[at-l] Remaing Old Growth in Maine, WV, East

[ronm@fallingwater.com (Ronald Moak)]

Karen writes >>I believe that less than 1% of the original eastern
forest, from Florida to Maine and Ohio to East Texas,
is left today.  And if you have the joy to walk all
the way from Georgia to Maine on foot, you will only
see a few feet of virgin forest along the entire 2100
miles, literally. <<

I believe you mean < 1% of the original virgin eastern forest. In any case
while there is a lack of virgin forest, there isn't a lack of forest. It is
highly probable that there is more forest land on the east coast today than
150 years ago. This is because in the early days of our country much of the
lowland forest  were cut down and converted to fields. Since much of the
land was too poor to support farms, it eventually returned to forest.
Numerous examples of this can be seen all along the AT.

I'm not getting into a cut or no cut debate. Suffice it to say we cut trees
because we use them. Now days we do use fewer of them per person than we
used to. Simply because we've become significantly more efficient in
utilizing the wood that is removed. Much of the wood byproducts of milling
that used to be burned or discarded, now finds its way in more products. So
with out the advances in manufacture, we'd have even few trees today.

As to someone's comment of "Cut and Run". Those tactics disappeared long
ago. There just isn't anywhere left to run to. Some areas are cut beyond a
sustainable yield to allow other areas outside the local region to recover.
Large timber companies that have holdings over vast areas do this. It's not
necessarily good for the local economy as it means periodic mill closings
and people displacement. 


Ron
------------------------------------
Ron "Fallingwater" Moak
http://www.fallingwater.com/