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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 2016)
Page 4 News Street Roots • August 19-25, 2016 The forester’s BY EMILY GREEN STAFF WRITER DILEMMA he way Peter Hayes explains it, every time the timber industry makes a change to the way it harvests America’s forests, it’s to correct a past mistake. The vast swaths of replanted tree Some timber producers say it is time for plantations that cover much of Oregon’s private lands today are the industry’s a cultural shift in how we think about reaction to running into the Pacific Ocean logging and forests’ role in the ecosystem after years of clear-cutting, he said. And Hayes should know. He comes from a long line of American foresters. The first phase, he said, was when Euro timber industry today are risking the future are today, explained Hayes: Phase IV. We Americans landed on the East Coast and viability of our forests.. still have tree farms, or plantations, but the began logging to clear the land for farming. We don’t know how current practices - Oregon Forest Practices Act also lays out Then came Phase II: Mine it and move on. plant, clear cut, spray herbicide and repeat some environmental protections and “My family was involved in all five of - will affect the most valuable part of the guidelines. these phases,” Hayes said. “The ‘mine it forest: the soil, Hayes said. This phase of forestry, Hayes said, and move on’ - there was a whole lot of “It’s the great experiment.” incorporates multiple ideals but rewards land that was cut to the bone from the 1920s to the 1950s - just ravaged, and they landowners for only one: timber production. For this reason, he said, “the rational Plantation problems just walked off and left it Those lands landowner is only going to do the thing that turned into dead-end cycles of bramble If you’ve ever traveled west along they’re rewarded for.” patches. Give them 500 years and they Highway 26 for a weekend getaway at the Hayes is part of a growing network of become forests, but in the short run, they coast, you’ve probably noticed clear-cutting timber company operators who are trying wouldn’t, and there was a public interest in is still alive and well in Oregon’s privately to usher in Phase V: managing their forests having more productive lands.” owned forests. for both the timber that brings them What followed, was Phase III: Tree While a freshly clear-cut mountainside money, and the ecological benefits that do fafifiSl’Fbtesters^begaErto replantforests can be a jarring sight, some may take not - and it’s a drastic departure from ..because they needed wood for future solace in the notion that Oregon has laws common current forestry practices. harvests. But then came a wave of that require replanting, as evidenced by the It’s all about placing long-term environmentalism; people decided they many recently planted treescapes - and sustainability above short-term profits, he wanted more than just wood products out industry-sponsored billboards reminding said. of their forests. They wanted habitat for motorists of these laws along the same Many of the big players in America’s wildlife and the protection of shared stretch of highway. resources. At first glance, these “Phase IV” This led us to where we replanted landscapes of Douglas fir, T hemlock, cedar and spruce might resemble native forests, but many scientists and environmentalists say they’re nothing of the sort. Instead, they say, these tree farms are little more than cornfield-like rows of pine or fir trees that are all the same age and same height. They also argue that this * system of forestry is damaging our watersheds, threatening native wildlife and contributing to climate change. Foresters, however, seem split Some, like Hayes, agree with most of these claims, and others, like Seth Barnes at Oregon Forest and Industries Council, say forestry has come a long way. Barnes said laws governing foresters in Oregon “are based on science and have been adjusted over the years as new science emerges.” And, he said, most foresters he knows believe those laws are “keeping the forests in forestry.” Doug Maguire, a professor of forest management at Oregon State University’s College of Forestry, is an expert in intensively managed forests. “There are a bunch of things that happen in planted forests that are probably done from the standpoint of one objective,” he said, “and that typically has been timber production.” And a lot of what happens is up to the landowner and his or her objectives. In some tree plantations, trees are so densely packed, their crowns eventually touch as they grow, blocking out the sun and limiting growth on the forest floor, he explained. While some landowners might See FORESTS, page 5 PHOTO BY JOE GLODE
