Raul’s Blog

Ed Homer, a filmmaker and supporter of restoration forestry, sent us a link to one of his recent videos:

The video shows a great example of the best of what the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has to offer. Most FSC-certified forests have lower standards than those of the gentlemen’s lands in the video. (Merve Wilkensen, the forester in the video, is one of the people I studied years ago. He is a pioneer in the field.) The 10% set aside for Old-Growth trees is fantastic. It’s not required by FSC, but this is the key to restoring and not just sustaining lands.

In fact, we’re meeting the same higher standards here at Old-Growth Again. The key is to cut at a very low rate that allows the forest to bring back the Old-Growth on its own over time. We also set aside 5 trees per acre to never be cut. Combining the very low cut rate and the set asides is the key to restoration forestry. Restoration forestry exceeds sustainable forestry standards because of the lower rates of cut set in perpetuity.

Thanks to Ed for the video link and keep up the good work!

An article published this week in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat details a level headed approach to forestry. The details mentioned are a close reproduction of the practices Old-Growth Again uses to begin the restoration process of cut-over lands. It’s heartening to see this becoming more generally practiced and other restoration outfits popping up around the country.

I think once the national forests lands mentioned are restored, the forest service contracts eventually issued will in all likelihood cut at a faster rate than we are doing. Under Forest Stewardship Council guidelines mentioned, they will probably cut about 2% per year versus our 1% per year limit. This is the basic difference between Sustainable Forestry and Restoration Forestry. But, at least in the initial phase, they are both nearly identical since there is little timber that can be harvested and only the thinning, planting and soil management aspects can be addressed.

This aside, the article details a significant turning point in forest management in the Northwest.  It is hopefully the long-awaited shift in the political wars of the past 30 years that pitted ecology vs economy instead of ecology and economy as we’ve been struggling to demonstrate since 1994.

Here’s the intro to the article, with a link to read more….

(AP Photo/Jeff Barnard) In this May 15, 2009 photo, Lomakotsi Restoration Project crew supervisor Aaron Nauth stands on the stump of a centuries old tree and looks over an old clearcut that his team has thinned on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest outside Takilma, Ore.

TAKILMA, Ore. (AP) — On a steep slope of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, a crew of young men with chain saws and hardhats worked their way through an old neglected clearcut, cutting brush and young trees and piling the remains to be burned later.

Freshly trained and closely supervised, the crew took care to leave behind volunteer sproutings of dogwood, madrone and huckleberry as well as the sugar pine and Douglas fir planted here 20 years ago. The pattern is designed to grow into a healthy forest less vulnerable to wildfire and better for fish and wildlife, rather than just turn out timber.

The House Hope Stewardship Project, taken off the shelf with $1.4 million from President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package, will thin and restore 890 acres.

It’s a tiny fraction of the 60 million to 80 million acres the U.S. Forest Service estimates need it nationwide, but people here feel as if this is a start — not only to grappling with the growing threat of wildfire in a warming climate, but in healing rifts between environmentalists, the timber industry and the Forest Service that have left the national forests in limbo.

Read the full article »

This article is shared courtesy of ARA Content.

How A Forest Products Company is Making a Real Environmental Impact

Little Raulito enjoying a Forever Redwood Kid's Rocking Chair. Behind him stands a Large Vase Planter. Proceeds from the sale of Forever Redwood products go toward our Redwood forest restoration work.

(ARA) - With the growing popularity of green building practices, more companies are incorporating environmental and sustainability policies. These are all positive steps toward reducing the impact of global warming and caring for our earth. But what do you really know about a product you buy that is labeled green? Is it really environmentally friendly, or is it just a marketing scheme? And how much of a difference is it actually making?

“Green and sustainable forestry practices are a step in the right direction. But even the most stringent standards, those certified internationally by the Forest Stewardship Council, are only a modest step away from the large-scale deforestation practices that were prevalent until recently,” says Raul Hernandez, founder of Old-Growth Again, an organization dedicated to restoring logged forestlands back to their ancient form.

Hernandez goes on to explain the problem is sustainable forestry does little in the way of restoring large and ancient trees overtime. Without these trees as a significant portion of working forests, the effects forestlands can have on global cooling are limited. Under sustainable forestry practices, lands are cut at rates of up to 30 percent per decade. At this rate of cut, a forest is “sustained,” but it’s maintained as a young forest in perpetuity with trees rarely exceeding 80 years of age.

OGA is changing this by practicing a much higher “Restoration Forestry” standard. Restoration forestry involves many practices including limiting the rate of cut to a maximum of 10 percent in any one decade. This conservative rate allows for a growth increase of standing lumber at rates of approximately 20 percent per decade, allowing the forest to mature so that a large amount of the forest canopy will once again be dominated by trees over 200 years old (the definition of old-growth).

Why is this important? “Depending on the tree species and geography, forests managed on a 200-year cycle sequester 3 to 4 times more carbon per acre than forests managed on 60 to 80 year cycles,” says Hernandez. “Restoration forestry practiced on a global scale would cause dramatic global cooling to take place while growing the highest quality lumber.”

Rainbow over Forest Redwood forestlands in Annapolis, CA—lands we are restoring through your furniture purchases

How can you help? With the nice weather, more people are spending time outside enjoying their yards. If you are looking to add some new furniture and decor, consider Forever Redwood, OGA’s thick-timber products, which help fund the organization’s mission. Add some new lawn furniture, a gazebo or pergola, a swing or just some planter boxes. The look and design of the products is a throwback to another era when lumber was plentiful and of extremely high quality.

Besides supporting a good cause, redwood products are very long lasting and can be left outdoors for decades in elements such as harsh sun and snow, without maintenance. You can choose from three grades of redwood for Forever Redwood products — young, mature and old-growth. Half of the lumber used is from salvaged material left on the forest floor when the forest was first logged in the 40s and 50s. This wood is carefully inspected, and because of its high quality, much of it is in great shape and can be used, a testament to the longevity of the old-growth lumber. The other half comes from careful harvesting of the forest.

“One of the biggest aspects of global warming is deforestation. If forest lands are managed so they sequester carbon as they did before the high levels of harvesting, a big part of global warming equation would be eliminated,” says Hernandez.

To learn more about Forever Redwood furniture and products, and how old-growth forests are helping counteract global warming, visit www.ForeverRedwood.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content

Throughout recorded history, forestry has usually been practiced in extremes.  Rarely is it a level-headed conservative approach.  Through the first 6,000 years of recorded history, humans mostly just mowed down forests around them to create living and agricultural grounds.  In the past couple hundred years, some level headedness has been introduced.  First in the mountains of Switzerland to avoid landslides from over cutting hillsides above towns. And in the U.S., the Forest Service was formed over 100 years ago under Gifford Pinchot as a middle of the road, “wise use” management philosophy service.  Over the decades, politics has taken the U.S. Forest Service from very conservative to semi-exploitative and back again.  Today, all timber companies talk green and are certified “sustainable” by various agencies, but with few exceptions, they are still over-harvesting their lands.  

A recent article in the news reports on a U.S. Geological Survey finding that old-growth forests in the west are dying off, due to global warming.

THURSDAY, Jan. 22 (HealthDay News) — Trees in old-growth forests in the Western United States are dying at twice the rate they were a few decades ago, and experts suspect regional warming is to blame.

The report, led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), found that the increase in tree deaths has included trees in a variety of forests, elevations and sizes. Species have included pine, fir, hemlock and other coniferous trees. In addition, the rate of new tree growth has not changed, according to the report in the Jan. 23 issue of Science. [Read the full article.]

The article goes on to report that the consequences of this phenomenon include ”increased wildfire activity across the Western U.S., as well as bark beetle outbreaks that are occurring at unprecedented levels across Western North America.” And we learn that “these changes in climate necessitate a reevaluation of policies on how forests are managed, including new ways of dealing with wildfires and limiting development.”

From my perspective working to restore Old-Growth Redwood forestland in northern California, here’s my take. Global warming is real. But so is a mindset in certain parts of the scientific/political/academic community to use alarmist tactics to push conservation and other agendas. Yes, higher temperatures have created problems with die-offs in many western forests that are affecting Old-Growth Forests as well. There are huge bug infestation increases and other issues. Some of it can be attributed to climate, but I assure you, the bulk of the issue is poor forest management practices that are coming home to roost.  Also, the article makes it seem that ALL western forests are facing this grave issue. This is the alarmist part. The truth is the bulk of the lumber volume west of the Mississippi is on the Western Coast. The die-offs that were studied are inland from the coastal areas. Although the inland forests amount to several times the acreage of the coastal forests from Washington State down to Central California, they represent less overall timber volume than the coastal forests do. Therefore the coastal forest health is more important and it is not addressed in this article because it doesn’t fit the alarmist agenda.

I don’t disagree with the alarmist agenda. We need to scare the pants off people to fix these things, but it’s also good to keep your perspective. The major forests of the west (the coastal forests) are not being affected much if any by what is discussed in this article. On the western coast, in the Redwoods where Old-Growth Again operates, climate change is tempered by the ocean’s influence over the coastal climate.

We desperately need to make changes in the ways forests are managed. And, this is mentioned in the article. Unfortunately what is considered change is in most cases a drastic swing in the opposite direction away from over harvesting and poor soil management to almost complete preservation (no tree harvesting or almost none). Preservation is fine if the forests are in good shape. But, imposed on structurally deteriorated stands, it creates even more problems than it solves (species composition, tree quality, fire hazard, etc.).

If old trees are allowed to dominate the canopies of forests while the poor quality and overrepresented species are slowly culled, the forest will once again recreate microclimates that will insulate themselves and begin to positively influence the external climate to its advantage. But, the forests of the west are fragmented and full of problems created mostly by bad forestry. I am certain that under the present management schemes, the forests in general will continue to deteriorate including the old-growth tree patches that remain. But, if the forest is managed to recreate mature and old-growth trees, and most of the poor quality trees are systematically removed, the opposite of what this study predicts will happen. I assure you.  I will prove it to you.  Just check back in 30 years and you’ll see how much healthier and larger the lands your crazy uncle manages are in.

There’s a wonderful article about Stuart Schroeder’s plans to create an interpretive historical farm at Stone Farm in Santa Rosa, above the Laguna de Santa Rosa. Stuart’s Percherons help us with our horse logging, and so we’re delighted to see his excellent work in the news.

With the autumn sun ebbing in the west, two Percheron draft horses pulled a 1930s-era manure spreader across farmland on a rise above the Laguna de Santa Rosa.

It was a scene that schoolchildren might one day observe at the city of Santa Rosa’s Stone Farm, the planned site of a center for visitors wishing to view the Laguna and to learn about ecology and the agricultural past….

Here at Old-Growth Again, we have two great draft horses helping us with our forest restoration work. These beautiful animals can assist with the harvesting and thinning work, without damaging the soil and standing trees, the way a big machine would do.

It’s great to see efforts underway to preserve and promote our connection to nature and to our agricultural past. It’s especially important for our children to experience “the way things were”… and still are in some quarters.

Click to learn more about Stuart Schroeder and his wonderful Percherons.

Once an old-growth forest is cut down, can it be recreated? After almost all the large trees are gone and the land is cut up by roads? After the soil is exposed to direct sun and rain and erosion has lowered its productivity? After the streams are filled with sediment and the fish populations plummet? Can the forest really be brought back to anything like it was before?

In 1978, the Redwoods National Park in N. California had a large swath of over-logged lands added to the original old-growth park. Congress added the cutover lands with a caveat: All roads should be closed and filled in and the forest had to be restored like the old-growth around it.

With a large budget for restoration, an amazing transformation has taken place over the last 30 years. It is the largest example of full scale restoration in the Redwoods. It can be done.

But even without large budgets, restoration of some or most of the old-growth characteristics of cut over forests can be accomplished in decades—not centuries. Most forests in the U.S. have been cut at least once. For example, 96% of the Redwood forest has been cut.

Old-Growth Again manages 700 acres of average quality forests that had 95% of the Redwood volume cut in the 60’s. By the mid 90’s, the forest had too many hardwoods (uncut when the land was harvested) and endless young trees of average to poor quality. Instead of about 80 to 100 trees per acre of all sizes and ages, we inherited over 1,000 mostly small and suppressed trees per acre just waiting for a fire to set them off. Most were dying or going to die from a lack of growing space.

The roads were leaching soil into the streams. Poorly constructed roads were collapsing in the winter storms. You couldn’t see a foot in front of you because most trees had grown low lying branches that were in your face. It was the furthest thing from the cathedral-like open spaces under an old-growth forest canopy.

We started in 1995 by thinning out the poorest quality trees and the over-represented tree species (mostly hardwoods and some Douglas-fir). It was an acre by acre “hands-on” thinning from below. A couple chain saws, manual loppers and a pole saw is all we used. We fixed the worst erosion problems by adding lots of natural structure to the soil and thinned most of the lower branches away to lower the fire hazard and open up the understory. It took two men 3 1/2 years working 2 days per week to finish the first 40-acre thinning.

When complete in 1999, a strong contrast with neighboring parcels was obvious. The neighbors noticed, the government noticed, our friends noticed. We began to receive requests to work on neighboring lands and modest financial offers to help buy nearby parcels and restore them. A portable mill was purchased to mill some of the downed material and a furniture company was born. In the last 9 years we’ve grown to manage 700 acres and thinned and planted nearly 300 acres to date.

It will take another 5 years to complete the first round of thinning and planting on all the acreage. But, the thinned and planted lands are already significantly transformed. If we never did anything else, the forest will grow back to Old-Growth Again with good spacing, significantly restored species composition, improved tree quality and partially restored soils. The fire hazard has been reduced, wildlife habitat improved and the forest opened from below and closed from above as it should be. (For example, birds can now fly through the forests where before it was mostly an inpenetrable maze of branches and dying trees.)

If the thinning, planting and soil building is repeated two more times over the next couple decades, the forest will return to being multi-canopy and full of large mature trees with the general structure of the prior stand essentially restored. Then the passing decades will add the larger old-growth trees whether or not the land is managed again. And, this is after yielding a modest timber harvest each entry to help pay for the restoration.

It doesn’t take a lot of money to restore forestland if you are willing to do the work yourself. It does take a lifelong commitment to getting it done in balance with nature. If you own a few acres and want to spruce them up a bit or restore them fully, take a look at the links below.

The link below shows a typical regenerating young Redwood grove 30 years after heavy logging and before being thinned. Next to it is another typical young Redwood grove after thinning. Startling before and after. The work in the “after” photo was done by one person in one full day with a chainsaw and a pole saw. A lot can be done on any forestland if the owners want to put the time and energy into it:

http://www.oldgrowthagain.org/befaft.html

To read more about forest restoration and how to duplicate our results on any land, please visit:

http://www.oldgrowthagain.org/sustainable.html

Or, our 8-minute video shows the process in action:

http://www.oldgrowthagain.org/video.html

As always, thank you for your continuing financial support. If you have questions or comments, please let us know.

Each summer and fall the fire season explodes and the news is filled with stories of burning homes and thousands of brave men and women fighting fires and risking their lives protecting communities. It’s a giant annual event and its getting worse. In July 2008, lightning storms ignited thousands of fires in California that burned for weeks. The losses and cost to contain them were staggering. The real calamity in all this is that it is mostly an avoidable disaster. It really doesn’t have to be this way.

Forest fires are a vital and natural part of all western forests. The fires regenerate and balance countless biological processes. For example, some vegetation has been recorded as extinct in areas where fires were suppressed only to reappear after a fire!

The probability an average fire will grow to be a catastrophic fire is multiplied when forestlands are poorly managed. Most of the forests of the west today are young and overgrown. Hot, highly destructive fires feed on the excessive lower limbs, downed woody debris and the suppressed and dying trees of mostly young forests.

A labor-intensive program of thinning suppressed trees and lower limbs of standing trees combined with lopping and scattering the excessive woody debris lowers this dangerous fuel level.  Lower fuel levels limit the opportunities for a normal fire to become a devouring dragon.

Thinning is central to the Restoration forestry we’ve been practicing since 1995. Thinning mimics many beneficial effects of mild fires and is a proven proactive solution to the growing fire catastrophies we have in the western United States. As our work grows over the years, we hope to make a significant contribution to fire hazard reduction in our neck of the woods.

To learn more about thinning, fire hazard reduction and basic restoration forestry practices that are applicable to forests anywhere, please visit our forest restoration page at: http://www.oldgrowthagain.com/sustainable.html

Everyone is green these days. Even the giant oil companies are flooding the airwaves with green marketing campaigns. It sounds promising, and many positive things seem to be taking shape in response to the climate challenge. But, if you look closely, much of it is less than it seems.

For example, forestry is at the center of the climate change equation. Forests sequester enormous amounts of carbon. The larger the trees are in a forest, the more carbon is held per acre.

Since the early 1990’s, a fast-growing “Sustainable Forestry” worldwide movement has been making positive inroads. A handful of organizations now “certify” many millions of acres of forestland as “sustainably harvested”. Standards vary, but, certification requires overall improvements in forestry practices away from the old “industrial models”. Sustainable forestry is helping many forests around the world reverse degradation and in some cases rehabilitate deteriorated stands to a limited degree.

Unfortunately, if you study the numbers, it’s clear even the most stringent sustainable forestry standards will have only a modest impact in the climate change equation. Climate cooling carbon sequestration numbers are easy to calculate for any parcel of forestland. For example, in California’s Redwood forest, several large forestland owners are certified sustainable. These sustainably harvested forests are harvested at approximately 20% of the standing timber volume per decade. An average quality young stand of Redwoods adds about 30 to 35% per decade in net new wood volume. As it ages, this rate of growth slows. If cut at 20% per decade, the young stand will add a modest amount of net volume for a few decades and then level out. The forest will then be maintained as a healthy and robust stand of trees of average size with few if any large or old trees.

If, on the other hand, the rate of cut is limited to 10% in any one decade, the forest will retain more than 3 times the wood volume per acre over the coming century than if “sustainably harvested” at 20% per decade. Forestland managed at this more conservative rate will grow ancient trees again over time and make a large contribution to global cooling. This is the central tenet in “Restoration Forestry”.

We are Old-Growth Again Restoration Forestry. Our mission is to fully restore the volume and productivity of our forestlands and bring back the big trees. Parklands are lovely and necessary, but we can’t turn all the forests of the world into parklands because the cost would be exorbitant. Restoration forestry allows you to cut conservatively while also bringing back the large ancient trees. In our 14th year, our forests are a testament to what can be accomplished. Your furniture purchases through the years fund the hard work. 

To read more about our forestry practices, please go to: 

http://www.oldgrowthagain.org/sustainable.html

We hear this question often.  Its a great question and an interesting story.

Teak is now the most widely used outdoor wood in the U.S. with a well deserved reputation for durability in any outdoor weather. It’s an excellent choice for outdoor furniture or structures if you want it to last.

Teak sold in the U.S. is almost exclusively plantation grown in Central and South America. These plantations grow teak in rows and harvest in 20 to 40 year rotations in most cases. The highest quality teak plantations have 60 to 80 year rotations, but they are a very small minority. Teak is marketed as a “sustainably harvested” alternative to exotic woods taken from rain forests. The teak industry is large and spends millions annually to market this enviromental angle. It’s part truth, part fiction.

The truth is teak does take pressure off the native forests as a source of good quality wood. The fiction is a significant percentage of these plantations are grown on lands that were once forests. And, teak tree farms are not native to the Americas. They replace native biologically diverse lands with monoculture that provides minimal habitat for any type of wildlife.

So, it’s a mixed bag with the teak.  Better than logging the Amazon, but not ideal.

What about Redwood?  Well, Redwood was the outdoor wood of choice in the U.S. for most of the 20th century. Like teak, it is a beautiful wood with an excellent reputation for outdoor durability. It was available nationwide and used for anything outdoors until the early 1990’s. But, the Redwoods were overlogged and in 1990’s lumber production collapsed to 1/3rd the levels of prior decades. Redwood mostly disappeared from the east coast and central states.

Today, Redwood is available mostly in California and some other western states. The overall quality has dropped because the average size of trees being harvested is smaller than in prior decades.

In 1995, Old-Growth Again purchased and began to restore its Redwood forestland. We offer Redwood in 3 grades to distinguish it from the what is on the market today. Redwood, our least expensive grade, has a 12-year decay warranty and is comparable to what is mostly available on the market. Our Mature Redwood, our most popular grade, has a 20-year decay warranty and is comparable in durability to the highest grades of teak. And, our highest grade, the reclaimed Old-Growth Redwood, has a 30-year decay warranty. It exceeds the climate durability of any plantation grown teak.

It takes centuries of slow growth to make lumber that is almost decay proof.  Only a natural forest can do that. We don’t harvest old-growth Redwood. Luckily many logs were left on the forest floor in the early to mid 1900’s to keep our furniture shop busy for many years. Yes, the logs sat on the forest floor for 50 to 100 years and are still in excellent shape!

Case closed: If you want the longest lasting wood available - go with Old-Growth Redwood.  If you want to help restore native, biologically diverse forests and save money, have your outdoor furniture made from Redwood or Mature Redwood.

To read more about our forestry practices, please go to:

http://www.oldgrowthagain.org/sustainable.html

To read more about our three grades of Redwood, please go to:

http://www.oldgrowthagain.org/wood.html

As always, comments and questions are welcomed.  Thank you for your continuing support.