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[<eureka AT hctc.net>]

Very cool. You are in an area that values forests.

I think the problem here is multifold. For one, it doesn't 
really get cold enough to think about having a woodlot for 
heating purposes, thus no need to manage for it. Secondly, 
there is a false belief that one of the predominant native 
species "cedar" (really a juniper) is a water hog, coupled 
with the fact it makes great fenceposts, so there has been 
a "cedar chopper" mentality in my area for over 100 years. 
The wood is too resinous to burn inside the house, and the 
tree pollen (wind pollinated as many desert plants are) 
makes a number of folks sick (including me, I am really 
suffering now).

Interestingly, the community just over the hill from me 
where the desert truly begins (and the West, as in the 
100th meridian) is almost devoid of this tree because of 
the cedar choppers, and I cannot help but wonder if this 
has contributed to the desertification of the area. Like 
most desert plants, Juniperus asheii has tiny, scale-like 
leaves for a lower transpiration rate, meaning they are 
pretty darn good at conserving water--so how can the be 
water hogs? If anything, their thick cover slows down 
erosion.

A botanical friend of mine is writing a book about the 
tree, trying to debunk the myths
http://members.toast.net/juniper/Ashe%20juniper.html#anchor891212

--Sage

On Wed, 5 Nov 2008 09:58:15 -0700
 Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com> wrote:
> On Nov 5, 2008, at 9:06 AM, <eureka AT hctc.net> 
> <eureka AT hctc.net> wrote:
> > Diversity isn't just limited to species, but should
> > involve life stages as well.
>
> Absolutely. A healthy eco-system includes species and 
> age  
> diversification. As in farming and gardening, 
> mono-cropping is fraught  
> with problems.
>
> A friend, David Haenke, who manages a 
> several-thousand-acre private  
> forest, introduced me to Clint Trammel, who is Forest 
> Manager for  
> Pioneer Forest near Salem, Missouri. PF consists of 
> about 160,000  
> acres, all owned by businessman, Leo Drey. For half a 
> century PF  
> foresters have been practicing a single-tree harvest 
> practice.  
> Opposite of normal logging, the practice takes out the 
> worst trees and  
> leaves the best, making sunlight, water and nutrients 
> more available  
> to the best trees, including mother trees that seed the 
> floor. The  
> practice thus continually upgrades the forest, making it 
> ever more  
> valuable.
>
> David brought Clint to Heartwood some years ago to 
> advise me before I  
> did a modest amount of logging. Clint's knowledge is 
> huge. It was a  
> wonderful afternoon of keeping my mouth shut except to 
> answer  
> questions and mostly soak up information as fast as I 
> could while we  
> walked through the forest of Heartwood, a mere 130 acres 
> of oak, pine,  
> hickory and other valuable trees.
>
> http://www.pioneerforest.com/index.php
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