Going To Tahiti

October. Cold, windy, leaves coming down.

Salmon in Trouble.

No?

Warm enough to wade and swim in the bay. Who needs to go to Tahiti? The Maori come to Neah Bay to make the babies dance happy. We call their weather The Pineapple Express. It's blowing snow-eater winds along the beaches and through the still-green alders.

More and more sunfishes, great whites and sperm whales showing up in the coastal waters and even in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. 

Salmon don't like warm water.

Salmon-fishing industry, recreational and sports - fighting over the last remaining salmon, either wild or hatchery - is just making buggy whips. And whining and crying about who's going to get to catch the last salmon. I did that cartoon just for them. Greedy, future-blind morons.

I know about buggy whips. I work in the newspaper industry. Sooner or later the Fun Paper that doesn't pay its writers is going to kill both the paper-industry papers, and then up its ad rates. It won't be able to resist. Why would it? It doesn't pay its writers. If it will treat them like a harvest, it will harvest you.

Meanwhile, the actual writers will go off to blogs - like this one - and make money off their own ads. No more invoicing! No more running asses off all over town for stories and photos that get bumped because newspapers only make their own towns' buggy-whips. No more "Be nice to the logging industry, that owns our editorial board." No more writing in the fucking Associated Press style that Hemingway hated so much. Whee!

Clallam County is ruffling with an argument over electronic or manual meter-reading machines, or whatever they're called. WTF? Solar mini-grids are coming, whether the PUD and the County want it or not. The meter machines are just more buggy whips. It's going to be another case of "There go my people! I must catch up and lead them!"

No arts or dance or music anything but industrial-lineworker production classes in the schools? No entertainment-industry preparation? Go ahead, take away the money from the schools, let the corporate test-companies eat up your curriculum, and send your kids to my comicon, where they can get what they need. Forks is about to have its own arts festival. The smartest loggers and fisherfolk are bringing their kids, because they've seen the future. 

Even the guy who cuts our firewood knows the 200-year-old "jobs" paradigm is about to run out of the steam of cheap resources. And "even?" I swear, lately, talking to the guys with the little firewood trucks, they're more on top of this than most of the people squabbling down at Port Angeles City Hall. Now that Mike Doherty's retiring, are we going to get a commissioner to replace him - the kind of professional politician who comes out here once a week because he knows where the votes are? Then again, we can always train the next one. We all have email. Or at least disposable cell-phones. They're called public "servants," people.

Forests and fisheries? Going to be harvesting a lot of palm trees, there? Or scrub oaks? Or whatever can thrive here when the weather changes - and it is. Planning to move your business north? Someplace else that will put up with a lifestyle based on grab-and-shit, when there's nothing left to shove into your industry's maw? There's a reason we've been warning you TreeHaters and Animal Players for decades - because it's been coming. Thanks a lot for being greedy AND deaf.

You can't have shark derbies - the soupfin industry saw to that. Sunfish grow too slowly and are too rare to become a halibut replacement. Rockfish are actually scorpion fish - which are tropical - so maybe they'll be happier. Good old lings and greenlings - can they be hatcheried? I dunno.

Better get to work converting those fishing boats for bird-watching. Other people have had to do it. Birder life lists are imaginary - but they pay just as much as a salmon left rotting in the hot sun in a sports boat as the owner went off to lunch. 

Hm. The First Nations will have to change their traditional fish ceremonies, because they won't have salmon any more. Then again, they're resilient people; they survived us, didn't they? 

Just don't decide to go after Monster Whale instead of grey whale. Those big southern people are hot-tempered and impatient of canoes. Ask Captain Ahab.

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

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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