Been to Tenmile lately? WTF???

[sandnsea]

I haven't been south on 101 in a while. HOLY FUCK!!! What have they done in Lakeside? That isn't even logging, it's more like a tree combine went through. Really from Reedsport south, actually. Who owns that land? It's just unbelievable the amount of logging that's going on around me this year. What's the deal?

[0rganism]

1. Sounds like a "Healthy Forests Initiative" passed through there

Gotta get all those nasty trees out of the forests, ya know, make the forests healthier.

[Blue Topaz]

2. I don't get to Southern Oregon too much

but I can tell you that I have noticed a huge increase in the size of logs on trucks rumbling through the Valley. During the Clinton years the logs got a lot smaller. Once Shrubby was selected the log size ballooned. I swear it was immediate, practically overnight. They definitely opened up areas that were off limits before.

[sandnsea]

5. This is that, times 10

I'm not kidding, think of a cornfield after it's been all chopped down. That's what the hillsides looked like for MILES. I don't know what in the hell they're doing. And yeah, the logging trucks are getting pretty wild. Flying down the roads like I remember when I was a kid. And cutting down old growth in fire zones so they won't ever be old growth again. How can anybody see that and not be ashamed. I don't get it. My son doesn't either. He always says, "they're the ones who hunt, why do they destroy the only place they can hunt in". I'm just horrified by this mess.

[unschooler]

8. Welcome to DU, Blue Topaz!

Come to think of it, I've noticed an awful lot of logging trucks this year, too.

[Tom Kitten]

3. I drove from Crescent City to Reedsport on Labor Day

I saw some pretty shocking things...

Hills totally stripped clean of all trees, nothing left but stumps and debris, all in clear view of 101...It looked like a disaster had struck...like Mother Earth had been raped and just left by the side of the road for passersby to come upon.

[sandnsea]

4. YES! That's what I mean

It is shocking. They've always done more logging in that stretch than some others, but this was like absolutely nothing I've ever seen before. I don't even know what to do about it. Maybe I'll call DeFazio's office tomorrow and try to find something out. This is just insane.

[classof56]

6. Let us know what DeFazio's office says.

This is insane indeed. I have always loved the south coast and was just thinking I hadn't been there in a long time and would love to go. Perhaps I'll take a pass. The ocean's still spectacular, of course, but the sight of the stripped hillsides is just more than I can bear to think about.

What IS happening to our Oregon? Oh, yeah--Bush happened. That about sums it up!

Tired Old Cynic

[oneold1-4u]

7. along the OR coast

Most of the timberlands were taken up by huge companies years ago, and they are allowed to clear-cut and take all. They sell the highly useable lumber trees and take the rest for chips and paper pulp mills. Fortunately the re-growth is more rapid here on the coast and many of these areas have been cut 2-3 times, over the last 1/2 century. Some of these CC from 5 years ago are already green with growth where I was sure nothing would grow. The natural fauna which helps to nurture and protect larger growth, is a lot more less time in establishing forests than in the Cascades when they clear-cut there.
The dry east side ponderosa pines will take a hundred years to come back if at all!

[unschooler]

9. Somebody(s) should write a letter to the Oregonian.

Let's at least make the timber companies pay a price in terms of PR. I'm sure they think they can do this because it's way down in S. Oregon far from the eyes of the PDX enviro crowd.

[oneold1-4u]

10. Testing the waters

This is not going to remain a S. Coast happening. The doors once again have been opened for the whole industry and some may soon be hauling logs to the mill that they purchased at prices ten years ago!
There were not many people who stood up for all the women who sat in trees for months and now it is nearly a by-gone initiative. They can get away with just felling the tree or even shooting at them! I'm glad there is someone with open eyes but no one bothered to look behind the hundred yard buffer along public highways when they too all the big trees throughout the cascades! Here on the coast with all the rugged canyons and mountains, the buffer would not work!
I saw first hand, from the air, the horrible scarring of this state with clear-cutting over thirty years ago. We have already removed all but a couple of the three hundred year old Douglas Firs and they won't be back! There should never be another tree (private or public owned) allowed to be exported in ANY FORM from this state. That alone would be a start! What would be left of the industry would then return to the state and be controlled!
When the state is run at rampant "get all you can" and no one disagrees, then no one can complain.
This from a descendant of a logging industry family who knows we can't go back but forward could be a nicer scene!

[Name removed]

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