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