[pct-l] Clearcuts

[Montedodge@aol.com]

There is surprisingly a fair buffer zone around the PCT in Washington from 
clearcut views.( ex. south of Snoq. ) It is nice to see young forest and 
clearcuts allow light for plants to feed wildlife. The problem is you can see 
miles upon miles of clearcuts in the Grifford Phinchot now. Flooding is now a 
big problem in most creeks with silt from the many mudslides also killing 
young salmon in our creeks and rivers. Half the people who work pumping gas 
in this state are walking around with forestry degrees. The bottom line is 
greed. Clearcutting makes harvesting timber cheap and easy on steep ground. 
Many roads are cut in to haul the timber ( which always slide out ).  At 
least on the east side of the state ( around Colville ) timber is just 
thinned leaving smaller trees to grow and no big eye sores. Helicopter 
logging just taking select trees would make more sense. Go check out the 
Willapa Hills out on the coast to see miles of 20 year old trees. In my high 
school class, half the guys became loggers. Now there is little timber,  with 
the loggers all being unemployed drunks. Forest Service Management is just a 
bad joke. During the 80's, all the big timber companies  cut every stick as 
fast as possible. ( The forest Service wasn't far behind ) Now Rainier , 
Simpson ,Boise and Weyhouser have all their timber in Japan. The only reason 
the PCT was spared outside of Parks and Wilderness Areas is that scrub alpine 
fir has little market value. Washington , the Stump State
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