|
10/18/09 - Week 148 Spotted Owl Motor Home I know I'll catch some flak over the title on this one but such is life. I can take it. Jonna and I were up on The Santiam on Friday looking for Fall color and wandering around at Hackelman Creek. The color hunting wasn't going very well along the highway so we headed across one of the old logging roads as a shortcut to get back over to Highway 126 from Highway 20. About half way across we saw a sign off of one of the spur roads saying to watch for log trucks. When you see those signs up here you pay attention when you are on one of "their" roads. Most of the logging roads are just wide enough for two cars to pass but not wide enough for an SUV and a log truck to pass. We meet three empties on their way up and hit the turn outs to let them get by. When we got down to the blacktop where the logging road came back into the highway we decided to stop and have lunch. I also figured that the trucks weren't going too far up to get their logs and I could kill some time and catch one of them on the way back out and get a few shots. All of the drivers stop before they head out on the main highway to check their tires and wrappers. I'm not going to get long winded on the topic of "To log or not to log." as I feel there is plenty of room for both. In the mid 80's I was driving truck hauling lumber when the whole Spotted Owl thing started. Between the birds and the tree huggers many people lost their way of living here in the Northwest.It never has recovered. I am primarily an outdoor photographer and I spend a lot of time in the woods. As long as we set aside wilderness areas and State and National parks there is no reason to not continue to log. Trees grow back. If you don't cut them down they fall down. Trust me. I've seen it. With proper forestry trees are a renewable resource. That is more than I can say for oil or coal. Enough said. Have a great week, Mike The countdown continues on the 2010 Return To Alaska trip. More info in the links below. I have started an Alaska 2010 web site here with current information on where we stand, where we will be going and what we will be doing. When we return from the site photos and such will be added after we get back like I did on the Alaska 2005 site. Hope you enjoy the photo, |
|
