A confession

[windthrown]

Yah, short of burning entire cities down, I do not see anything picking up for a year or two at best. The timing of Hurricane Katrina was bad. If it was now instead of then, we would get a bump in lumber demand.

 

[ClimbinArbor]

lot of tornadoes and damage this year too....

its this damn recession that big oil and the war(ill keep my mouth closed about how the two are connected) have brought on us. no money equals noone building homes and other wooden structures......

 

[joesawer]

Right now "stewardship" sales are the fad. I use the term fad for things because I've worked for the FS for 30 years and have seen other fads make brief appearances. If we put up a regular timber sale, a lot of the work that the non-timber factions want can't get put on the purchaser to do. So, a new thing is to put out a contract that trades timber value for other work, like precommercial thinning, making snags, dropping trees to leave, etc.

We don't have a timber marking crew anymore. Regular sales and stewardship sales are now marked by the logger. Designation by description or Designation By Prescription. The latter can get so complex that I have to read it several times before understanding it. The leave tree is usually picked by considering only the diameter at stump height. Doesn't matter if it has a deformed top, conks, root rot--only diameter matters. That way a "diversity" is assured. As you can see, this area no longer manages for timber growth and value.

I've taken the local group out to see on the ground stuff, but can't get them off the road and down into the unit. One saw a landing that had several settings logged to and cried because it was devastation and looked like we were heading back to the clearcutting days. The landing was maybe a quarter of an acre. The forest is being run by this mentality. I hope to retire in 2.5 years but may have to work another year to pay for a house. It drives me crazy if I think about it and it is morning and I don't want to start out the day cranky so no more on this.

I feel for you. It must be a terrible fustration to work for a system that has taken a huge and renewable resource and turned it into a tax burden instead of an asset.