460 lb bow kill

Scrmblr
Used to amuse us when people from the Midwest would come out and complain about the clear cutting. I used to ask them if they went through their fields and only cut every stalk of wheat that was ripe when the rest of it was a 90% ripe, or if they harvested the entire field. Naturally they'd say that they harvested the entire field. when asked what the difference was, they very seldom could reply.

What most people don't understand about Timber harvesting is that Timber is a crop, just like wheat with a 50 - 70 year harvest cycle. If you've ever been in a old growth forest, you'll find that there are not many animals living in it because the old growth blocks the sun from the ground and there isn't anything for the animals to eat. Most wild life lives in either primary (replanted) or secondary growth. For every tree harvested, 3 are planted and later when thinning occurs, in order too give the best tree the opportunity to grow, normally one or more are removed before they get too big. Otherwise they are all stunted. This is called maximizing crop potential, just like any other farm.

Another thing most people don't realize is that leaving the scrub, branches, etc on the ground and in piles, provides cover for wildlife which becomes a necessary part of the equation and subsequent considerations.

One thing that really PO's people from Washington and Oregon is that the federally built dams on the Columbia River sell their power to California and California electrical power is cheaper to the individuals than the locals pay for electricity. These same dams are also a main reason that the Salmon harvest has dropped significantly in the last 100 +/- years. Some dams have fish ladders, some don't, and the Federal Nuclear Waste Facility at Hanford creates Thermal or temperature blocks in the river that fish cannot pass, from the use of river water to cool their by-products. All of this contributes to the fish not being able to get back to their spawning beds.

This entire subject was the basis for a thesis I did for one class at the UW.

So much for my class of the day, got to get back to hassling djones!

Packrat
 
Back in the early 90's, my uncle took me onto some of the property that Weyerhauser Paper owned. Back then, Weyerhauser gave out permits so people could cut firewood. He took me to a tree that was 13' in diameter. The tree was so heavy that it sunk about half way into the ground. We got a truck load of cedar shakes for a new roof for his house. There were a number of trees that were bigger and on the ground in the area, but we couldn't get to them. Weyerhauser has since closed the woods to people.

Timber is South Carolina's number one cash crop. Lots of property owners let timber cutters onto their property to access the trees. Almost all of them replant since the fast growth pine can be thinned in 5-8 years. Lots of people buy property and harvest the timber to pay for the land.

When I was a kid, my grandparents would take to see the fish ladder at the Bonneville Dam. There were so many fish going up the river that I couldn't even begin to count them. When I went to the dam in 2011, I watched from the underwater observation area for 16 minutes without seeing a single fish pass by.
 
Ya'll are making me want to go back and visit for a while... LOL

Despite all the Liberal insanity and passive aggressiveness, I loved the Northwest. I was rarely if ever home if I wasn't working, I would be out camping, hiking, scouting, scuba diving, fishing, or otherwise getting myself into some sort of adventure. It never ceased to amaze me how few native Northwesterners knew what was out their back door, much less what was within 30 minutes to an hours drive. History, adventure, wilderness, just too much to list.
 
I definitely enjoyed the brief visits I made to the Pacific Northwest. If I lived out there, my wife would not see much of me when the weather was nice. Not sure how I would deal with all of the rain and overcast skies they have out there. We always try to visit in June or July so we didn't have to deal with the weather.
 
Weyerhauser has since closed the woods to people.

Again just a case of the idiots ruining it for everyone. Going in a leaving trash and building fires and everything else. Saw one site where the people had come out to cut firewood, camped overnight, and left it looking like the County dump with beer cans, sacks of McD's and other trash scattered all over.

Packrat
 
Saw a lot of that too. we had people shooting into our camp thinking the road we had camped at the end of was deserted. They just threw targets down in the road and started shooting. that was the last rifle season we hunted there.

You know one of our best hunting years the main road on Peterman Hill washed out and we had a 4 wheeler, we assisted the Weyerhauser Watchman (An old guy in his 70's) who was living in a trailer up there on the other side of the washout, get down to town for groceries, etc. He kept us well informed of where the elk were moving to and from.

A very successful year for us! The watchman killed his bull in the clearcut where his trailer was, he was cooking breakfast, looked out the window and saw the herd bedded down about 40 yards from him, so he just stuck his rifle out the window and voila!
 
Saw a lot of that too. we had people shooting into our camp thinking the road we had camped at the end of was deserted. They just threw targets down in the road and started shooting. that was the last rifle season we hunted there.

Had that happen one time off of White pass down around Rimrock lake, unlimbered the M14 (Borrowed from a Ret. Sgt Major) and shot back about 8' over their heads into the tree's with all 20 rounds....Heard them scrambling and loading up vehicles and no more problem. Hope they crapped their pants. I know I had them outgunned! Had 3 more loaded 20 Rd Mag's in case they wanted to make an issue of it! Also had a couple of 10 round mags with only 5 rounds in them. Had to be around 1967 and I'd only been back from the Nam about 2 years. Back then, was not someone you wanted to PO.

Am a little easier going now, unless your name happens to be djones!....LOL

Packrat
 
Packrat said:
Back then, was not someone you wanted to PO.

Packrat

all 165 lbs of you
rollmao_zpsaw6ivql8.gif
 
I've seen that too. When I was living in Nashville, people couldn't stay on the trails at the Cheatham Co. Wildlife Management Area, so all of the 4-wheeler trails were closed. I was a kid when they closed it. We could ride all weekend and never hit the same trail twice.

When I lived in Jacksonville, FL, people couldn't stay on the trails and meth-heads used small tow-behind trailers for meth labs, so the Ocala National Forest trails were closed. I used to ride my dirt bike there. Ocala is huge, and you ride for a week and never go over the same trail twice.

Unfortunately, I think that the only way to ensure access to hunting, fishing, and having fun outside is to buy the land so no one can limit what one can do. I am fortunate enough to have enough land to have whatever kind of fun I want. Public hunting land around here is not enough for all of the people that want to hunt. I fear for my kids and grandkids for their access to the outdoors.
 
all 165 lbs of you
rollmao_zpsaw6ivql8.gif

Size is not and never has been the relevant issue. Attitude is WAAYYY more important. Back then was probably only 155 Lbs, not having put much weight on since coming back but could whip almost every girl I ever met, except maybe 50% of them!...........:)

In all seriousness, we were camping, in a campground, and they put a bullet hole in our tent and if they had hit either my wife or one of the two kids, would have seriously unloaded on them and there were lots of places to hide the bodies. Put my wife and the kids down below a downed tree and then unloaded 20 rounds their direction. SM Black would have understood me using the M-14. The main reason I aimed about 6' - 8' high was we were in a camp ground and I didn't know what was behind them. F.I.'s had no business even shooting in that area.

Was back in MY element and they obviously didn't even begin to understand the rules!

Yep!....All 155 pounds of me and a real Sh*tty attitude to back it up!

Packrat
 
Scrmbl move to Michigan and you can have all of it. Especially now our laws are headed in the right direction, more pro gun, ATVs on the side of the roads. And yep lots of tree cutting. Up here tthe new big thing is outdoor wood boilers for heat. I love it Ican burn any type of wood. Currently they are trying to strangle these out because of so called pollution. Gtfo with that crap the propane companies are really pushing it here and that'smaking even more peoe buy wood stoves. Can'thelp but notice our fine president keeps pushing renewable energy but wants to get rid of an easy one wood. They are not able to ban indoor wood stoves here so towns tthat are baning outdoor wood stoves are weekg people just build a small shed around them and boom loophole.
 
Michigan is one of the states my wife and I have talked about as possible destinations should something ever happen with my job here in SC. I'm sure that it would take some time to get used to Michigan, as we've only had a total of 4" of snow here for the last 3 winters, and my blood is pretty thin, They close schools here when it "might" snow and when the temp gets below 20 degrees.

How expensive is land up there? One can find land down here for $800 an acre and up. Land with timber or farmland usually starts around $2,500/$3,000 an acre.
 
Its about the same here. Really depends more on location than timber cause we have so much timber cleared land seems to cost more. As far as snow we have cool equipment to take care of it. Its really pretty easy and fun to drive in. We don't have hogs though, that's the part I dislike, nothing to hunt but turkeys from now till September.
 
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