On 12/4/2025 at 8:29 AM, Swamp Girl said:

@Goby: I once read that a forest loses about 30% of its diversity with each clear cutting. A forest's soil also loses vast amounts of its organic matter as trees are cut and hauled away. It is estimated that it takes a forest about 500 years to recover from clear cutting. 

 

I did not know about the Smith River turning green because its forest is intact. So cool.

 

I will never forget the first time I saw a true clear cut forest, was in Ontario, for miles and miles and miles, brown dirt and a stump here and there, that was it. Left quite an impression on me, that's for sure. 

 

You can find some pretty cool videos on the Smith on YouTube, but here is a photo I have that the file says is small enough I can post it on here. You get the general feeling of the green I speak of. That river can come up several feet in a day from intense Winter rains, just gets greener and greener, couple days later will be back to normal flows like nothing ever happened. While I never saw an actual Mountain Lion, saw lots and lots of tracks over the years along that river, lot of Lions out that way they say, but they seem to have enough land to roam they stay away from humans... The cinnamon colored Bears out there are another story, you see them all over, but they are all relatively small and never bother you. Big Elk herd just down the road from the Smith too... If you ever get the chance, that little NW corner of California is without a doubt the most unique part of the lower 48 in pretty much every way. 

 

Winter is the best time to explore it, don't go in Fall, too much wildfire smoke every year, settles along the coast, awful, your truck will have ash on it every morning from fires far far away... Your lungs won't appreciate it either... It stays about 70 degrees, year-round on the coast up that way, you can get hot or cold if you go inland over the first pass, but the coast is always the same, within about 5 degrees of 70 degrees.... Ocean keeps it that way. 

 

@Goby: Nice try, but you can't fool me. There's no place on Earth that beautiful. Somehow, some way, you got a photo of Heaven.

 

Back to clear-cutting: At my last place in Maine, I worked with a forester to restore the natural diversity of my property. I planted many of the missing trees, the ones lost to clear-cutting, such as elm, black walnut, cherry, chestnut, striped maple, hickory, ironwood, etc. I don't know why, but most elms don't die in Maine and I planted blight-resistant chestnuts.

Uh oh Katie, someone's gunnin for your spot

https://www.reddit.com/r/justgalsbeingchicks/s/GBuPaz06Bm

18 minutes ago, Banned User said:

Uh oh Katie, someone's gunnin for your spot

https://www.reddit.com/r/justgalsbeingchicks/s/GBuPaz06Bm

 

Ha! That's one funny woman. However, in my defense, I'm almost as goofy as her.