When nature isn't.....'natural'' enough......
- Thread starter RenaisSAWnceMan
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This has been going on for over ten years. One day when I was on my way to look at a road, a faller flagged me down and proceeded to rant about how much timber was being wasted. He was falling what would be called old growth for a fish project. His point was that the helicopter was only lifting out the butts and much of what was left behind could have been hauled to a mill. After he was done, he apologized and said he needed to vent. I was trying to be an engineer at that time. Columbia Helicopters had a contract and fallers were falling large trees. A large flourescent pink card would be stapled to the piece and a helicopter with grapples would pick up the log and fly it to a creek.
Rumor had it, that this was coming under a bit of scrutiny, since trees were being cut that would never pass the muster of the enviros if the same trees were sent to mills.
On our road repair projects, we asked the excavator operators to push the trees over, if they felt they could do so safely, and then the trees could be used for better fish logs as the roots were still attached.
I don't know how many trees were actually used. Where I am now, the fish guy has demanded that logs be decked to use for fish, but then there was no money in his budget to move the logs. So, we have rotting decks of wood that the firewooders have whittled on a bit in hideyholes here and there. Yet, he still wants more logs and the management goes along with it. They don't like to say no. These are feel good projects and are good press for such managers.
Rumor had it, that this was coming under a bit of scrutiny, since trees were being cut that would never pass the muster of the enviros if the same trees were sent to mills.
On our road repair projects, we asked the excavator operators to push the trees over, if they felt they could do so safely, and then the trees could be used for better fish logs as the roots were still attached.
I don't know how many trees were actually used. Where I am now, the fish guy has demanded that logs be decked to use for fish, but then there was no money in his budget to move the logs. So, we have rotting decks of wood that the firewooders have whittled on a bit in hideyholes here and there. Yet, he still wants more logs and the management goes along with it. They don't like to say no. These are feel good projects and are good press for such managers.
Greenwedge
ArboristSite Operative
It's always something. Politics are a hell of a thing! I believe in helping out the fish all we can with procedures that actually work, and fish do like there logs. Wasting logs set aside for a fish project is criminal however, and should be punished!
Joe46
ArboristSite Guru
That is an interesting article. I guess you have to understand the background. When I went through Fisheries school in the mid seventies taking "debris" out of rivers and streams was the prevalent thought process. In fact I knew a group of guys out of Port Angeles that called themselves "The River Rats", and that was their job. We now know that wasn't such a good idea. So we spent big bucks undoing what nature did, and now we'll spend big bucks helping nature. It's always interesting to see where science leads. They find Salmon DNA in alders that grow next to rivers. That wasn't even a remote thought when I was in school.
RandyMac
Stiff Member
I thought this was going to be a spam ad for bras.
Greenwedge
ArboristSite Operative
That is funny stuff right there Randy Mac!!!! hahahahaha
RandyMac
Stiff Member
I'm still a little disappointed.
I never understood all the reasoning behind keeping all wood out of the water. Fish like cover. .
I think it was a concern about plugging culverts. We (some of us) didn't follow the cleaning stuff to the letter and told the guys if it was big, and anchored well, leave it.
Greenwedge
ArboristSite Operative
Me neither. I have to say that I'm a big fan of fish buffers.....for streams that actually have fish in them anyway. I cut on this one stream that they wanted a 200' buffer on. Not but 500yrds. below was about a 300' stretch of cliffy bluffy falls that Aqua Man would not have been able to get up....I mean, there aint no way in hell a fish could have made it up.......but still, they wanted there buffer! Like I say though, big fan of em when there's actually fish in em!
nw axe man
ArboristSite Operative
We have tributaries here that used to be great trout streams and salmon spawning grounds. Now they can't get up over 3 dams yet they are still "spawning grounds". When it comes to private property and fish it's all about control, not fish.
Joe46
ArboristSite Guru
far out dudeall that matters try to reinvite urself as other do...believe to urself
deeker
Tree Freak
Watch out....there is a critter who catches whisker fish, that goes by the name of Betty biguns.
In the WTF thread.....
