Where do you stand on logging?

Question

i am curious what people think about logging as far as harvesting trees as our source for all our wood products. Please say where you are from and why you feel the way you do. be polite

Answer 1

I stand out of the way of the falling tree and the kickback!

I'm a big fan of engineered lumber.  Gluelam and the like can take "trash trees" and make I-beams, engineered joists and other stuff that's better than anything available from whole planks these days and can be made from stuff that's just a few years old (and renewable in a flash).

Answer 2

People need wood products, see toilet paper and housing.

Plus when done right it is a renewable resource.

I like it.

Answer 3

When done right logging is not a bad thing. Around here we have bumper stickers that say"if you object to logging try using plastic toilet paper." Here in northern New England we have very little wilderness and a lot of managed forests. The timber companies mostly do a good job. Someone said we should use every bit of the tree. The branches are left in the woods to rot and replenish the soil. Its done to help ensure a healthy forest.

Answer 4

I'm totally against old growth logging... the trees that have been planted for the purpose of being harvested are different.. but old growth logging is a crime.

Answer 5

New Mexico

If they don't start thinning the forests here more aggressively we are going to get more and larger forest fires.  

The Forest Service does controlled burns to attempt to clear the fuel but it is causing smoky air in the valleys were people live and wastes forest resources.

What we really need are cellulosic alcohol plants near the forests so the woods can be thinned and the residual can be converted into fuel.

Answer 6

I'm a tree-hugger!

Answer 7

There is a bumper sticker:

"Earth First (we will log the rest of the planets later)".

We generally think of trees as our source of all wood products, so if we want wood products, logging will go on.

Trees don't live forever, and forest fires are a natural part of the forest.  (Eucalyptus trees actually do everything they can to be flammable and burn and start a forest fire.)

So whether mankind logs a forest or waits for nature to burn it down naturally, the net result is renewal of the forest.

Answer 8

I think we need the lumber so the industry continues. We have to do something about the trees that are cut down though

Answer 9

I grew up in the middle of International Paper Company lands.  They raped the land, cut all of the hardwood trees down and planted everything in Pine trees because they grow faster and can be harvested earlier.   I hate Pine Trees.  The offer nothing to the soil.  They make the soil too acidic.   I watched that company clear cut thousands upon thousands of acres of land.   I do not mind logging as long as it is selective and doesn't tear up the land and the ecosystem around it.   We used to have a lot of deer, turkey, fox, and black bears.  We even had giant woodpeckers.   Those have all but disappeared from the area and I blame the loggers.  The main problem I have though is when they go into virgin forest with trees that are hundreds of years old to get the wood.  If they want to use already harvested and replanted trees then fine but leave the timbers that are hundreds of years old alone.  Those are treasures to our children and are become a rare sight.   No I am not a tree hugging hippy or anything but I do believe some areas should be left alone and the redwood forest is one of those areas.  A tree that takes thousands of years to regrow to full size is not a renewable resource in my opinion.