Larch Mountain logging latest aerial views

[Peabody]

Below is an aerial view taken on November 18th, 2014 (yesterday ). With the recent snow the areas that were clear cut over the summer really show up. I believe that everything in Township 1N 4E section 24 & 25 was cut in 2014. I added some rough outlines of the sections to help with orientation.

It private land soooooo.......but still kinda sad.

[raftingdog]

was this 2nd growth?

[BrianEdwards]

Timber hit record prices earlier this year, lots of places got logged in 2014!

[Peabody]

was this 2nd growth?

I would guess (and aerial photos would show) a lot of it was 2nd growth and approximately 115 - 135 years old. The area logged in section 24 is exactly where the first town of Palmer was located.

original growth > nursery stump > second growth

[-Q-]

I think the southwest Silver Star area got hit pretty hard too.
Checking out the view from the Hawthorne Bridge the other day, I thought I saw some cleared out area's that I hadn't seen in the past.

[Splintercat]

That is mostly likely Longview Fibre land -- they've been liquidating what was once a sustainable yield on their holdings ever since a Toronto-based equity conglomerate bought the company in about 2007. They're milling some logs in Longview, but also shipping raw logs to China and elsewhere for quick cash. Not much media coverage, but it's a travesty to log at an unsustainable pace -- and especially to export raw logs when they could be milled here. Oregon's rural counties continue to have an extremely high unemployment rate, so the impact of these exports is real, and the rest of us pay for it in terms of human services for economically distraught counties.

God forbid we require a Canadian equity firm to actually process the logs they cut in Oregon inside our national borders. I wish the ultra-patriots who get all hot and bothered about Mexican farm workers picking strawberries here would focus on THIS issue, instead. I'd better stop right there...

Okay... getting off my soapbox again...

Tom

[Sean Thomas]

That is mostly likely Longview Fibre land -- they've been liquidating what was once a sustainable yield on their holdings ever since a Toronto-based equity conglomerate bought the company in about 2007. They're milling some logs in Longview, but also shipping raw logs to China and elsewhere for quick cash. Not much media coverage, but it's a travesty to log at an unsustainable pace -- and especially to export raw logs when they could be milled here. Oregon's rural counties continue to have an extremely high unemployment rate, so the impact of these exports is real, and the rest of us pay for it in terms of human services for economically distraught counties.

God forbid we require a Canadian equity firm to actually process the logs they cut in Oregon inside our national borders. I wish the ultra-patriots who get all hot and bothered about Mexican farm workers picking strawberries here would focus on THIS issue, instead. I'd better stop right there...

Okay... getting off my soapbox again...

Tom

I think Weyerhaeuser bought them in summer 2013 for 2.6 billion, "Weyerhaeuser Co. (WY), a U.S. real-estate investment trust that owns timberland, agreed to buy Longview Timber LLC for $2.65 billion including debt from affiliates of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. in the third-largest forestry acquisition in North America". It sounds like Kapstone bought the paper and packaging unit for 1 billion dollars, "Brookfield agreed to sell its Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging Inc. unit to KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. (KS) for $1.03 billion in cash, the Toronto-based investment company said yesterday in a statement."


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-1 ... llion.html


http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/swfa/ind ... gview.html

[Splintercat]

Thanks, Sean - I missed that! I guess that's somewhat better than being foreign-owned (for some reason, I have an issue with foreign corporations owning large tracts of U.S. soil, though my libertarian brother-in-law tells it shouldn't matter... hmm...). But unfortunately, Weyerhauser is also exporting raw logs, too -- big time, to China and Japan. I guess their jobs are more important than ours... Then there's the fact that the bulk of Weyerhauser's land was given to them, courtesy the U.S. government... but I suppose that's ancient history, now...

...see how easy it is for me to devolve into a rant on this subject..?

-Tom

[Don Nelsen]

When the logging first started in there I walked in and asked what the plans were. This was June of 2013 and the logging was just getting finished in Sec. 24 on the hill above the site of Palmer. I was told that the land was owed by Frank Timber who owed the SE quarter of Sec. 24 all of Sec. 25, and the east half of Sec. 36. I checked property records and at the time, Longview owed the west half of 36 and the east half of 35. From Peabody's photo, it appears Frank is well on their way to stripping Sec. 25 and Longview is doing their part in Sec. 36 and 35. I've hiked through most of the uncut areas and there are flags and marked trees everywhere. It appears the entire area owned by these two companies are to be logged.

I suppose it doesn't really matter who owns the land, the point is it is being clear cut. As far as I am concerned, the areas being cut are part of Larch Mt. and the gorge scenic area and should be left alone. The forest was clear cut and burned starting in the 1880's and has returned to "old growth" status. The area is rich in steam-era history and contains innumerable relics in the form of steam donkey skids, RR trestle remains, etc. The loggers have driven their equipment over some of the relics and destroyed them. Remains of the two highest and longest steam era RR trestles are in the path of the logging and likely will be destroyed. This is a shame but I don't know what to do about it. Ideas? Anybody interested in a tour-de-relics before they are gone?

dn

edit for typos

[raven]

In the mid-1980's I was at a talk when a Weyerhauser economist said that he had reviewed their extensive land holdings and had felt required to advise cutting and then selling the land because the rate of return to long-term holdings of timberlands was too low.

This is a standard if little-recognized environmental problem that renders timber a depleting resource -- less than second growth. Cutting followed by selling the land and investing money in other ways pays in terms of cash yield. Holding to maturity for timber earnings does not.