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Timber Payments

We have been on the public dole with the Timber Payments program that was to make up for government control of the states timber resources. What really fell through the cracks is the deplorable state of government controlled forestry. If you were to talk with private timber owners you would find that their resources are being depleted by their mere locality with federal and to a lesser extent state owned forests. Chronic mismanagement that allows insect deprivation and invasive species contamination have degraded OUR forests while excessively ignorant regulations and "For Profit" land grabs and timber sales have cheated Oregonians for years. Timber payments do not offset incompetence.

We have no right to demand payments for a timber not harvested when that timber rots or becomes fodder for catastrophic fires. When rural economies are bolstered by the economics of a fire economy ( $ Millions to fight fires yet none to husband the forests) yet are deprived of the resources of the timber surrounding their homes, demanding payments for this insulting ?caretaking? of our natural resources is akin to asking the robber beating you on the head to put a coin in the parking meter so you don't get a ticket while you are unconscious.

How can a population surrounded by the greatest gifts that are our natural resources be dependent on handouts from a government that breeds the need for those welfare checks? I have never met a person who would not rather have a good job that pays a living wage than be on the dole! The lack of respect the government shows towards our forests are manifest in their disdain of the American people. Making a society dependent on your stipend is not respect and is self perpetuating the needs and disrespect.

Here's a little funny... what if I could show you a system designed in the 1920s and later redesigned by our own government, FEMA to be precise, that would turn (20) twenty pounds of any wood in our forest into the equivalent of (1) one gallon of gasoline? And this design also shows how to build the unit for conversion of this energy as well as how to modify ANY internal combustion engine to use it safely? Look out any window in Oregon and assess how many pounds of woody material are in that tree just outside. Now look at the reports from the Oregon Department of Forestry on the amount of timber that needs thinned (husbanded) in Oregon... millions of acres... billions of tons of wood... being laid waste by fire and insects, instead of used to replace the oil everyone is screaming about. A forest is a true solar energy system but like a solar photo voltaic panel being used for a door stop in your garage its potential energy is not realized. Why is our timber dependent counties the hardest hit fiscally when they are surrounded by bounty? Because we do not see the forest for the trees. Why is the most endangered counties in Oregon surrounded by forests, millions of tons, of invasive trees (Juniper Occidentalis, Western Juniper) that is degrading our grass and grazing lands up to 30% while we pay those that don't like us to send us their pollution laden fuels. Nonsense is nonsense... we are smarter than that!

This is but one system of the many.

What is missing is American Ingenuity, it has been replaced by the enslavement of easy money and easier answers that make us comfortable slaves. But slaves no less! What is slipping through the cracks are the answers that are out there that no one is formatting into a usable system of self empowerment. What is slipping through the cracks is our pride and the future of our children. What is slipping through the cracks is a livable economy and environment.

Yes... I'm passionate about it. No excuses.

PS; I love OPB! My life partner says I am cheap but I don't need cable tv because I can get OPB out of thin air.

Be peace,

Allen

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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