Question: How many clear cuts exist within Mount Hood National Forest?
Answer: 2,600
Logging has taken a heavy toll on Mount Hood National Forest, with approximately 2,600 individual clear cuts scaring the land. Clear cuts destroy habitat for wildlife, and cause erosion that pollutes streams and harms fish. Worse, clear cuts can take decades to heal.
clear cuts in Mt Hood Forest
Posted by
Stephanie Snyder
at
Jul 09, 2008 10:25 AM
Many more clear cuts than I had imagined. What can we do to stop this?
mt hood clearcuts
Posted by
jan nelson
at
May 01, 2009 09:48 AM
over what period of time have these 2600 clearcuts occurred?
Response
Posted by
Steve Pedery
at
May 01, 2009 11:56 AM
Large-scale clear cutting really began in earnest in the Pacific Northwest after World War II, and reached it's peak in the 1970's and 1980's.
The environmental results of clear cutting were a major factor in endangered species listings for wild coho salmon, marbled murrelets, spotted owls, and other forest-dependent species. The 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, along with things like the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, helped slow things down considerably on Forest Service land.
The bad news is that clear cutting is still commonly practiced on state and private forest lands, and a recent proposal would dramatically increase clear cutting on Bureau of Land Management (including a return to old-growth clear cutting.) You can find out more about this, and how to stop it, at:
http://www.oregonwild.org/oregon_forests/old_growth_protection/wopr/oregon-s-heritage-forests-at-risk
The environmental results of clear cutting were a major factor in endangered species listings for wild coho salmon, marbled murrelets, spotted owls, and other forest-dependent species. The 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, along with things like the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule, helped slow things down considerably on Forest Service land.
The bad news is that clear cutting is still commonly practiced on state and private forest lands, and a recent proposal would dramatically increase clear cutting on Bureau of Land Management (including a return to old-growth clear cutting.) You can find out more about this, and how to stop it, at:
http://www.oregonwild.org/oregon_forests/old_growth_protection/wopr/oregon-s-heritage-forests-at-risk
Mt. Hood and its incredibly rich biodiversity, why?
Posted by
Chris Carl Foulke
at
May 01, 2009 09:48 AM
When i worked briefly on the Mt. Hood National Forest during two interims, it was without a doubt the most biomass-dense and ecologically rich forest I have ever experienced on 3 continents. Much more than Oregon's Siuslaw, the Willamette, Umpqua, and others.
It was remarkable how thick the understory plants grew, how many fish could be found far upstream in a 3' wide 'creek', and how thick the moss was. I spent one night camped in a tent underneath a 3' dia Old-Growth Doug Fir that was leaning my way and swaying back and forth during a very high wind event.
I am here because of the strength of that old-growth tree (as it had weathered and prospered through at least 30,000 nights and days before), protecting us and innumerable other creatures in the process; just as we are here because of so many stolid soldiers and nobe sentinels of the natural forest who are our lungs, longest limbs, lymph-producers, hair and skin protectors, and immunity against so many threats, old and new.
The soil and the hydrosphere might be said to be the essential strength of the forest, if kept stable and protected, relatively speaking. The forest plants are like the physical interplay of sun, soil, water, and air, an active substrate and indicator of how the overall ecology of an area or region is doing.
Our course forest depletion industry focuses on the ecologically rich forests--their woody biomass tends to be much denser and larger and better quality (read: old-growth).
We are just protecting a thread of our life-potential for survival. Perhaps we should hang on very tightly...
It was remarkable how thick the understory plants grew, how many fish could be found far upstream in a 3' wide 'creek', and how thick the moss was. I spent one night camped in a tent underneath a 3' dia Old-Growth Doug Fir that was leaning my way and swaying back and forth during a very high wind event.
I am here because of the strength of that old-growth tree (as it had weathered and prospered through at least 30,000 nights and days before), protecting us and innumerable other creatures in the process; just as we are here because of so many stolid soldiers and nobe sentinels of the natural forest who are our lungs, longest limbs, lymph-producers, hair and skin protectors, and immunity against so many threats, old and new.
The soil and the hydrosphere might be said to be the essential strength of the forest, if kept stable and protected, relatively speaking. The forest plants are like the physical interplay of sun, soil, water, and air, an active substrate and indicator of how the overall ecology of an area or region is doing.
Our course forest depletion industry focuses on the ecologically rich forests--their woody biomass tends to be much denser and larger and better quality (read: old-growth).
We are just protecting a thread of our life-potential for survival. Perhaps we should hang on very tightly...