Hulett, Wyoming Republican Jim Neiman waited until Donald Trump was forced from the White House then shuttered his sawmill in Hill City, South Dakota and blamed the Forest Service.
In September Wyofile ran an article on how the Neimans became a timber industry monopoly in the Black Hills then logged it into the dirt. But, as Neiman threatens to close his sawmill in Spearditch other timber harvesters are converting the kilns that dry lumber to biochar production.
One need look no further than the Black Hills National Forest for how politics has completely altered a landscape but there are plenty other public lands examples that illustrate the red state, blue state divide. Here in New Mexico public comments on the upcoming forest plan will look way different than how they’ll read in my home state of South Dakota and in the Wyoming Black Hills.
A century and a half of domestic livestock grazing and care less land management practices created an unnatural overstory best controlled by the mountain pine beetle, prescribed fires and periodic wildfires. Native Douglas fir and lodgepole pine are virtually extirpated from the Hills but the BHNF is trying to restore native limber pine (Pinus flexilis) in the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve.
Ponderosa pine only reached the Black Hills about four thousand years ago and as many readers are aware the first US Forest Service timber sale took place near Nemo but only after nearly all the old growth of every native tree species had already been cleared for mine timbers, railroad ties and construction. So, Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is correct when she said the Black Hills National Forest has been poorly managed. I maintain that has been happening since 1899 and Forest Service Case Number One.
The infrastructure plan also includes money to help states cope with impacts of climate change, cyber attacks and extreme weather events. South Dakota would get $19.6 million over five years to help with wildfires. [KELO teevee]Translation: more logging for Jim Neiman.
Wyoming will receive about $4,400 per capita in the infrastructure package, second only to Alaska. [Wyofile]
ip photo: a two track road remains on the Jasper Fire zone in a landscape that more resembles a pre-settlement Black Hills.
The Forest Service calls post-fire logging "salvage logging" b/c it "salvages" the profit made from selling timber. Salvage logging is unequivocally bad for ecosystems.
— Friends of the Clearwater (@wildclearwater) November 22, 2021
Today the Nez Perce-Clearwater Nat'l Forests have released 3 fire salvage logging project proposals so far.
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