Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has announced that he will be introducing a bill that would ensure protection of old-growth forests that is backed by timber companies and environmentalists as well. This union came as a surprise to many who had heard of the 8 month long argument over how this would affect both sides. The bill states that old-growth trees on federal land in eastern Oregon will be off limits to logging companies - any tree with a diameter greater than 21 inches can not be cut down. The loggers will however have more access to young trees in the area. This rule is already being practiced in many locations, but this bill will make it an official law.
I am surprised that the timer companies or the environmentalists agreed on this bill. However, I do think it will be very beneficial to our forests. We need to protect our forests, especially our old-growth ones that have proved to be healthy and stable enough to last this long. I do wonder about the part that states that loggers can cut down new trees though. I feel like eventually the old trees will die and there will be no younger ones to take their place. If this happens we will lose even more of the forest than we would've in the first place - basically, we'll have to start all over and plant thousands of young trees all at once and prohibit logging in the area. I also just wanted to talk about this bill because I thought it was ironic that it is coming out the same time as we did that controversial logging bill in our mock congress.
Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/science/earth/17timber.html?_r=1&ref=politics
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/07/293126.shtml
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