They tried to stop logging on private property near my parents. They brought in an expert to testify in court about how it would be unconscienable to destroy all of the “virgin timber”. That concept gained traction in court until someone pointed out that everyone in the surrounding area knew that it had been timbered no less than 4 times in the last century.
If I perjured myself in court like that, I would get thrown in jail.
That concept gained traction in court until someone pointed out that everyone in the surrounding area knew that it had been timbered no less than 4 times in the last century.”
Depending on the species of tree that was timbered, the average life span of a Douglas Fir, for example, is about 30 years to maturity and maximum use. After age of 30, Douglas Fir AGES very quickly, and is not worth much as a building material after 33 yrs of age. I have a friend who owns timerland in Kalifornia. He has been totally stymied in “harvesting his crop” by all the state and federal anti-timbering rules. He has the records of the various years production all the way back to the middle 1800’s when his Great-great Grandfather homesteaded his first parcel of land.
The idea of “virgin trees” also was floated around Nevada County, Kalifornia. All the new yuppies in their Birkenstocks are coming up from San Francisco area and acting like ALL the pine trees there are just HUNDREDS of years old. I loved taking them to the older restaurants that had pics of the area in the gold mining days. The trees were cut down everywhere to put TIMBERS inside mines (gee-wonder why they are called TIMBERS?) and to build housing for the thousands of miners who flocked to the area after gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill.
The aged trees cannot withstand pests and are fast fodder for bark beetles and forest fires.
Nothing like a person who makes their living using lots of PAPER telling the guy who grows the tree where the paper comes from how to make a living.......