[waiyu]

From a timber market point of view: clear cutting is the final stage of a current management plan.
My opinion: I have walked through some of the roughest clear cuts you can imagine. If there is enough seed source around the cut to maintain natural reseeding I can understand that. However, I like to see the tract replanted within 2 years of harvest. I don't like to see people clearcut land and then just leave it alone. I see that as an opportunity to begin fresh with a manageable plan of action. Clearcutting is not the environmental catastrophe that environmentalists claim it to be. It does allow the timber slash to release nutrients back into the soil that will be used for the next generation of plant life. I will agree that clear cuts do "look" horrible. But I also see it as a fresh beginning for new forests.

[AppyPappy]

We have clear cutting here all the time. In two years, you can barely tell it happened. Mother Nature just plants new trees herself.

[kanawa]

Thanks for the reply

I've got to admit when I saw my first clear cut I was a wee bit taken aback.
It was an emotional response but the wind through the few trees standing
seemed mournfully appropriate to the appearance of desolation.
I think I understand the economic reasons for it but I'm unsure of the management aspect.
When you talk of replanting the tract what does that mean?
Does it end up looking like a tree farm rather than a forest?
I have no problem with that but I'm concerned if that type of renewal is used to justify unlimited access to new tracts wilderness or old growth forest.
What's the length of time until a regenerated forest becomes ready to harvest?
I'd like to see a plan that would give security to people now working in the industry.
Difficult question but how much land is needed to be set aside to achieve this?
Does the industry think this way or with increasing world demand will there be increased pressure to open new areas to logging?

You state that clear cutting is the final stage of a current management plan.
Can you expand on that? What are the other stages?
What is a 'manageable plan of action'?

You mention, "If there is enough seed source around the cut to maintain natural reseeding...".
Is that the reason why there are a few remaining trees in that picture?
I wondered at the time why they were left.

What little perspective I have on this comes from Northern Ontario and a selfish love of trekking the backwoods.