16 Jun
2007
16 Jun
'07
5:50 p.m.
Quite a bit of the wood they cut is stuff they planted
a long time ago. The
really old trees tend to be in national parks and they do not get cut down
as far as I know. If you have never been to the US there are huge areas with
nothing but trees, we have 300M people but there is plenty of unused land
still (unlike old Europe). Not sure why we even import trees from Canada,
must be cheaper I guess.
Actually they do cut trees in the National forests for the lumber industry. The Feds and
State issue permits to the lumber companies to take a certain number of trees. Most of the
trees they take in this area are mature hardwoods (Oak, Ash, etc..). I have seen the
helecopters near my home lifting the logs out of the woods. It's expensive to remove
them that way but, the environmental impact is lessened.
The revenue from the permits goes into a special account for underfunded or economically
stressed local school programs. It has really helped the schools in this area (Western
North Carolina). This particular program seems to be well managed and has the support of
most of the locals.
This entire area was logged in the early 1900's so the trees they are removing today
aren't really that old.
See ya, SteveRob