An ex Army infantryman whose been under fire, I give the tree sitters credit for putting their lives on the line for a cause they believe in.

Several years ago I walked through Goose Timber Sale units with a Forest Service sale prospectus in hand. A recently retired timber cruiser, I predicted Goose's premium quality 80+ year old timber would be sold cheap, as in most federal timber sales. I told friends "We'll be lucky to get 30 cents on every dollar of real market value". Having seen contract prices, I was right on.

There are units in Goose designated for helicopter yarding at $400/MBF that we taxpayers will end up paying for. Imagine a private owner paying to have their 80 year old timber harvested!? Adding insult to injury, millions of board feet of our best timber is being sold by the ton instead of by log scale.

But where else, besides our "poorly managed" public lands, can the poor sawmills buy mature, high quality logs for the real value of value of teenage "chip" logs?!

Labels: moderation: safe