Lies Of Big Timber

A good thing being fair to future generations? History reveals the opposite.

Gifford Pinchot used that statement as his “mission” statement for the Forest Service, only to have it undermined by his successors. Industrial forestry has been in control for a long time. Extreme profits and clear cuts show their focus on the greatest short-term value, as the constant boom-busted cycles that follow every time demonstrate.

When do we learn? 

The busted and struggling rural forested communities who have had their economic foundation destroyed even in the most productive soft wood forest in the world. Then unemployment insurance runs out they are no longer counted as unemployed. 

The need for restoration throughout the triple bottom line (economic, social and environmental) that follows industrial forestry. Every time.

The legacy of extreme wildfire that follows the conversion of old growth into even age plantations, effectively eliminating beneficial “surface fire” from occurring, as there is no separation between lower branches and forest floor. 

Old forest managers I’ve heard say, “We don’t put out forest fires, either the rains come, or it runs into old growth, falls to the surface and goes out.” Yet we spend millions on fighting fire without a clue of how we have changed its essential behavior. 

To think the timber industry has anything but short-term profits in mind with their class action lawsuit and legislative agendas against counties and ODF flies in the face of reality. Don’t let their propaganda fool you.

Craig Patterson

McKenzie Bridge