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A new crime has surfaced this past year, possibly related to the sick economy. Logging was halted on the remaining 5% of the old growth coastal redwoods, most of which are preserved in Federal or State parks in California and Oregon. These are redwood burls:

These burls are essentially scar tissue that forms over several centuries after a growing redwood gets damaged by fire or mechanical injury. Redwood burls are very beautiful irregular woodgrain that has commercial value far above straight grained redwood lumber, which is now being sustainably farmed. Enter the burl pirates into the parklands:




Burls are used for coffee tables, artsy furniture, guitar bodies, plaques, etc. You can help by not buying these things, knowing that old growth trees are being mutilated on public lands to satisfy the demand for this material. Only 1 out of 20 trees survived the logging industry, we cannot afford to lose the precious remaining few to burl pirates.

The timber industry moved to the rainforests of South America, Indonesia, and sub-tropical Africa. Which are still being clear cut, burned for charcoal, and used for slash & burn agriculture. Here in San Jose I can go down to my local lumber yard, and select from tropical hardwoods that are thoughtfully labelled as sustainably harvested, or not. There is also a rather large selection of native California redwood burls, complete with the appropriate warnings which the nature of this material demands.

YOU refuse to believe that handicrafts based on old growth redwood burls, Cypress stumps, and similar materials encourage criminals who harvest such materials. Which is EXACTLY akin to saying that consuming cocaine or heroin does not encourage drug smuggling.

Pardon me for pointing this out to somebody who has been "been up here for two decades", but living in a forest of old growth stumps is preventing the second growth redwoods from taking hold. Had the land you are on been unoccupied since the clear-cut, it would be full of 18-inch diameter, 150-foot tall, commercially salable timber. A decision could be made whether to sustainably harvest timber or to allow the forest to recover to old growth status in 2000 years or so. Need I point out that living on old growth forest land is a continuing ecological disaster?

Those who cut the old growth trees, trapped out all the beaver, and otherwise behaved as if nature was infinite considered themselves frontiersmen and libertarians as well.

I apologize, I was not intending to make this personal.

The short answer is YES as I was here in-state for the entire debate and controversy over the Headwaters Forest, now the ONLY BLM Forest Reserve in the nation, and I remember the arguments on both sides.

Although I am generally sympathetic to property rights, this forest was in fact the habitat for the three endangered species Marbled Murrelet, Northern Spotted Owl, and Coho Salmon - probably lots more, but those are the three that got the most press. I felt it would certainly have been WRONG if not illegal to clearcut the place, and I understand the difference.

Just as I am sorry to say, I think it is wrong to occupy land that would otherwise nurture coastal redwoods. There is precious little acreage that would be truly suitable, and you are living on some of it. I admit I care about the native salmon and steelhead more than most people. If the land was even being used for timber harvest every 30 years or so, we could still have the fish, using modern low impact forestry methods.

It's all about what is best for the greatest number of people. For example the place I live was originally semi-arid grasslands, then prune orchards for a few decades, and now we call it Silicon Valley. As a high technology center it is doing the most good for the most people.

Out of the blue, multiple reports of chainsaw-wielding burl pirates:

http://www.northcoastjournal.com/Blogthing/archives/2014/03/01/prairie-creek-scenic-byway-will-close-nights-to-prevent-burl-piracy

http://redwoodplanet.org/2014/03/news-roundup-burl-heists-the-future-of-fog-and-more/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/us/poachers-attack-beloved-elders-of-california-its-redwoods.html?_r=2

http://crackercoast.com/crackerchat/showthread.php/35956-Tree-poachers-and-Redwood-Burl-Black-Market

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1u30xy_norcal-redwood-trees-killed-by-burl-poachers_news

..total 18 incidents in the last year.

KaiserJeep wrote:A new crime has surfaced this past year, possibly related to the sick economy. Logging was halted on the remaining 5% of the old growth coastal redwoods, most of which are preserved in Federal or State parks in California and Oregon.

So now we've got California being run by a governor that allows contaminated irrigation water to be applied to food crops, won't regulate gas storage wells because relatives of the Guv-Nah are on various company boards, narco trafficers have decided to take over public land, and now Californians that aren't narco-trafficers are deciding to destroy old tress.

California is a pretty place (the northern end of the state anyway) and it sounds like they need to be forcibly evacuated from their own state and dropped off in Somalia or something. Let them eat their cake their.