An Example of The Disgusting State of our National Forests

     This  is about our Dead and Dying Forests   and an Idea  how to Help Them.....Its not a New Idea...It Just needs to be Said Again

     Now This isnt going to be real Scientific.....  Just  My Observations  from  My Personal Experiences from Living, Working, and Wandering around the Forests and Mtns,  and from what I read about almost everyday in Magazines,  NewsPapers, TV, and Other Media... I've seen and heard almost every argument from all sides...Every Body seems  to have an Adjenda  these Days...There seems to be a total lack of  Common Sense when the Preservationists get on their Soap Boxes..  and  try to convince the rest of  the  world that the  Sky is Falling...

     And  they are  doing a pretty good  job of it, Sad  to Say

     All Living things..... People....Animals....... Plants..... Trees..... All are Born....Sprout from Seeds,Spores,Etc......They Grow.... Mature....and Die....And  they all give off some form of Pollution during their Existence....In Life and in Death.......   Even what we call Fossil Fuels (Coal, Oil, Natural Gas) were at one time Living Things.....Not sure how ya classify just Plain Rock and Dirt....Water....Air.....
     Anyways....We worry about GreenHouse Gases.....I wonder if most of the problem isnt too many People and  Animals...They all Fart.... Methane Gas...is a  well known example.....Cows are especially bad...LandFills are Full of it and is being Harnessed for Power Generation ....Fossil Fuels when burned put other forms of Carbon in the  air...
     There are other Forms of Pollution that are far worse, and I know I dont want to get started on them now... Plants and Trees when they are growing use sunlight, water, soil nutrients, and some of this Pollution in Our Air and convert it to  Life..... Just as the People and  Animals (Mammals) and other forms of Conscious Life are born , live and  die...They All....Consume  Recources and  convert them to Pollution..........  Its Natures Balance.... If  things get out of Balance we  have a  Crisis.....Nature in the Past has taken care of this for us.....Nowdays, We Humans have to give Mother Nature a little Help..... .

     This is my Problem..... I'm  from the so called "Natural Resource Extraction Industry"......In Particular the Forest Products Industry......Also Known as a "Tree Killers", "Logger", "Raper of the  Forests"....Etc....Thats a  Buncha Bull....

     There's been a Movement gaining Momentum for many Years...The Preservation Crowd.... It really got moving  with the Endangered-Species Act that the United States Congresss  really Screwed up On.....Then we got Clinton-Gore and  their Cronies for 8 yrs......They've  got The Natural Resources Industrys  so Screwed up They dont know what to React to next...    There's Hope, Our New President Bush  might Help bring a little Common Sense to Our National Government.......God Knows we need some  ...Rural America has Too Many Stories Similar to this one to Tell....Lets Hope we're seein Light at  the  End Of The Tunnel......We'll See
 
 

 Is this what ya like to see??  Ya cant even Walk thru there.....
 

     The "Let it Rot or Burn" philosophy is just Plain Wastefull
and doesnt do a damn thing about solving any of the Pollution.....If it Rots it puts out Pollution in the  Air..... If the forest Floors get overloaded some of it eventually gets in the Waters and adds to Water Pollution too ...You Dont See It But Its  There Just The Same..... If it Burns it just Accellerates the Process and You can Visually see the Pollution as its Generated...And the Millions of Dollars Spent to Fight them Basically down a RatHole.......And with most of the Forest DeNuded there is nothing to keep the Soils in place.....  So come Summer Thunder Storms,  Fall Rains, and Spring Snow Melt, the Soils are Washed down the Hill into the Streams creating more Problems.....Contibuting to some of the Fish Problems too....Again this is Nature at Work....A Simplistic way to look at it would be to say something like this.... If You Notice the Valleys have all the Fertile Soils..... the Further up the Mountain You go the more Rock and less Soil you see.... Thats How Nature Works .......Its a  Cycle..... The Mountains Erode..... Fills the Valleys.... Washes out to Sea.....The Oceans sink and Push up somewhere else and  we  have More Continents to Start the Process all over again.... It  takes Thousands, Millions of Years but it Happens......
 

 I got Sidetracked for  a minute here
 

I'm not sure who took this Picture, but its getting Famous
It was taken during the
FireStorm in Montana the Summer of 2000
 

     It seems we are going thru a Power Crisis now, and there doesnt seem to be much of an Immediate Solution.... HydroPower seems to be out, The Salmon Issue has  thrown a Monkey Wrench into that Idea,  tho there have been some decent ideas Floating About...Nuclear  Power has  everybody Scared Off.....The Price of Natural Gas has Risen...and Nobody wants a Power Plant in  Their Back Yard..... Its Tough to Site a New Power Plant these days.......Wind and Solar shows  Promise, along with many Disadvantages ......Energy Cells too......

     I havent heard much  said about BioMass Generation Lately.....Co-Generation....as it is commonly  called...Burning Wood or any Plant Matter, in a  controlled Enviroment creates less Pollution than Lettin it Rot or Burn on the Ground,  and can make a real Contribution to Our Energy Supply, Create Family Wage Jobs in  Rural Areas, and Maybe Help Get our National Economy running again...
 Most generally Co-Generation is mated with an industry that has Wood or Plant Fibre Waste and has Need of Heat for their Industrial Processes........ Generally Drying  Wood Products....Heating Green Houses, Buildings, Etc
     Burn Fibre, to Make SuperHeated Steam, to Spin a Turbine Hooked to a  Generator, and then use Left Over Steam Heat To Dry Products or Heat Buildings......Any Industry near an Available Fibre Resource that needs  Heat
 The only real Problem I can Think of is the Price of the Wood Fibre (Hog Fuel) .... Used to be, Say 20 Yrs ago,  The Price of all Fuels were pretty much tied to  the Price of Oil...Basically, xxx Number of Dollars   for   xxx Number of BTU's (British Termal Units)  ... That doesnt seem to be the case Nowdays...I havent Reasearched this Issue, But I'm getting the Gut Feeling its Mostly Lack of Competition thats Keeping the Prices of Hog Fuel Artifically Low....Most  any Diesel Powered Gererator as used as Backup Power for some kins of Business, Hospitals, or the Plants the Typical Rock Crusher Operator uses Could be hooked up to the Power Grid and could Compete at the Current Prices.....Some Smaller Rural.Communitys have Considered just That...... As The Price of Electric Energy  has Risen so Much in the Past Year...Even the Average Prices to the Home Consumer, in the Hydro-Rich NorthWest are Projected to Double in the this Next Year.....Throw in some of the Opportunistic Prices Some of the Private Generating Plants have been getting  during the Current Crisis.....I think its time to Get Bio-Mass Fuel back in the Process....and Help Get Our Forests back in a Healthy State...... The Technology has been around for Decades, and is Improving every Year...

     California's Economy is  having some serious Problems with its Energy Supply these days......What with their Energy Deregulation Problems.....And Hey......I  finally saw it in Print ......In Effect......When the Power Company's of California were Forced to Sell Off their Generating Plants......It was substantially the same StockHolders with a Different Company Name that Bought them.......Some of Our New President Bush's Cronies to Boot.....Lets Hope He can see thru the Smoke to Level the Playing Field ...... Others States are already having or  are headed in the same Direction

     California in Years Past was doing a pretty good job of keeping ahead of demand....They were Building Co-Generation Plants......Remember .....This is a Renewable Resource....Hell.... You can send your old Christmas Trees, Yard Clippings, Almost anything that will Burn,......... Then the Endangered-Species Act hit them right between the eyes......... All the Preservation Groups figured out how to Manipulate the System.......With a Lot of help from the Clinton-Gore Crowd......The National Forest System Ground to a Halt.......The  National Forests were  where the Main Supply  of Fibre Came From.......This Fiber just keeps  growin, then dies.....Dont let it go to Waste....Use it to help Mankind.......
    Private Enterprise is Growing Fibre for Paper Pulp and BioMass in 7 to10 year Rotations Nowdays....Granted the National Forests dont generally have the most Productive Lands....There is so Much out there going to waste its Criminal..... Its Renewable....Its Renewable....Cut back on some of the Idiotic Regulations the US Government Imposes on these Lands and It would Probably add Dollars to US Treasury from Timber Sales......It would Put People to Work and off Welfare or Unemployment...Less Domestic violence....Less Crime... These Same People might Feel Proud to Start Payin Income Taxes Again........
 
 

This is  an Expensive way to Fight a Fire....But Effective....
This was in my BackYard, Summer of 2000
 
 

I'm gonna get SideTracked  here again for a  bit ...

     I used to hear stories of an UnderGround Meeting of the Worlds Stategic Planners.... They were trying to figure out how to keep the worlds Economys  Running smoothly in times of Peace.....In Effect they decided a certain Percentage of the Worlds Gross  Product  ( Industrial Production) had to be Destroyed each Year.....It's working ??....Its been  25 Yrs ? Since we were involved in  a Major War..........Whats been Happening ?   Did  we start Filling up All the Landfills too  fast?.....They're  still working on it tho......Look at  all the Perfectly Sound Buildings  being torn down....Millions Spent to RetroFit all the AirConditioning Systems...The Endangered-Species Act..OSHA Regulations..EPA Regulations..Just to Name a  Few......Millions of UnProductive Dollars Spent Complying with all the Record Keeping Requirement's  alone.....Think about it for a  minute

     The National Forests are in Sad Shape and Getting Worse.... The National Park Service is  trying to Add More Areas to  their System, while their Buildings are Rotting Away ...All the  while Restricting more and more General Public  Access........Whats  Going On Here ???     Whether by WildFire or Letting it Rot it's still Destruction
 

This is what I like to see

This a Project I  did this Past Summer on My Place......This a is Vigorous Young Forest....About half the Material removed was suitable for BioMass...the other Half Small Sawlogs
 

     Lets Clean up our National  Forests .....  Get the Dead Wood out...It doesnt Have to Look Like a Plantation....Get the Heavy Fuels off the  Ground....Get Most of the Dead and Dying Trees out while theres Still Some Value....Ole Mother Nature's Gonna Take It One Way or The Other....Lets Help ManKind  a Bit In The Process......Plant Lots of New Trees...Young Vigorous Growing Trees and Plants TAKE Carbon Pollution out of the Air and Help Control Erosion at the same time...Trees and Plant Life does suck up ground  water tho, and  Streams tend to run slower the more Vegetation there is.....And  their Shade helps keep the SnowPacks on the Mountains Longer in the Spring also Helping Minimize Erosion...
.

My Battery's Runnin Down a Bit....More Later.... Sooner  if I see Something Really Stupid
 
 
 
 
 

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