West Virginia demise of virgin forest - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

daveuz · #1 02-10-2010, 10:50 AM

IMHO really interesting article.

The largest tree logged in the State of West Virginia, near Lead Mine, Tucker County, 1913. This white oak, as large as any California Sequoia, was probably well over 1,000 years old. It measured 13 feet in diameter 16 feet from the base, and 10 feet in diameter 31 feet from http://www.patc.us/history/archive/virg_fst.html

daveuz · #2 02-10-2010, 10:51 AM

The Virgin Forest Falls
With the introduction of the band saw and Shay locomotive, rail-lines started snaking into the deepest hollows of the West Virginia mountains. The virgin forests of the Alleghenies rapidly fell to the lumberman's cross-cut saw. The decline of the forest is shown very dramatically by comparing the following statements:
1835 - "West of the Alleghanies a large portion of the country must forever remain in its primitive forest." (Joseph Martin)
1870 - "At least 10,000,000 acres are still in all the vigor and freshness of original growth." (J.H. Diss Debar)
1876 - "Between 9,000,000 and 10,000,000 acres are in the original forest." (Maury and Fontaine)
1893 - "Nearly or quite one-half of the State is still uncleared, and by far the greater portion of the uncleared land is still in virgin forest." (George W. Summers)
1900 - "The wooded area of West Virginia is estimated at 18,400 square miles, or 73 per cent of the area of the State and most of this is occupied by timber of mercantable size and quantity." (Henry Gannett)
1910 - The virgin forest area in 1910 is slightly over 1.5 million acres. 1920 - The original forest is completely depleted, except for a few isolated areas of small acer http://www.patc.us/history/archive/virg_fst.html

#3 02-10-2010, 11:54 AM

That is a real shame to hear about all those old growth trees.....I hope they at least planted some to replace them....but I doubt that

daveuz · #4 02-10-2010, 12:38 PM

Clearcut, then burned to bedrock by fire, this old photograph looks from Cabin Mountain into the northern stretches of the Dolly Sods Wilderness. Today, some eighty years later, the summit of Cabin Mountain is still devoid of trees and soil. Amazing photos in the link.

Zeus · #5 02-10-2010, 01:11 PM

Incredible, isn't it? I'm admittedly a bit of a tree nut. Not so much a tree hugger, but rather I enjoy trees and especially mature specimens. Wait, that came out all wrong...

I think sustainable logging is both necessary and practical.

What is kind of tragic is that there is very little old growth anywhere, the previous generations logged everything. From Ontario down to Florida, it's all been chopped at least once and what remains are usually secondary or tertiary forest ecosystems that are in various stages of maturity - but rarely fully matured. It amazes me that no one thought about growth rates and renewal back then when pictures like these were taken - or perhaps greed was partnered with ignorance to ensure every last one was cut. Few stands were left for future generations.

You will likely never find a white oak with a 6' diameter trunk, let alone a 13'. Same with sugar maples here in Ontario. Once in a while, you find an old giant in a forest - close to 150' tall with a massive trunk. Or white pine - when they were being harvested in the early 1800s for naval use they averaged 1-2m in diameter. It you find one today that is half a metre, people think it's a giant, whereas it's really a teenager at best.

Imagine staring at an apparently limitless ancient forest, full of these behemoths, stretching over 150' into the sky. I've caught glimpses of forests like that in British Columbia and it is awe-inspiring to behold. I visited Maere Island (now protected) off Vancouver island and it was like being on the set of Jurassic Park. Huge bald eagle nests among 1,000-yr old cedars covered in clinging moss, spruce trees growing from a hollow 50' up on the trunk of an ancient tree...amazing.

Sad that our children and their children will never see forests like this. The generation after? Maybe.

kknudson · #6 02-10-2010, 01:53 PM

I'll go with both sides to a point.
I love trees etc, but realize "managed logging" makes senses.

I hate when around here they bulldoze everything to put up buildings or houses. Yes much was farm land, but they still clear it.

But managed logging of forrests makes sense in many ways.
You can limit fire hazard.
When trees are too packed together none of them do well.
But mostly a young forest / tree is really much better environmentally. Younger forests consume much more CO2 per acre than old growth, and old growth tends to have a lot of brush, leaves etc at the floor decomposing giving off CO2.
So if we manage the logging we can have some of each.

I also recycle as much paper as I can to limit the amount of fressh pulp needed.

daveuz · #7 02-10-2010, 01:56 PM

"Old-growth forests store large amounts of carbon, which is stored in wood, soil humus and peat. When forests are cut, the trees' wood, soil humus and peat all decay, releasing the carbon as carbon dioxide or methane.[17] Logging practices often include burning of the logged area, releasing further CO2.
While old-growth forests are often perceived to be in equilibrium — releasing as much carbon dioxide as they capture; or even in a state of decay,[18] studies of soils in undisturbed tropical rain forests, Siberian woods and in German national parks have found that soils contain enormous amounts of carbon derived from fallen leaves, twigs and buried roots that can bind to soil particles and remain for 1,000 years or more. Replacing old-growth forests with plantations is counter-productive from a carbon-storage view, as the new forest may take centuries to recapture the carbon lost. Further, the loss of biodiversity in a plantation monoculture lessens the performance of ecosystems regarding biomass production, nutrient retention and carbon dioxide absorption."

daveuz · #8 02-10-2010, 02:09 PM

"It has been estimated that from 1879 to 1912, the total cut of lumber in West Virginia was more than 20 billion board feet. By far, the greater percentage of this was cut by band mills. This figure represents the lumber from 8,500,000 acres of virgin forest or more than 85 per cent of the total timbered area of the State. The total lumber cut in West Virginia between 1870 and 1920 was more than 30 billion board feet. This amount of lumber would build a boardwalk 127 feet wide and 2 inches thick around the circumference of the earth, or would make a walkway 13 feet wide and 2 inches thick the average distance to the moon."

Zeus · #9 02-10-2010, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kknudson

I hate when around here they bulldoze everything to put up buildings or houses. Yes much was farm land, but they still clear it.

Yep, common practice here as well. Builders are after the bottom dollar and seem to have enough power to do as they please, which includes building ***** new homes, framed with chainsaws and different trades not communicating with each other resulting in all kinds of interesting flaws, etc.

They'll take down every single last tree standing. Then strip and filter the top soil and sell every square inch of that as well, down to the clay/sand bedrock. Then they add back a couple of inches of crappy topsoil to every lot and slap down some grass. Add a stick tree, usually planted too deep and nursery grown. Cue ubiquitous mulch volcano around the trunk base, which actually promotes girdling root growth and is counter-productive. Usually invasive species like norway maples or hybrids like Acer freemani, which is a red-silver maple hybrid. They grow quickly and are pollution tolerant but they are short-lived and weak limbed.

People love the old neighbourhoods with the huge mature trees that line the streets and lawns, often forming canopies over the street.

The new neighbourhoods will never become like this. Why? They cannot support such growth as there is not enough soil to sustain and anchor a mature tree. They'll topple in storm conditions or weaken and die slowly from stress. That is, if the girdled root systems from how they were planted/cultivated don't kill them first.

Homeowners dump tons of fertilizer and water on lawns trying to keep them green when the roots have not been able to penetrate deeply enough to create a lawn that is both heat and drought tolerant.

Incredible how ignorant we remain of basic things even after so much time and knowledge.

Then again, if people demanded such things they'd have to leave them, so maybe it is just me.

Part of what I loved about the neighbourhood I grew up in was that it was an old forest, and the developer built two-storey brick homes and left many mature trees standing. Ditto the soil on the properties, it was deep and rich. The result was that we had gorgeous trees in the summer and especially the fall - sugar maples, beech, ash, oak. I remember as a kid the sound the huge sugar maple behind our house would make during a summer storm. The leaves would literally roar in the wind. That neighbourhood is now incredibly highly valued and properties sell quickly, even unrenovated.

In newer subdivisions, that 3' sapling is only going to whimper.

#10 02-10-2010, 02:41 PM

I agree with all that sustainable forestry is a must! And the trees are very very sad in new home editions....

MTI · #11 02-10-2010, 02:56 PM

I remember reading a passage, I forget where, that said that US history, if viewed as a competition between the trees and the grasses, the grasses have clearly won. As a nation we seem to lavish more attention and place a higher value on grains and grasses than we do trees and forests. Nearly everytime I mow the lawn, that passage jumps out of some cranial neurons for a moment before something else distracts me.

Hatterasguy · #12 02-10-2010, 03:42 PM

I like the forests but progress happens. I'm quite happy not to live in a hut at the base of a tree.

OTOH these days they pretty much farm trees for logging so the days of destructive logging in this country are pretty much over. We also have an extensive national forest system, and farming has become more effeciant and needs less land. So in time the forests will come back, sadly its going to take time.

Now whats going on with the rain forest is a crime, they are repeating our mistake.

davidmash · #13 02-10-2010, 04:41 PM

I seem to recall reading that in some cities, new home builders are prohibited from just going in and mowing all the trees down. They have to work around the larger ones or leave a certain percentage standing. I did a quick search but did not find anything. My wife remembers it too so I know I am not nuts.

kknudson · #14 02-10-2010, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidmash

I seem to recall reading that in some cities, new home builders are prohibited from just going in and mowing all the trees down. They have to work around the larger ones or leave a certain percentage standing. I did a quick search but did not find anything. My wife remembers it too so I know I am not nuts.

I don't have any specifics, but yes that is true NOW in many areas.
But it wasn't always, even so the trees kept are really a small quantity, just a token.
And as someone mentioned they scrape and sell the topsoil which doesn't help the land.

My first house I went around the yard with a LARGE roto tiller, the back yard wasn't bad I could turn 3 or 4 inches, some areas of the front yard I could do more damage to the driveway with the tiller.

Vs the house we are in now, built in 55, we have 2 to 3 feet of black dirt before you hit clay.

sunedog · #15 02-10-2010, 06:57 PM

I grew up in WV and still clearly remember a particular WV History lecture at WVU. More than 30 years ago, Professor Wiley (a campus favorite) told the story of an environmental minded surveyor hired to mark a line through the middle of the last stand of virgin hemlocks in WV. One timber company owned a large parcel. They were selling about half of the parcel to another timber company. Both companies were undoubtedly eventually going to harvest every last tree.

The contract between the companies said somehing like, "Company A sells xyz acres of timber land to Company B." The surveyor was hired to map the line through the divided parcel. Both companies knew the location of the start of the line. Neither company knew precisely where a line dividing the parcel would end. So the surveyor hatched a plan to preserve some of this virgin timber for future generations to enjoy.

The surveyor began at the known starting point, calculated a point at the other side of the parcel, marked it, drew a map and told the first company that was the line. The surveyor went back to the same starting point, calculated a DIFFERENT end point, marked the line, mapped it and told the second company that was the line.

For the next several decades, each company logged their timber up to the line they believed started the other companies property. Several more decades passed before someone figured out the surveyor had preserved a long triangle of virgin hemlocks.

By that time, the surveyor and original principals of the two companies were long gone. The heirs to the two companies agreed to leave the trees to the state for preservation. They can be seen today at Cooper's Rock State Park. Look for the Virgin Hemlock trail.

http://www.coopersrockstateforest.com/trails.html