I need a T-shirt: "I told you so."

Yes, I need that T-shirt.

Once again, someone was telling me this blog makes people angry. GOOD.

If it makes you angry, it means you're a bad person doing bad things. Too bad, now everybody knows. 

Other people were trying to whine about the clear-cutting catastrophe as though they'd just discovered it.

I warned you. I told you so.

Other people are suffering flooding. And wind exposure.

I told you so.

You've destroyed the future of your communities and your children, because you've let the ego-driven boy culture - that enjoys the sound of suffering and destruction, and is scared to death of everything - destroy your future.

I told you so.

Too fucking bad. One doesn't have to feel sorry for the weak, the mean, the cruel, the cowardly. You asked for it, you got it.

I told you so. 

Well, At Least We're Talking

Rayonier got back with me, for which I thank them. At least we're talking. My letter first, and then his letter follows, even though that's in reverse order. It's a blog, after all:

Dear Mr. Monahan:

Thank you for the response.

HOWEVER, I grew up in the pulp industry. Pulping trees for chemicals takes masses of toxins and water, in a world with a shrinking environment and resources. And do you really think that then taking the results and putting it into food - ie, salad dressing (as promoted on the Rayonier site) - is the best use of a resource or the best treatment of human health?

I note that, unlike the cuts of my youth and childhood, there seems to be no more poisoning of native species, and alders and other species are being allowed to grow back in. Alders, of course, are the nitrogen pumps of the forest. This is an improvement, but:

You probably did, indeed, follow all the proper, legal channels. But you and I know that "legal" doesn't always equal "best."

This clearcut happened right up against a small town, in an Audubon area, on a scenic route, in an area that, in the future, will have to build tourism and entertainment to survive, because all resources will take at least a generation to recover. Forests are, after all, most important as carbon sinks and producers of oxygen. If nothing else, because so many people here can't depend on electricity for heating and cooking and have to depend on wood, tearing out trees near a small town drops the oxygen level, which is especially dangerous for children and the elderly.

Another logging company, right on the scenic route, got county permission - all properly signed off on - to completely level an older maple grove in a state park. While this may be legal, and all the paperwork was done - was it not ultimately abusive?

Antique methods that don't take into consideration where it's done, including what happens to a resident top predator, need re-thinking. So far, no displaced, starving cougar has blasted into a neighborhood, which we've seen before, but perhaps we just got lucky. And no, the solution is NOT going in and just shooting the cougar before the clearcutting starts, in case anybody asks. Wiping out what we don't like has already led to extinctions in this area.

Perhaps it's time for a Florida company to hit the ground and begin to work with a distant state to learn what must happen for a real future. Before enough people in pain, with no future, get organized. I, for one, would rather see the former, because Daddy was a Teamster, and while we CAN organize, it's no fun for anybody, on either side. Better to use our brains and make it work. 

And thank you for your letter. It, and my reply, will be added to my blog.

Donna Barr

Dear Mrs. Barr,

Your e-mail found its way to me. I am the Resource Unit Leader for our Pacific operations. We have a lot in common. I like to fish and enjoy the environment. I got into forestry because of a love of the outdoors.

As an industry, we strive to consistently follow the rules and regulations set out through Local, State, and Federal law. This is our clear way of ensuring that we are operating in a legal and environmentally sound fashion. We conduct internal audits and 3rd party, external audits to re-confirm our performance.

The land that you refer to in your e-mail was prepared for harvest following all of the proper steps. During the FPA permit approval process, representatives from the DNR, WDFW, and the DOE made field visits. Once the felling began, our field forester made ongoing visits to monitor the harvesting and ensure that the instructions of the FPA were followed. I've checked in with him and he informed me that all aspects of the FPA have been adhered to. Felling of timber will likely be complete this week. The harvesting crew will take some time removing the timber, but this will start the reforestation process whereby you will see healthy young trees growing back in the coming years.

Sincerely,

Bill Monahan

--

Bill Monahan

Resource Unit Leader

Rayonier US Forest Resources-Pacific Resource Unit

3033 Ingram Street

Hoquiam, WA 98550

(C) 334-224-9584

(O) 360-538-4568

There are Trees in Your Salad Dressing

OMG. Oh My fucking God.

Rayonier is admitting they're using trees to make salad dressing.

Watch the site video - they're grinding up trees for chemicals. It's over. Our forests are GONE.  No wonder the logging people say, "But But trees are just a crop, like CORN!"

No, CORN is a crop - and this is what the remainders of a corn harvest should be doing.

This is a Florida company. They're helping to knock down the Scenic Route on the Olympic Peninsula - in an Audubon area. Right next to towns.

And the people up here just meekly talk football or church or going to Seattle for the weekend, and say nothing as their futures are uprooted.

I've been trying to warn them for ten years now, and they just don't get it. Their KIDS do. I'm expecting them to take out the big Douglas Fir the kids have used for a tree-house. Why would this Florida Company fucking care? It's just more money to develop land for houses or cash hunting areas. Oh, yeah; they treat all the wildlife like a cash crop, the same as the fishing industry.

Meanwhile, the State Parks are de-funded. Huh. I wonder if Tim Eyman helped fund the big, expensive anti-park sign campaign along the scenic route?

Man, this is so looking like monkey business, more and more, I almost wonder why they don't have signs, "Bananas ahead; slippery."

All I know, I'm never touching commercially-mixed sauces or anything that MIGHT have a thickener or stabilizer in it, ever again. JESUS. Me go frow up now.

(I might as well have a tshirt that says, "I told you so.")

Jim Craig, over on Facebook, posted this:

Short sighted, lack of planning, Donna. Then, when all the resources are nearly gone and the logging jobs, fishing and related industries are suffering, they're going to blame the environmentalists who are fighting to keep the last few stands of trees alive.

I was in college when the whole spotted owl thing was first coming on the scene. I saw a truck with a bumper sticker that read, "I like spotted owls... fried!" When I snorted derisively, the driver asked, "You one of them environmentalists? You love birds more than people?"

We got in a big discussion about the recent mill closure, jobs, clear cutting and lumber mills when a barge with a Korean flag chugged down the Columbia with a huge raft of unprocessed logs in tow. I pointed and told the guy, "That's where your jobs are going. As long as Weyerhauser and Boise Cascade will sell their lumber to foreign countries rather than sending them processed goods, your job will be in jeopardy. And when there are no trees, it's going to suck for you AND the owls. If you're not an environmentalist, you're just sowing the seeds for your own demise."

He had a puzzled look on his face then said, "I never thought about it that way."

I replied, "No, you just never thought about it. If you had, this discussion wouldn't have happened and you wouldn't have that silly sticker on your truck."

Donna again: And tell me about it. One of the local women got on Facebook and used "environmentalist" as a sneering insult, and then started to chortle with her friends about how the real smell of the woods is burning wood and oil and diesel and the sound is chainsaws. These are what gave me PTSD as a kid. It's what their kids are going to call them to account for. No wonder the kids are on pills and meth up here, and committing suicide. Now watch the same people that hate us whining and screaming and complaining as they're shunted off to cities where they have to live on welfare or take three jobs in a place they hate.