Junk Forests?

Contradictory to the ‘forever wild’ language associated with the mission of the Adirondack Park, present-day logging on private lands condemns unmanaged forest stands as a waste of valuable resources.  While the lumber industry in the Park operates at a quarter of its size during the logging boom 125 years ago, its efficiency and sustainably has increased exponentially (Adirondacks, 2008).  Many companies hire foresters to examine forests and identify trees for removal to promote new growth within the stand, a process called ‘selective logging’ (Adirondacks, 2008).  These companies are under a lot of pressure from conservationists inside and outside to park to keep the park ‘pretty,’ maintaining vigorous forests and water purity (Adirondacks, 2008).  With the rise of tourism and the “second-home” market, loggers and environmentalists have become unlikely allies, but their ideologies cross on issues of forest management.  The two groups both support the protection of open spaces, but loggers view these preserved landscapes with a more utilitarian eye.  The Adirondack forests represent an essential economic opportunity for locals within the park, many of whom work for or benefit from the lumber industry (Mann, 2013). 

However, change in land-ownership strategies and the rise of large timberland investment management organizations (TIMO’s) (who now own 900,000 acres within the Park) have impeded healthy development of harvested forests (Protect, 2014).  Poor forest harvesting in the past (i.e., removing valuable trees and leaving the “junk”) haunts these recovering forests—forests that, in the possession of TIMO’s, see relatively little management (Mann, 2013).  Modern day loggers call these forests “Junk forests” that are worth little to nothing on an industrial scale.  Consequently, the Adirondack Park Agency has approved a plan to provide lumber companies with more harvesting flexibility and a more efficient system of permit approval.  The most infamous liberty granted to these companies is the ability to clear-cut stretches of their lands as long as the areas are less than 25 acres in size and neighboring clear-cuts are reasonably far away from each other (Mann, 2013).  The underlying principle, that the forest will grow back under better management by foresters and becomes a more valuable stand, is questionable: How will these replacement forests be managed such that desirable species repopulate the land? Through chemical application?  Or through expensive hand-selection? 

This simultaneous alliance and battle between loggers and environmentalists strikes at the core of many such disagreements within the Adirondack Park: the argument between the pristine landscape and local livelihood.  Are forests built from scratch to better support a shrinking logging industry in the Park better than those left to recover from the past on their own terms?  Which is more valuable to humanity?

Resources:

Protect the Adirondacks!.  2014.  “Major New Forest Clearcuts between Long Lake and Blue Mountain Lake.”  URL: <http://www.protectadks.org/2014/09/major-new-forest-clearcuts-between-long-lake-and-blue-mountain-lake/>.

The Adirondacks.  2008.  Film.  Western New York Public Broadcasting Association.

Mann, Brian.  2013.  “A Million Acres of Adirondack Timberland Becoming ‘Junk’?”.  North Country Public Radio (NCPR).  URL: <http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/21445/20130214/a-million-acres-of-adk-timberland-becoming-junk>.