Sierra Nevada logging

Logging in the Californian Sierra Nevada arose from the need to support growing communities in the area. The Gold Rush created a high demand for timber to build housing, for mining procedures, and especially to build railroads. In these days use was unregulated and in the first 20 years after the rush, a third of the timber in the Sierra Nevada was logged . Concern for the forests created a movement towards conservation at the turn of the 19th century creating state and national parks (Yosemite, Sequoia and Grant Grove) and forest reserves. The Sierra Club, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), was founded around this time by the famous preservationist John Muir. Between 1900 and 1940 agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and The National Park Service regulated the use of the Sierra Nevada’s resources. The economy boom after World War II dramatically increased timber production in the Sierras using clear-cutting as the dominant form of logging.

Methods

One method of logging is clear-cutting, removing all trees from a tract of land, which has caused major disturbances in the Sierra Nevada environment leaving patches of densely packed, single-specie, same-aged, tree plantations among the diverse old growth forest. Low-impact logging meets current needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. This typically means smaller periodic harvests and removing the worst trees to eliminate danger to high value trees. Forest management, concerning harvest rate, reforestation, erosion control, and stream protection, is key to limiting environmental degradation from timber harvesting and to protect future resources

Logging industry

The overall economic impact of forestry and forest industry is not very great in California. The total timber harvest in 2000 was 2.0 billion boarded feet of wood, with a harvest value of $909 million. Sierra Pacific Industries owns and manages roughly 1.4 million acres (5,700 km²) of forestland in California, making it the largest private forest owner in California.

Environmental effects

Logging practices have altered the majority of the native forests, transforming them into simplified forests of same-aged trees with a reduced ecological resilience, especially prone to catastrophic fire and mortality due to beetle infestation and disease. It has also caused fragmentation and increased edge effect, along with releasing pesticides and chemicals into the water and land. In the Sierra’s there are 218 endemic plant species that are considered rare or threatened, and three plant species are believed to be extinct. Sixty-nine terrestrial vertebrate species are considered at risk by government agencies. A famous North American endangered species, the California Spotted Owl, depends on large tracts of old-growth coniferous forests and its protection has been a major wildlife and forest management issue.

Preservation of the Sierra Nevada

The Sierra Nevada is home to the largest trees in the world and half of the plants and animals found in California. In any case, logging alters forests, but with good managing strategies we can conserve forest biodiversity.

References

1. USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. Chapter 11 PSW-GTR-133. 1992.

2. Beesley, David. Reconstructing the Landscape: An Environmental History, 1820–1960

3. Laaksonen-Craig S., Goldman G.E., McKillop W. Forestry, Forest Industry, and Forest Products Consumption in California. University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources: Publication 8070

4. Jensen, Torn, Harte. In Our Own Hands: A Strategy for Conserving California’s Biological Diversity.

5. Call DR, Gutierrez RJ, Verner J,. Foraging Habitat and Home-range Characteristics of California Spotted Owls in the Sierra-Nevada. CONDOR 94 (4): 880-888 NOV 1992