Industry supports clearcut

By Ken Ward Jr.
SUNDAY GAZETTE-MAIL

LESLIE - Wayne Barfield tromped up the side of the hill, looked out across the forest and shook his head. The surrounding landscape was a mess of crooked maple trees and stunted yellow poplars.

This patch of woods north of Rainelle shows what's wrong with West Virginia forests, said Barfield, woodlands manager for Westvaco Corp.

Like much of the state's woodlands, this stand has been cut at least twice in the last century. Both times, loggers took out the biggest and the best trees. The trees still standing aren't worth much, at least not to a logger.

"Left to itself, it's not really going to improve by most measures," Barfield said. "A diseased, crooked tree that is 60 years old is only going to become a diseased, crooked tree that is 70 years old."

Westvaco officials, like many in the timber industry, think these forests are due for a trim. They believe that clearcutting much of the state's forests would help the wood products business and the forests.

Take out the old, junk trees, they say, and you'll make way for new oaks or cherry. The state Division of Forestry has promoted new chip board and pulp mills for this reason.

"They can use the very product we've been trying to get out of the forest," said Bob Whipkey, assistant administrative forester for the state. "It doesn't deplete the forest. It actually makes it more productive."

Critics disagree. They say the new mills will clearcut the existing forest, then turn them into tree farms of tiny, low-grade timber. To feed the new mills, trees will be cut more often. They won't have time to grow as big. Mature forests with lots of ki nds of trees and animals won't have time to develop.

"They're feeding us a line of bull," said Steve Hollenhorst, an associate professor of forestry at West Virginia University.

"We're going to be stuck with stands of poplar coming back," Hollenhorst said. "And if there's going to be a market for this kind of stuff, there won't be any incentive to let an ecological system ever get more than 20 years old."

U.S. Forest Service researchers say West Virginia has an abundance of small, low-grade trees. These should be cut to allow more valuable trees to grow more, the Forest Service said.

"The good housekeeping associated with this ... could result in dramatic increases in production," the Forest Service said in a July 1990 report. "Improvements in quality and value would be even more impressive than gains in timber volume."

Officials from Georgia-Pacific Corp. and Weyerhaeuser said they opened huge oriented strand board mills in Fayette and Braxton counties because of the state's low-grade trees.

Georgia-Pacific forester Bob Radspinner said the Mount Hope plant can live off mostly low-grade yellow poplar trees. In West Virginia, yellow poplar grows seven times faster than it's being cut, Radspinner said.

"That plant is a tremendous investment Georgia-Pacific has made in the state of West Virginia," said company spokesman Ken Haldin. "We wouldn't do that if we didn't have some idea what is going on."

David Craft, plant manager of Weyerhaeuser's OSB plant in Braxton County, called the poplar and other "junk trees" his company will take an unused resource.

"It's a plus for landowners because that's just wood that's currently left in the forest," Craft said. "We'll cut them down and get them out of there."

But Craft remembers that people in North Carolina, where he used to live, cut more valuable trees for pulpwood just to pay taxes on land they inherited.

Roger Sherman, public affairs forester for Westvaco, said he can't imagine anyone doing that.

"People typically make economically rational decisions," Sherman said. "If you're going to waste a resource that could be worth more money later, the market will rise up and stop you."

Eli McCoy, director of the state Division of Environmental Protection, agrees the new mills will clean out low-grade wood the industry says clogs up forests. But McCoy also worries that, after the current crop of low-grade trees is cut, demand for the ne w mills will turn much of the state into farms for similar trees.

"Nobody's going to go out and cut saw logs and pulp them," McCoy said. "The real risk I see is that once you get by the saw logs and you get that next generation.

"People want quick money and aren't concerned about having that wood stay there for 40 years. They'll sell it for pulpwood after a few years."