Second Largest Logging Industry in the World...

Twindog said:
At the turn of the century (1900-1920), local history books say the corner of the woods where I live on the Olympic Peninsula (Washington) had the world's largest logging camp. When the trees played out, the activity moved elsewhere. Nothing much is left these days, other than scrub second-growth stands and wiped out salmon streams. But when I hike upstream to the wetland flats, I can still find stumps of old cedars and such that are 15 to 20 feet in diameter (DBH).

The logging industry isn't much like it was, either. Everything is mechanized, and rotations are kept short (40 years) so that machines, not people are needed to harvest logs. Logging goes on all around me. I've never seen a logger use an axe.

There was a remarkable man named James Gilchrist Swan (Indian agent, explorer, artist, writer, anthropologist) who wrote of his observations of what the peninsula was like in the mid- to late 1800s, before logging began in earnest. There were birds and animals and fish just everywhere. Salmon filled every stream, no matter how small. Trees were so big that early settlers could shop one down and hollow it out with fire to make a house. Nobody fished for salmon; when they needed something to eat, they just took a gaff to the nearest stream and pulled out dinner.

But we took too much. We didn't give a damn. The latest salmon count on my stream that the tribe just took found no salmon at all. Ten years ago, on the Sadie flats where the big stumps are found, there were still large numbers of salmon juveniles about. After the DNR logged that area, there are virtually no salmon juveniles left, just sediment in the empty streams.

We shouldn't forget.
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I have seen some of James Swanns work.:thumbup:

There is more afoot than just logging that is harming are streams(like possibly climate control). Things took a turn some time in the early 2000's. I came back from a trip to a remote canyon in SW Idaho where I had experienced quiet that I had never heard before. It was eerie and it was wrong.

There is plenty of information on the internet for further research on what is going on.

I apologies for the off topic here.
Back to axes.
 
Steve Tall said:
Rankings in terms of lumber production:

1880
1. Michigan
2. Pennsylvania
3. Wisconsin
4. New York
5. Indiana

1890
1. Michigan
2. Wisconsin
3. Pennsylvania
4. Minnesota
5. Washington

1900
1. Wisconsin
2. Michigan
3. Minnesota
4. Pennsylvania
5. Arkansas

1907
1. Washington
2. Louisiana
3. Texas
4. Mississippi
5. Arkansas

Total Cut for the period 1880-1907
1. Michigan
2. Wisconsin
3. Pennsylvania
4. Minnesota
5. Washington

Based on data from this table, which originally appeared in:
THE TIMBER SUPPLY OF THE UNITED STATES
By R. S. KELLOGG, ASSISTANT FORESTER
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
FOREST SERVICE—Circular 166.
1909

books
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God work, Steve!
 
Twindog said:
But we took too much. We didn't give a damn. The latest salmon count on my stream that the tribe just took found no salmon at all. Ten years ago, on the Sadie flats where the big stumps are found, there were still large numbers of salmon juveniles about. After the DNR logged that area, there are virtually no salmon juveniles left, just sediment in the empty streams.
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garry3 said:
There is more afoot than just logging that is harming are streams(like possibly climate control). Things took a turn some time in the early 2000's. I came back from a trip to a remote canyon in SW Idaho where I had experienced quiet that I had never heard before. It was eerie and it was wrong.

There is plenty of information on the internet for further research on what is going on.
Click to expand...

I could speak about this for hours but I'll try to keep this abbreviated. I hold a seat on the Cedar River Council - a body charged with overseeing the salmon recovery program for the Cedar River/Lake Washington watershed system.

One problem is invasive species, both plants and animals. Japanese Knotweed leads to massive silting of salmon redds - one example. Lake Washington has been illegally stocked with walleye who predate heavily on salmon fry. The river has been diverted through the Lake Washington Ship Canal. This is where the Alaskan crab boats moor off season. Water temperatures in this body caused 70% mortality rates this June/July. Then there is fish piracy on the high seas and closer to home competition from Alaskan and Canadian fisheries whose waters our fish must negotiate to get back home. They catch a lot of our fish. Logging is still an issue but with new regulations in place it's no longer the prime issue.

I'll stop there and again apologies for going off topic.
 
:) Powerball is up to 1.3 billion. I never buy tickets. No need starting now. That much money ruins lives.
 
quinton said:
I won't buy a ticket because I'm afraid I would win.:D
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You could take a big check into the Clay City Bank and make a big splash. You'd probably be on the Lexington newscasts, maybe even before the car accident stories!

The history of a lot of the small cities is good reading. Middlesboro, KY, for example, or Rockwood, TN. Lots of them built in a flash of industry then taking extraordinary measures to keep going when whatever they were supposed to be doing became impossible. Then there is the utopian Rugby, TN.
 
BG_Farmer said:
You could take a big check into the Clay City Bank and make a big splash. You'd probably be on the Lexington newscasts, maybe even before the car accident stories!

The history of a lot of the small cities is good reading. Middlesboro, KY, for example, or Rockwood, TN. Lots of them built in a flash of industry then taking extraordinary measures to keep going when whatever they were supposed to be doing became impossible. Then there is the utopian Rugby, TN.
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The bank is now a museum. I drive by it several times a year, but have never stopped in to look around. I will for sure now!
 
From what little i have read, the timber industry has shifted a number in the US as the uses for the timber changed. Early on in the colonial period, the targeted species on the east coast were TALL white pine (masts), live oak (hull frames) and white oak (hull planking) for shipbuilding for the rapidly expanding Royal Navy. Much later we got to a period where much of the old growth longleaf pine was cut down in the South. Same thing for wood like adirondack spruce. Today, a LOT of our timber industry here in he South is based on plantation pine which is used not only for lumber but pulp (paper) and cellulose fiber (insulation and filler for Pampers).
 
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