I remember the very first time I saw one of these forest destroyers at work. I was astonished by this machine. I never realized how far the logging industry had come to facilitate greed.
The people of the northwest USA, including Oregon, long for the good 'ole days, all the back to the 1980s. Those days are gone. There aren't teams of loggers coming into the coffee house or diner at lunch time or after work. There is no such thing anymore as "No Vacancy" at the local inn anymore.
One operate can deforest a square mile of forest so quick that a forest ranger driving up the road and return later would be scratching his head to understand if she or he was in the right place. Except for the wildlife scampering about to try to find a niche for themselves, no one would ever guess just a short time before there was a forest standing there.
President Obama has spoken on many occasions about technology and job loss. That is exactly what has occurred with the logging industry. As soon as the claws close around the girth of a tree it is cut within seconds from it's roots.
I really don't care to hear the sad stories. These jobs were NOT lost because of people hugging trees, they were lost to technology.
You know what amazes me though? How the politics never change. It is always the sappy whiners of tree huggers that are costing the jobs of good hard working Americans in the logging industry. Still today, House Representatives like Greg Walden cries over the fact their constituents are unhappy regardless of the truth. When does that stop? Never? Republicans are making hay on this mess and no one ever brings awareness to the electorate.
That nice lady in the diner that wants it back the way it was in the 1980s while she is convinced it is the lousy bureaucrats that is the problem, could not be more wrong. That nice lady intends well, but, it is my guess she has never stepped inside a forest to see the kind of work being done, either in the 1980s or today. All she knows is that ever since the mills closed it hasn't been the same. Yep. I am sure that is the case. But, the mill closure has little to do with DC so much as the industry itself. The old mills of the 1980s could never handle the volume of timber that exists in a single 8 hour work shift today.
The people of the northwest USA, including Oregon, long for the good 'ole days, all the back to the 1980s. Those days are gone. There aren't teams of loggers coming into the coffee house or diner at lunch time or after work. There is no such thing anymore as "No Vacancy" at the local inn anymore.
One operate can deforest a square mile of forest so quick that a forest ranger driving up the road and return later would be scratching his head to understand if she or he was in the right place. Except for the wildlife scampering about to try to find a niche for themselves, no one would ever guess just a short time before there was a forest standing there.
President Obama has spoken on many occasions about technology and job loss. That is exactly what has occurred with the logging industry. As soon as the claws close around the girth of a tree it is cut within seconds from it's roots.
I really don't care to hear the sad stories. These jobs were NOT lost because of people hugging trees, they were lost to technology.
You know what amazes me though? How the politics never change. It is always the sappy whiners of tree huggers that are costing the jobs of good hard working Americans in the logging industry. Still today, House Representatives like Greg Walden cries over the fact their constituents are unhappy regardless of the truth. When does that stop? Never? Republicans are making hay on this mess and no one ever brings awareness to the electorate.
That nice lady in the diner that wants it back the way it was in the 1980s while she is convinced it is the lousy bureaucrats that is the problem, could not be more wrong. That nice lady intends well, but, it is my guess she has never stepped inside a forest to see the kind of work being done, either in the 1980s or today. All she knows is that ever since the mills closed it hasn't been the same. Yep. I am sure that is the case. But, the mill closure has little to do with DC so much as the industry itself. The old mills of the 1980s could never handle the volume of timber that exists in a single 8 hour work shift today.
