[at-l] Chip-Mills and Hogs---

[lparker@cacaphony.net (L. Parker)]

Well, I am not going to advocate chip mills anywhere, but if they DID locate
one in or near Chattanooga it wouldn't have to be relocated in a few years.
These things depend upon quick growing pine trees that are not suitable for
lumber and in some instances, leftover products from pine trees that were
used to make lumber. In the former case there is little to worry about other
than pollution, the trees are invariably grown on farms as opposed to
federal or state owned lands and they (the timber companies) own sufficient
acreage that there is always a new crop each year. There are four mills
within 100 miles of where I sit, harvesting trees from about a 900 square
mile area, not all of which is forest. They have all been there for well
over twenty years and are not going away any time soon.

However, the tree species grown on these farms (usually slash pine) are
non-native and at least in the cases I am familiar with are invasive.
Locally we are having to expend a lot of effort to harvest these trees off
of federally owned lands, burn, and then replant with native longleaf pine.
After about ten years or so the burn has to be repeated. The long leaf
species thrive under burn-off conditions whereas the slash pine does not.
During trail construction we have gone to considerable effort to go around
huge stands of slash pine that we knew were going to be harvested soon.
Unfortunately, much of the land we have remaining to cross is owned by
timber companies and we have no option but to go right on through.

As far as economic impact is concerned, you are correct in that it only
generates of dozen or so jobs in the local economy with most of the profit
ending up spent elsewhere.

Lee I Joe

> -----Original Message-----
> From: at-l-admin@mailman.backcountry.net
> [mailto:at-l-admin@mailman.backcountry.net]On Behalf Of
> hopefl@juno.com
> Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2001 3:36 PM
> To: lwbooher@halifax.com
> Cc: at-l@backcountry.net
> Subject: Re: [at-l] Chip-Mills and Hogs---
>
>
> A few years back they tried to put chip mills in the TN valley near
> Chattanooga. They got beat. I haven't followed this thread so I don't
> know if the mills are a done deal yet or not. It is possible to defeat
> the mills, it happened here.
>
> Those things are a loose/loose deal. They tried to persuade by saying
> they would be here for the long haul, that they were
> investing millions
> in the facility and would not abandon it. Garbage, they would have
> destroyed 100k acres of forest per year which mean after about 6 years
> they would need to relocated due to transportation considerations. The
> local people would foot the bill through taxes so they really
> had little
> investment. There were going to be only 2 dozen jobs which
> would be lost
> after the mills relocated.
>
> What really angered me is that the chips were not even for
> use in America
> but were destined for Korea. Hopeful
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