The purpose of our National Forests?

[TOGIE]

Saying the purpose of the forest is timber production is probably closer to Pinchot's original intent than the current way of doing things.

Yeah, timber production was certainly core to his ethos regarding the use of the Forest Reserves as i understand it. Certainly was in the Organic Act, no doubt.

But, so was sustainability, conservation, and a democratic approach to management of the resources. Not sure I can expect as much of the same from the current desired approach.

 

[lastlight]

While we must stay vigilant on our values as hunters, conservationist, and stewards of habit we must also realize the current way our forests have been managed has proven to be disastrous year after year with fires.

In north Idaho, everywhere has been and is currently being logged. While most is on private paper land, it’s still better habitat for big game than areas south of me I hunt where you won’t find elk because there’s so much over growth and no feed.

I don’t agree to just start logging everything. But strategic and well thought out logging/thinning would benefit all. I realize the fear is it will be logged until it’s a desert, but that’s being really emotional and not reality as of now.

We get wood from all over. Building is never going to stop. Just left Home Depot for the 20th time this year and it’s as busy as ever with men purchasing lumber. Where’s this lumber suppose to come from??? A factory? Or just another country so it’s not in our backyard? Asking honest questions here feel free to pick my thoughts apart.

 

[Gr8bawana]

I hope conservatives from western states can speak up for their public lands. Some western Republicans are pretty good on that.
Really? Which ones?

House Republicans added a provision to their sweeping tax cut package authorizing sales of hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in Nevada and Utah, prompting outrage from Democrats and environmentalists who called it a betrayal that could lead to drilling, mining and logging in sensitive areas.

Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee adopted the land sales proposal early Wednesday morning. The initial draft had not included it amid bipartisan opposition.

The land sale provision was put forward by Republican Reps. Mark Amodei of Nevada and Celeste Maloy of Utah.

These guys are very eager to ruin even their own states.

 

[Justabirdwatcher]

While we must stay vigilant on our values as hunters, conservationist, and stewards of habit we must also realize the current way our forests have been managed has proven to be disastrous year after year with fires.

In north Idaho, everywhere has been and is currently being logged. While most is on private paper land, it’s still better habitat for big game than areas south of me I hunt where you won’t find elk because there’s so much over growth and no feed.

I don’t agree to just start logging everything. But strategic and well thought out logging/thinning would benefit all. I realize the fear is it will be logged until it’s a desert, but that’s being really emotional and not reality as of now.

We get wood from all over. Building is never going to stop. Just left Home Depot for the 20th time this year and it’s as busy as ever with men purchasing lumber. Where’s this lumber suppose to come from??? A factory? Or just another country so it’s not in our backyard? Asking honest questions here feel free to pick my thoughts apart.

Heresy on a hunting forum, I know, but there is a lot more to a healthy ecological system than the abundance (or as some would prefer, overabundance) of big game. If sportsmen want to be seen as something more than just another self-serving group concerned with their own interests, they would do well to advocate for healthy forests, and not necessarily only those that produce or hold the most animals that have tags issued for them.

Sustainable is a word that we would do well to remember at a time like this. Sustainable harvests for wood products, yes, but also sustainable habitat for all the species that belong there. Not just those we can buy tags for. It would be a sad, sad world for our grandchildren if they never get to see and hear all the things in the forest we enjoyed at their age.

 

[Hem]

Paging @BuzzH

 

[Laszlo Cravensworth]

Heresy on a hunting forum, I know, but there is a lot more to a healthy ecological system than the abundance (or as some would prefer, overabundance) of big game. If sportsmen want to be seen as something more than just another self-serving group concerned with their own interests, they would do well to advocate for healthy forests, and not necessarily only those that produce or hold the most animals that have tags issued for them.

Sustainable is a word that we would do well to remember at a time like this. Sustainable harvests for wood products, yes, but also sustainable habitat for all the species that belong there. Not just those we can buy tags for. It would be a sad, sad world for our grandchildren if they never get to see and hear all the things in the forest we enjoyed at their age.

Roosevelt elk do really well in the Oregon coast range thanks to all the timber production. The sedimentation in those streams makes it a wasteland for salamanders and frogs though since none of the insects they eat remain.

 

[MTGomer]

I’m all for more logging on already roaded places but where do the logs go? The mills are gone. It’s hard to make money logging when each truck can only do a load a day.

 

[lastlight]

Heresy on a hunting forum, I know, but there is a lot more to a healthy ecological system than the abundance (or as some would prefer, overabundance) of big game. If sportsmen want to be seen as something more than just another self-serving group concerned with their own interests, they would do well to advocate for healthy forests, and not necessarily only those that produce or hold the most animals that have tags issued for them.

Sustainable is a word that we would do well to remember at a time like this. Sustainable harvests for wood products, yes, but also sustainable habitat for all the species that belong there. Not just those we can buy tags for. It would be a sad, sad world for our grandchildren if they never get to see and hear all the things in the forest we enjoyed at their age.

I agree. Also, what benefits elk benefits predators, scanvergers, birds, some insects, etc. Not the case for other species in many cases too.

I’m all for more logging on already roaded places but where do the logs go? The mills are gone. It’s hard to make money logging when each truck can only do a load a day.

Build new mills? Make Canada mill and truck for free to us so we dont invade them for hunting rights like we should have done already?

 

[Justabirdwatcher]

I agree. Also, what benefits elk benefits predators, scanvergers, birds, some insects, etc. Not the case for other species in many cases too.

That is certainly the wishful thinking spread far and wide by the outdoor writers and many state wildlife agencies. In some cases it's even true. But most non-game species (and even some game species) that are in the steepest decline depend on the same mature, wholly intact systems that the first white men saw, very few of which continue to exist. Our generation has never seen a fraction of the abundance of wildlife that our great grandfathers saw. And all those critters were roaming about mature forests and grasslands, streams and rivers that still had water and still had access to their flood plains. Imagine hunting elk and bear on the prairies instead of postholing through the dark and fallen timber at 10k feet. It wasn't that long ago that was where they were found. A reading of Lewis and Clark's journal will almost make a sportsman cry.

I'm not saying sportsmen aren't the answer. So far they have been most of the answer. But let's be honest that most sportsmen can be pretty self-serving just like everyone else.

 

[lastlight]

That is certainly the wishful thinking spread far and wide by the outdoor writers and many state wildlife agencies. In some cases it's even true. But most non-game species (and even some game species) that are in the steepest decline depend on the same mature, wholly intact systems that the first white men saw, very few of which continue to exist. Our generation has never seen a fraction of the abundance of wildlife that our great grandfathers saw. And all those critters were roaming about mature forests and grasslands, streams and rivers that still had water and still had access to their flood plains. Imagine hunting elk and bear on the prairies instead of postholing through the dark and fallen timber at 10k feet. It wasn't that long ago that was where they were found. A reading of Lewis and Clark's journal will almost make a sportsman cry.

I'm not saying sportsmen aren't the answer. So far they have been most of the answer. But let's be honest that most sportsmen can be pretty self-serving just like everyone else.

Well yea I’d give anything to change things back to the way they used to be, kick out half the countries population, re-wild half the country, but that’s not reality.

 

[westbranch]

Well yea I’d give anything to change things back to the way they used to be, kick out half the countries population, re-wild half the country, but that’s not reality.

What makes you think you should be in the half that gets to stay?

 

[lastlight]

What makes you think you should be in the half that gets to stay?

Half my families been here since the beginning, the other half 300 years. Plus I’m a steward of the land even on my 5 acres. 99% of the general public just consume and waste, trash public lands, use plastic everything, get obese and clog up our health care systems. I can go on forever. Humans are gross. Stay on topic now.

 

[Justabirdwatcher]

Half my families been here since the beginning, the other half 300 years. Plus I’m a steward of the land even on my 5 acres. 99% of the general public just consume and waste, trash public lands, use plastic everything, get obese and clog up our health care systems. I can go on forever. Humans are gross. Stay on topic now.

So you're Native American?

And I think you overreacted to my comment. Maybe in an effort to dismiss it, I'm not sure, but my point stands. Anyone who is only interested in some of the things that wild lands provide, risks losing all the things. At times like these, hunters need all the allies they can find in the fight to protect our public lands.

 

[Treeshark]

The concept of generational seniority is very perplexing to me.