thinning and stewardship. They just want to cut trees and get the hell out of there. The company I work for took an 1100 acre thinning contract for the B.L.M. in 1999. They've worked on it steadily since then. They're about half done. This one contract supports a full time crew of 7 loggers, 3 truck drivers, 1 planning forester, 6 timber fallers, 1 harvester/forwarder operator, and 3 support staff. 

Those "bean poles" you likely saw are representative of the timber that modern mills process. In fact, out of the three largest mills currently operating in Southern Oregon, the ideal log they want delivered to their yard is 34 feet long, and 9 inches on the small end. That's a pretty small tree. You couple that with the fact that 55% of remaining old growth that is cut these days and has been cut since 1992 on the west coast was exported as raw logs, rather than having been processed locally. This is even more true with Alaskan timber.

I personally am glad they're opening more logging up in Alaska, I like to cut old growth as mush as anyone, however I stand behind the belief that most of G.W. Bush's ideology satisfies the special interests of an elite few.


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## tony marks (Dec 25, 2003)

thot we was saving that for another forum. your wds. and they were good words..


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## zero (Dec 25, 2003)

*chainsaws&politics/guns&butter*

mt man my kid workes in a small independent lumber yard in ne pa. comes home and as we throw the bull before dinner tells me that the yard was gettin a load of lumber from finland cause it was the cheapest price at the wholesaler! am i missing something er what? when i grow up i still want to be me ! happy holidays.


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