Gologit
TreeHouse Lover
Here's my take on your other question, Cory. These were most decidedly NOT "bombed out areas", imo. These are lands managed specifically for industrial forestry. Your attitude is the sort of thing foresters in this country buck against every single day of their careers. Trees are a renewable resource, and if you want to grow trees EFFICIENTLY here in the PNW, you clearcut, you manage slash and brush regrowth aggressively, and you put board footage on the market over and over to meet our need for that resource.
I loved seeing a new stand of trees take, on a cut-over unit. I was and remain passionate about our responsibility to utilize our own lands to meet our needs for wood fiber rather than farm those appetites out to third world countries that haven't the wealth enough to balance wise natural resource management requirements against the need to feed their children. It was the farthest thing from depressing to work these sites. And even more so, the work of survival inspections, and stocking level plots. These are the follow-up work that foresters like me do to make sure the ground is satisfactorily reforested. Climbing up and down those same slopes one, three, and five years after sheparding a planting crew over those units was an extremely rewarding part of the work.
Great post.