LV Cabbie wrote:
Guys,,, not to be a Scrooge here........ Phil
The why I do it part:
Well, my family has been doing it for years, long before I was around and there was a BLM to manage it. We used to get large groups of close friends and family and go camping and tree hunting, creating many great memories (and funny stories) along the way. About the time I became a teenager, we just stopped and got a damn plastic tree. Families got too large and busy, friends moved away, my Dad got cranky, etc. Once Karen and I got married, I told her about it and she thought we should start the whole tradition thing up again. To me at least, there's nothing more fun than bouncing around the hills trying to find "that perfect tree", bringing it home and decorating it. The smell alone makes it worth it, something no lot tree can touch IMO. And it's not really as easy as you might imagine. For every 1 tree you cut, you might stop and check out 25 others. Everything from double trunks to sagebrush growing though them will ruin your image as you get closer to it. But in the end it's worth it, even if you spend 10 times that of a lot tree IMO. It's about keeping family traditions alive, making memories, and having pride in doing it yourself. Because anyone can go to Wal-Mart and buy a cloned tree that's not native to Nevada, and load it up in their SUV.
Now the eco-friendly part:
Only the BLM allows tree cutting. And they only allow it in certain areas, so you can't cut in wilderness, re-planted burns, etc. They over see the areas that you can cut, and close off areas that don't need thinning. They also don't allow you to cut just any tree. And yes, they do get thick up there, and really any place it actually rains or snows. I can take you to areas in Lincoln County alone where you could get lost among the trees 100' from your vehicle.
The idea (as I understand it) is if they allow people to cut trees once a year for Christmas, the handful of people (only 5000 tags a year in Lincoln, it varies per county and BLM district) that do go will help keep growth managed, and help deter catastrophic wild fires by eliminating issues of over growth. If cedar and pinion trees are growing too close to each other, neither will likely be as healthy or be able to grow as full as they could if they had room to grow. So you get a bunch of sick, dead trees waiting to burn. And yes, they do grow on top of each other quite regularly, as their seeds tend to just fall close by and not get dispersed over a large area all the time. It's also high desert, and though they get more water than us, they do have dry years and too many dry years will create issues when you have X number of trees fighting for X amount of water.
It really is like the reason behind keeping animal populations controlled, just the outcome is different. Deer get over populated and not enough food leads to famine and illness that will wipe out a population and possibly spread to other herds or animals. Trees get too thick and don't get enough water, can't expand, etc and they get sick and die. Then you have a bunch of dead trees waiting for that next lighting bolt. Along comes a wildfire that completely throws the ecosystem out of whack. Now don't get me wrong, I feel that mother nature can take care of herself, and wild fires are a necessary evil. But if a handful of people are allowed to cut down a tree a year, they might just help keep things in order. It's also less destructive, as you won't notice it as much as if they allow logging or they "chain" and area. Chaining is where they take a very large boat anchor chain and drag it between two large bulldozers wiping everything out in the chains path. They don't do that anymore (to my knowledge) as controlled burns, wood gathering and minor tree harvesting (like Christmas trees) is a lot more effective and less destructive.
You also have to imagine 5000 trees (I'd say the actual number is 1/2 -3/4 that number) being taken in an area that is over 10,000 square miles containing millions of trees. At the cut and growth rate, there is likely no negative impact by allowing tree cutting.
I'm sure there's quite a few southern Californians looking at their burned out homes and surrounding forest that wish better forestry management had been in effect in their area.
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