-----Original Message-----
From: Walter Knapp
Sent: December 16, 2002 12:29 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] Re: Advice for a new budding recordist.
Dan Dugan wrote:
>>--oryoki
>>
>>ps. Does the Nature Sound Society sierra recording
>>camp still use the University of San Francisco field
>>station near Yuba Pass? I have fond memories of
>>my visit there, before the summit area was logged.
>
>
> Yes! This year's is tentatively scheduled for June 20-22. There are
> still lots of good recording places at the summit and around the area.
Actually, if not done too extreme, things like logging can increase edge
habitat. And edge habitat is where most of the species diversity is. It
might even be better.
Though I'm clear across the country and don't know the site.
Walt
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>From Tue Mar 8 18:23:05 2005
Message: 22
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 02:12:05 -0500
From: Walter Knapp <>
Subject: Re: Recording and diversity
Rich Peet wrote:
> All well said Barb. It was the loggers in the National Forest
> Service that invented "Smokey" to begin with. I saw very few old
> cedars left anywhere in the Sierra. Long ago gone. Fragmentation has
> been a norm now for 100 years of "checkerboarding". Everything you
> say is true except I would challenge the absence of "flys"
> not "wolves" for the Woodland Caribou success. Good recording to us
> all and help educate the local forresters that know nothing about
> systems and now have all the authority thanks to the Bushwacker.
Before we get the impression that modern style logging was going on for
100 years, here's a couple photos taken about 70 - 80 years ago. My
great uncle Fred is sitting on a log to the left in the 2nd photo. It's
his logging "camp".
http://frogrecordist.home.mindspring.com/naturerecordists/LOGGING_CAMP.JPG
http://frogrecordist.home.mindspring.com/naturerecordists/Logging1.JPG
Note in the first photo the person with the bucket out front. His job
was to coat the skid logs with grease so the mules had a chance. Thus
the term "greasing the skids".
Note the stumps. The notches in the stumps are where you set
springboards to stand on. And then two of you stood on them and used a
hand crosscut saw to fell the tree. You went up high because it took
some time to cut a tree and it was narrower there. I have worked with
such a saw. It takes considerable skill and coordination of two people
to make progress. Otherwise the nickname "misery whip" fits. And, of
course the logs are cut to length with the same saw type.
Note that nearly all the original cut of the forests in the west was
done this way. Most all the stuff being haggled over now is 2nd or even
3rd growth that folks have forgotten the first cut. When I was a kid out
there you could find those old stumps through forests of large, mature
trees. Because of the effort it took to do it, only the best larger
trees were logged back then. So the forest recovered quicker.
The Machinery is a steam driven donkey engine running a winch. About all
the power machinery there. No chain saws, no logging trucks, no
skidders, not really even a logging road...
The location: Somewhere at the north end of Lake Washington, Washington
State. Now occupied by the northern suburbs of Seattle, not forests.
BTW, I believe it was firefighters that found and named Smokey, not
loggers. He was a real bear found in a fire. Burned but survived. Lived
in the Washington zoo after that.
It is well worth remembering that loggers cut trees because someone buys
paper or wood products. And every time they demand minimum prices for
that they push the loggers to cut more corners to make a living. How
many environmentalists live in wood houses, with wood furniture and
using lots of paper and other wood products? And more paper just to tell
the loggers to stop...
The 25 acres next to us was selectively logged this year. The trees were
cut with a big machine that had a giant set of shears on the front. I
talked to the folks doing the work. They were not very happy as they
were told by the landowner to do it quick and dirty at minimum cost and
they really did not like working like that. So, instead of walking the
trees out of the forest, they used skidders. And left the waste in a
pile instead of grinding it. But the place is full of wildlife anyway.
The remaining woods is relatively undamaged hardwoods, as pine is the
cash crop here. They did 25 acres in less than a week. I don't know how
long the old way would have taken, but much, much longer.
While they were in the area my neighbor on the other side had them
remove the pines from his front woods, but carefully. There's hardly a
scratch on the hardwoods that were left. Though I fear the light it let
in is going to just encourage the Kudzu.
I'm a ecologist, not a environmentalist, I've been a ecologist since
before most knew there was such a word. I know in great detail what's
happening. I also know it's the whole that counts as much or more than
the parts. Singling out one group to blame for what's really a
overpopulation problem is not my style. And will not fix it. Though
some, like a guy named Bush are more dangerous than others.
Walt
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