|
|
|
GARRY BARKER
|
|
Kentucky's forest products industry, despite being the number one agricultural program in the state, is the Rodney Dangerfield of the agriculture world.
The industry does not get the respect or support it deserves.
Most likely, the reason for the lack of respect has more to do with perceptions than reality, the concept that many Kentuckians believe that logging is a purely extractive industry, like coal mining.
It is not.
Trees are a truly renewable and sustainable agricultural product, and managed forests are actually far more productive than those left simply to nature. Tree farms, such as Pete McNeill's acreage near Campbell Mountain in Fleming County, can be managed to produce marketable timber on a sustainable basis, and among the recognitions of that fact is that McNeill was once named national tree farmer of the year.
McNeill also hosted the recent gathering of about 70 landowners, loggers, and forestry workers for the final 2005 session of the Woodland Owners Short Course, a four-session program that has drawn interested parties from across the state and even from other states to study logging systems and marketing, small woodland management, and other topics of direct interest.
The combination of academics, government, and people who own and/or cut logs for the local market made for an interesting day, and even renowned author Wendell Berry, a Henry County land and woodland owner, spent the day.
Our Amish neighbors demonstrated logging with a team of horses, and we learned about tree identification, timber assessment for the market, and lots of other basic and advanced information.
Lunch from nearby D&H Resorts, speakers including Kentucky Woodland Owners Association president Joe Ball of Somerset, and lots of lively question and answer sessions made for a full day, interesting even to people like me who are not actively involved in the industry.
Most of us deeply appreciate the majesty of a tree, especially the Kentucky hardwoods, and some simply cannot understand why the trees are cut and sawed. The misunderstandings are sometimes noisy, especially when issues such as burning and clear-cutting surface.
Both practices, in the proper situations, save and regenerate forests.
Both may be ugly, or scary, when viewed without some knowledge of what's actually happening.
Trees do not live forever. The marketable hardwoods are often stunted or choked out by species of trees that are not productive, though the definitions of "productive" vary with each landowner. To those who want wildlife habitat, a bunch of knotty hickory trees are good den and mast providers. To a hardwood producer, the hickories are useless and interfere with the growth of marketable trees.
Good logging practices are everybody's concern, and one program aimed in the right direction is the "master logger" practice, the requirement that one person on any site be trained in best practices. Logging can be done with a bare minimum of damage to the forest, and in most cases the logging is essential to future reforestation.
To learn lots more and more accurate information about the forest industry, contact the Kentucky Woodland Owners Association), 1483 Big Run Road, Wallingford, Ky. 41903. Membership is $30 per year, and KWOA is the rapidly growing voice of the state's woodland owners.
All romance aside, trees are Kentucky's number one agricultural resource, and forests need management to be fully productive. For those who would earn their livelihood from growing and logging trees, we need to offer our support.
And some respect.
Rodney Dangerfield is not a Kentucky woodland owner, to my knowledge, but his familiar comedy routine defines much of the current situation.
The more you learn about the forest industry, the more you'll respect the thousands of Kentuckians who depend upon managed growth and logging for their present and future.
Contact the author at garrybarker@netscape.net or visit www.angelfire.com/ky/barker
(c) 2005 |
|
|
Reader Comments
Comments are limited to 200 words or less.
Add your own comments:
|
|
|
Jobs
Homes
Cars
Shopping