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Helicopter logging can lead to high-grading and forest loss
To the Editor:
I’m responding to the May 20 article on helicopter logging. As a professional forester with a love for these mountains, I believe good forestry – that is, science-based forest management that is ecologically, economically, and socially responsible – is possible on private forestlands. With its ability to provide periodic income to the landowner, good forestry is perhaps the only available strategy to conserve private forests and prevent their subdivision and residential development.
New timber harvest technologies, which determine how trees are cut, are welcome tools for implementing good forestry. Heli-logging minimizes the need for logging roads, landing sites, and ground-based heavy equipment, so heli-logging means less damage to soil and water quality. However, heli-logging is not a cure-all.
My concern is what trees are cut – the silviculture component of forest management. Silviculture in Appalachian hardwood forests – with their diversity of trees, forest types, and ownership objectives – is complex and requires an understanding of many scientific disciplines, including ecology, soils, wildlife and economics.
In the past, people primarily wanted timber from forests. Recently, they also want recreational opportunities, beautiful scenery, wildlife, biodiversity and water quality. Through silviculture, we can sustainably manage forests for these objectives.
While heli-logging can minimize environmental damage, it also has potential to foster bad forestry, in the form of “high-grading.”
“High-grading” or “cut the best and leave the rest” is the most common harvesting method on many private forestlands. With high-grading (selective cutting), what is cut focuses on short-term profits, with little regard for the future. “Selective cutting” should not be confused with “selection” silviculture, which is a valid, complex system of uneven-aged management.
The article describes a helicopter logging firm selectively “cutting trees with high market value that were at least 16 inches in diameter.” This “diameter-limit” cut is a common form of high-grading and is not based on science. Bent Creek Experimental Forest, a silvicultural research station near Asheville, does not advocate diameter-limit cutting.
Trees in a diameter-limit cut are not marked by a professional forester, so decisions on which trees to cut above the limit are the logger's. The logger cuts the trees that make him money. This is especially true of heli-logging, which costs more than $4,000 an hour. As a result, remaining stands in forests that have been high-graded are composed of poor-quality trees and lower-value species that possess little present and questionable future value. High-grading degrades the forest’s value both economically and aesthetically High-grading is poor silviculture and therefore poor forestry.
Potential financial returns from sawtimber production are an incentive for landowners to sustainably manage their woodlands. Yet steep mountain terrain and a diverse mix of tree species contribute to high logging costs. The best way for Appalachian forest landowners to compete in world markets is by growing high-quality, high-value hardwood sawtimber and veneer. Yet due to high-grading and other poor forestry practices, the quality and productive capacity of hardwood forests are declining, according to studies in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. A USDA Forest Service report shows a substantial difference in timber quality between national forests and adjacent private lands in this region, concluding that a significant portion of timber on private lands has been cut prior to becoming grade 1.
The financial impact of high-grading can be substantial. Sixteen-inch-diameter trees take decades to grow, yet have only recently entered sawtimber class and started earning a decent rate of return. Results from a 55-year-old hardwood forest in West Virginia, with the largest trees averaging 18 to 20 inches in diameter, showed annual rates of return over the following decade of 16 percent to 18 percent for red oak and yellow poplar in unmanaged stands, and 18 percent to 20 percent in managed stands. Unless there are solid silvicultural reasons, cutting such trees now is financially irresponsible.
If private forestlands are to remain intact, we need to think long term about tree growth and economic value. For private landowners, a high-grade harvest is often a once-in-a-lifetime event that removes a forest's economic value for several decades. This leaves little incentive to retain ownership, while providing even more incentive to subdivide and develop the property, leading to permanent forest loss.
Rather than accept a short-term, profit-based logging plan pushed by a timber buyer, private landowners should work with a registered, independent forester to develop a long-term, science-based management plan that is ecologically, economically, and socially responsible. More frequent but less intense timber harvests could result in sustained flows of income while maintaining or improving forest conditions for a full range of forest values.
Dennis Desmond
Franklin
Same-sex marriages cause concern
To the Editor:
I am concerned about the rapid move toward legalizing same-sex marriages in America. What has been done in Massachusetts will soon be done in all 50 states if people do not raise their voices in protest. Today I am raising my voice. It is not a voice of hate but of love for God, the Bible, my family and my country.
I recently read that some people are lobbying our legislators in Raleigh to move toward the passage of legislation that will legalize same-sex marriage. Make no mistake about this fact: These people work day and night to see this goal attained. They have a right to speak up for what they believe. I also have that right.
I am asking others who have this same concern to speak up to their legislators.
I believe that this movement toward same-sex marriage is evil and a part of an overall agenda whose goal is unrestricted sexual behavior. We who believe otherwise must not remain silent, because if we do, evil will triumph.
I am calling on other Bible-believing pastors to take a bold and public stand on this issue before it is too late.
Benny Bagwell
Franklin
Jackson County Transit a plus for WCU, Sylva
To the Editor:
I am writing you as a Western Carolina University student majoring in Parks and Recreation Management. I am writing to you today about the Jackson County Transit System that runs weekly on workdays in Jackson County. I rode the transit as part of a study in my environmental biology class to see what students thought about the transit system and what can be done to make it work better.
I believe from what I have seen while riding the transit that it is a wonderful program and should be in all towns everywhere. The transit is a luxury for both Western Carolina University students and Sylva citizens. The Jackson County transit runs from 2 to 6 p.m.
In this time, the transit route is a one-hour loop with stops at many key locations in Jackson County. For example, at 2 p.m. it starts at the McKee loop on the WCU campus, and then around 2:05 p.m. it makes a stop at the Alumni Tower. Next, it’s off to Wal-Mart by 2:20 p.m., then downtown Sylva by 2:35 p.m., then Kel-Save by 2:45 p.m., and then back to McKee loop by 3 p.m. The transit will also drop you off at your dorm if you stay at the bottom part of campus. This route works well for students and citizens because it goes to stores that have all that you need to get.
The Jackson County Transit System is a wonderful system, if you ask me, and I think it should be around as long as it can be funded.
John Hinnant
Cullowhee
‘Patriotic’ does not mean ‘pro-war’
To the Editor:
I did not volunteer for military service but was drafted for a year of military training in the spring of 1941. I don’t remember signing anything to the contrary, but it was almost five years before I was honorably discharged.
The military service taught me values and understanding of how the other half lives (that) I would have never known (without the experience). My participation in World War II through France, Germany and Austria embedded in me a fire of patriotism that will forever burn. I had comrades killed and wounded beside me and saw suffering I could not stop. A buddy’s blood flowed through my fingers, and I could not stop the flow. I have lived with that for 60 years.
I saw the carnage of war from our bombers in homeless women and children. Hungry children lined up at our garbage cans for a scrap of food, the darkness of fear in their eyes – victims of war.
I saw the destruction of small villages (so extensive that) even the dogs had left. Ancient cities were reduced to rubble. Bulldozers plowed a path for us to drive.
I was at the liberation of Dachau, where 30,000 displaced civilians were starving to death. I would not describe it.
Those are just some of the reasons I am against war. There has to be a better way. We have killed thousands of innocent Iraqis, while the reason for our being there has never been validated.
We get upset when others mess with our affairs. People have the same feelings the world over.
I agree that terrorism needs to be stopped, but our invasion of Iraq, it should be clear by now, was not the answer. One can’t sit in Washington in an over-stuffed chair and say with a smirk, “Bring ’em on.” The numbers are on the other side.
I love the United States of America, and I support our troops, who are too few in number and too ill-equipped to do the job required of them. I’m an active member of the American Legion and as patriotic as any man alive.
We need people (who show) integrity, patience and tolerance of how the other side lives and worships his God. And we need them now. Democracy is not something served on the tip of a sword. Democracy comes when a people band themselves together for their common good, and peace will come when the bombs and guns are put away.
Vernon Hoyle
Sylva
It’s time to cross party lines
To the Editor:
I have been a Democrat my entire life. However, I am sick and tired of Gov. Mike Easley and will not support him for another term.
North Carolina’s economy trails behind the rest of the Southeast. It trails because our current governor’s solution to every problem is to tax and spend the hard-working citizens of our state.
I will not blindly vote for a candidate just because he is a member of my party; I will vote for the person I believe to be the better man.
I was compelled to write this letter after hearing (Republican) Richard Vinroot speak. Richard is a man of character, a veteran and a former mayor of Charlotte. His ideas are also pragmatic and sound.
I would like to encourage other similar-thinking individuals to abandon party lines and vote for a candidate who can make a difference in our great state.
Sam Bartlett
Sylva
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