#GVRAT1000k day 121. Noticed that the loggers had moved on to another local forest & stopped by to see how it looked. They did a quite a good job of tidying up, though the ruts from the heavy equipment will take a while to heal. After & before pictures. #ThisWillBeAThread

The trees that were harvested this time around was a replantation. It will actually giving a younger generation of mixed hardwood a better chance to regenerate. This area has quite a history. Timber barons in the 1800's saw the forest as a nearly inexhaustible supply of timber.

The early settlers saw the forests as an impediment to farming. Vast areas were cleared & burned. For 100 yrs local forests fell to the lumberjack axe. No thought of conservation for tomorrow. The slash from logging was left to burn & re-burn, until nothing left but barren plain.

Photo from1906 taken by E.J. Zavitz, this area was known as the Oro Lake Wasteland as it was a literal desert. The land was literally too sandy to support any agriculture & the homesteads were deserted. People in history recall the night skies were red from the slash and burn.

A local conservationist back then by the name of E. C. Drury initiated a program to replant the wastelands with literally millions of trees, often pine. We think of the burning of the Amazon, but remember from history we were no different here. ~end of thread~ Thank you. 30.71k