[PLUG-TALK] Irony repeats
Ted Mittelstaedt
tedm at portlandia-it.com
Sat May 18 17:53:55 UTC 2024
If someone uses repurposed wood to build a platform in a tree that wood is
then no longer available for use by other people wanting to use repurposed
wood for things like construction, etc. Those other people then have to
purchase brand new wood which increases logging.
So you are, to put it simply, using a complete bullshit excuse to justify
building treehouses.
There is actually nothing wrong with clearcutting IF IT IS DONE properly.
It is, in fact, much preferable to "selective logging" Selective logging
is really only useful if you are attempting to create a complete mature
forest with trees in it that are thousands of years old - and we have VERY
FEW of those forests left in the United States. The Redwood forests are
some of them, obviously, although I don't know if the Humbolt County redwood
forest that Julia Butterfly Hill was protesting was one of those.
The simple reality is that what you see today when you go out into "the
forest" almost anywhere in Oregon is NOT a mature forest. It is second or
third growth forest. All the trees in it are the same age. These are
managed forests.
The clearcutting that is done today in NW Oregon does not cause "landslides
that destroy homes" because they don't clearcut excessively large areas.
They clearcut in patches. So in a region you will have one area that's
clearcut, one area that's 2-3 year old forest, one area that's 10 year old
forest, and so on.
In this way they have a continuing harvest of mature trees.
If you check prices of actual Redwood lumber you will quickly be able to see
that there is virtually no logging of Redwoods today. The prices make it
unusable for just about everything save maybe decorative furniture owned by
those with too much money.
Ted
-----Original Message-----
From: PLUG-talk <plug-talk-bounces at lists.pdxlinux.org> On Behalf Of Brian
Scrivner
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2024 11:29 PM
To: plug-talk at lists.pdxlinux.org
Subject: Re: [PLUG-TALK] Irony repeats
How would you know whether they purchased the wood? If they used repurposed
wood (such as old fence planks), using it would have the same economic
impact (none) as using old plastic, metal, or anything else.
It's not clear what you're on about. "Many years ago," "young folks
protesting." The URL you gave didn't work for me and isn't backed up at
Internet Archive.
Most tree-sit protests I'm aware of were protesting clear-cutting, not use
of wood products generally. Often, the clear-cutting was in violation of
environmental protection laws. The activity often endangered health of
streams and caused erosion issues. Etc.
The most famous tree-sitter is Julia Butterfly Hill. In the 1990s, she
helped protest against clear-cutting by Pacific Lumber Company in a redwood
forest of Humoldt County, CA. Already by this point, their clear-cutting had
caused a landslide that destroyed 8 homes in Stafford.
So, the protesting was not just for environmental protection, but community
protection.
Feel free to mention any details you know about the wood planks used for
these protests, or even mention any specific protest.
- Brian
On 5/16/24 19:30, plug-talk-request at lists.pdxlinux.org wrote:
> Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2024 07:09:15 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Rich Shepard<rshepard at appl-ecosys.com>
> To:plug-talk at lists.pdxlinux.org
> Subject: [PLUG-TALK] Irony repeats
> Message-ID:<6496f99-91d-46c9-ee5-5eb7a4b81d4 at appl-ecosys.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=US-ASCII
>
> Many years ago there were young folks protesting the logging of old
> growth trees by building wood platforms in the trees and sitting on the
platform.
>
> Apparently the irony of using milled lumber to protest cutting down
> trees for lumber still exists. A current example can be seen here:
> <https://tinyurl.com/5e7y8est>.
>
> I'm certainly not against the logging, timber, and forest products
> industries; wood is a great building material. Selective cutting,
> while more expensive than clear cutting, is the better way to go. And
> old growth trees should be allowed to end their life naturally. But,
> securing a wooden platform to a high branch in a tree is not the best
> way to express one's opinion. It reminds me of the old anti-drug
> campaigns that showed a parent with a cigarette in one hand and a
> cocktail drink in the other telling their child to not use drugs.
>
> Carpe weekend,
>
> Rich
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