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Let’s put Forestry in context. And let’s do so from the perspective of one of seven national forests on the western slope of the Oregon Cascades – the most prolific and productive soft wood forest in the world.
The Willamette National Forest in Oregon has 110 years of history, beginning in 1909 as the Cascade-Santiam Reserves became the Willamette in 1934. Using the metric of 20 years representing a generation, then this National Forest has spanned 5 ½ generations. The history of harvest (cut) tells the story as two generations (1950 – 1990) cut over 25.5 billion board feet while the other 70 years (2 generations prior and 1 ½ after) cleared around four billion. The associated residue and waste increased as a function of the cut (see History of the Willamette National Forest – by Lawrence and Mary Rakestraw).
One study by J.O. Howard in 1981 (referenced on page 565) revealed that the ‘reside’ (tops, branches, defective logs, etc.) leftover from logging in California, Oregon and Washington in one year (1965) amounted to the equivalent of over seven million cords of wood.
As the cut increased until 1990, so did the reside and waste where extrapolating suggests over 280 million cords of wood/residue was wasted. Then in the 1980’s, burning units after logging was common with consequences of slope overs (burning units that cause wildfires outside the units) causing 30% of the forest fires in the 1980’s.
As environmental consequences mounted in the 1980’s after the forty-year binge, the cut was reduced by 90% in the 1990’s as the spotted owl and marbled murrelet entered our lexicon and consciousness. Finally, causes and effects were being acknowledged, at least in some circles.
Most of the lessons of past mismanagement still remain disconnected from current forest management both in practice and science. Forestry schools, many funded by the timber industries, would not engage in open and transparent dialogue about these questions. It’s getting even worse today as the forestry industry attempts to transition to their fast-growing super trees, short rotations (harvesting after 35-50 years) and man-made products, such as oriented strand boards (OSBs), Trus Joist-I Joists® (TJI joists) and cross-laminated timbers (CLTs), all of which have serious consequences.
Gifford Pinchot stated the essential mission statement of the forest service – ‘to provide the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time’ representing both wisdom and balance, yet the forces of domination and control undermined his efforts. The past laws of sustained yield/even flow first established in 1944, is but one example where, had those laws been followed on the Willamette, we could have 18.5 generations of trees/forests left to cut. Instead, it was a short binge and will be a protracted bust.
The external and unintended consequences of industrial forestry persist in many forms including trashed ecosystems, endangered species, significantly depressed rural communities, ecosystems in need of restoration and more extreme wildfires. Industrial forestry creates short economic booms followed by protracted busts every time, yet our universities and science rarely connect the dots in a seemingly closed circle of deceit and privilege.
For example, biomass is justified as part of wildfire mitigation, yet the disconnects in the practice/prescriptions undermine the stated goal. First, there is no acknowledgement of the consequences of past logging converting multi-age, species, story forests into even-age plantations, or the extreme waste that followed. Secondly, the types of wildfire (surface fire and crown fire) are radically altered by industrial logging where plantations have essentially eliminated beneficial surface fire from happening.
The forest service then attempts to restore the damaged landscape, putting up a sale to help pay selling both the fire-safe, valuable bigger trees and thinning the over-crowded, fire-prone plantations which are of little value. The irony of one step forward, ten steps back.
Biomass and man-made products like OSBs, TJIs and CLTs (referenced above), are all attempts to justify industrial forestry with products predicated on fast-growing plantation forestry. They (industrial forestry/science) seem unwilling to allow these products to fail and thereby, are willing to pour vast resources into creating and selling these products. They ignore the inherent limitations of fast-growing fiber and the causes and consequences of past management, attempting to create ends that justify the means.
Man-made products also have significant liabilities and consequences that rarely get acknowledged. For instance, OSB’s outgas, TJI’s fail in under 5 minutes in a house fire and are compromised by modifications/holes and CLT’s are extremely expensive and have failed in a major project at Oregon State University where 85 panels had to be replaced after a panel failed and fell.
Technology and science have enabled us to convert multi-age, story and species forests into even-aged monocultures without seeing or understanding the consequences. Economics has made if profitable to take and destroy nature’s masterful and symbiotic self-sustaining resources and privilege has blinded us from seeing. Management has ascribed tools/costs such as planting, fertilization, herbicides, and pre-commercial thinning to these plantations while not realizing none of these costs/tools are necessary if liquidation industrial forestry isn’t practiced. Nature knows best and our feeble attempts to improve nature have externalities and unintended consequences which remain largely unaccounted for in science, higher education, and economics.
These undeniable trends on every front from wildfire to man-made products that fail and outgas; busted rural communities and compromised ecosystems; to invasive species and infestations; all whose consequences are costly, pervasive and undermine future generations.
Yet empire was built upon the seemingly limitless resources as the negative consequences remained hidden by profits, power and control. It’s as if the sport of shooting buffalo from trains for their tongues has been applied to every natural resource, under the same guise of domination and control. All with similar short-lived results and extinction consequences, as they did for the Sioux yesterday and for the future generations of tomorrow.
As Gandhi suggests, “We are bartering away the permanent good for a momentary pleasure.”
There is neither a law of physics nor economics that prevents us from quadrupling the productive use of energy and other resources. Rather, it is much more an issue of imagination and our political will to get it done.
– John A. “Skip” Laitner