Common Ground (1978)

this is old number four number four uh they used to say that would pull anything as Lo at both ends you remember there's the the old boarding house and the high school and uh there's a railroad station this is The Sawmill itself and there's the pond and the logs you worked in that meal and I did too Le did too worked on the courage I worked on the courage we came with this company that had been uh up in in uh Pennsylvania I guess they just brought the whole uh town just about with them when they came and and uh because they had saw sawed the logs and things out up there and they bought this track of land here so they could start another saw [Music] meal I stayed till it s out we cut the last logs that was in 1928 date when they saw it out I don't remember just a month I think it just before Christmas wasn't it Rudy yeah I don't know how was going yeah and uh we was uh we knew that we going to have to go somewhere else of course and it makes things look a little different I don't know we just have a feeling that it's all over early in this Century most of the forests of the East had been cut over many of these forests were devastated and this had severe local and Regional impacts when this same pattern of exploitation appeared in the west we began to realize that the forests were not Limitless but were in fact vulnerable natural systems in response Congress authorized the president to set aside portions of the public domain as forest reserves later to become the national forest national forests are different from National Parks national parks stress preservation of unique natural and historic areas in contrast national forests stret use you can Harvest Timber drill for oil and mine minerals graze livestock hunt and fish and explore Wilderness so while the national forests are protected they are also managed to meet our Vari [Music] needs this concept of management is crucial to an understanding of what the national forests are all about managing a forest means coordinating the demands of society both present and future with the natural limits of the land it's a complicated task both land and Society are constantly changing systems there are many kinds of forests with different capabilities there are many groups in society with different needs the national forests are supposed to be responsive to all the people to be sensitive to local needs as well as National goals yet even in a single Community people want different things from a forest and what you want from a forest tends to influence how you see it there are over 150 national forests throughout the country and in each one questions about how best to use the forest are being debated look at Oregon for example where the last extensive stands of large old trees are in national forests the fate of these trees is an important issue here look at crey [Applause] beautiful come on wh [Applause] most of our friends enjoy different aspects of the environment whether it be mountain climbing or rock climbing wild flowers or mushrooms when I've came back to Roseberg 3 years ago the national forest had changed that the forest might be destroyed scares me I want my children to be able to take their children into Boulder Creek and say my mother was here my grandmother was here and the weatherman said it was going to rain where land use decisions Ona National Forest are being made today and we're most likely be finished within 2 years if no areas on our forest are preserved for Wilderness there's a good chance they never will be look at that giant our fear is if the areas are opened for logging they will decrease the size of the area Road it and then they will never qualify for Wilderness designation again you'll hear the reasons why uh these areas aren't so important but to counter those with some sort of uh measurable terms that you can Express quotas in or objectives or whatever it's it's something that you can't do and it's something that you shouldn't have to do but everyone expects it it ends up being our religion that's the religion that we that we give to our children we teach them that that man isn't here to to conquer everything that we are in fact a visitor here my pocket okay and that we um see I got one don't I and that we each have our place and and we visit this place and we respect this place and we all have our niches we don't have to conquer the world we come here to visit [Music] [Applause] [Music] people says bad things about loggers but they don't understand what a logger is you can't talk them out of it and they don't want to come out and look cuz they don't want to get involved I started working in a brush when I was 17 for a living I've worked my way up to be a a cutter which I guess is supposed to be a pretty good job but I enjoy it I've been cutting trees for eight years now and it's a challenge to me putting a tree down between two stumps just a couple three feet apart and not breaking the tree and or have a patch of reprod out in front of you and you work a half a day on a tree to get it out that reprod to see the little trees it's it's a challenge I enjoy being able to be able to do it and have somebody walk up and Pat me on the back and say you done a good job you save these little trees or you didn't break that tree and that's that's my enjoyment of it we're trying to fight to just keep it the way we have always wanted it and always had it the sooner we can cut a big tree down the better it is cuz you can plant more in its place people don't understand that it's to them it's pretty of course it's pretty I like looking at them it's real pretty but you don't go out in your garden after you spend all summer making it grow and then uh just harvesting half of it and letting a tomato stand there on a vine rot off because it's pretty you know it's be senseless it's a waste of money and and waste of time it's it's just no sense in it it's a constant worry how much logging they're going to let you do in the future all these people that is working in the woods they live here they raise their families here their children's go to school here and they pay taxes and enjoy life just the same as everybody else this is her home just like myself I got a wife and two children that I support I own my own truck and I have to stand all my own expenses and I truthfully feel that they're making a big mistake throwing all these areas into the Wilderness Area because it's definitely going to cut us short of Timber in the future one of these days it might be a great concern not only to me as a logger or a log hauler but to the whole Lumber industry and uh you know how that chain goes It goes right on down to the folks that is building houses I came to Roseberg 30 years ago to build this plant we are producing 50,000 tac4 a day we produce 50,000 sheets of plywood half in thick we produce uh 50 houses daily in total Lumber production what that means in terms of the forest it means that we would be using 5 Acres of forest land growing 1,500 trees per day the Mills need the timber supply for their existence the uh Community needs the mills for employment their whole economic base depends on the forest products industry which is 90% of all manufacturing in the area we talk of multiple use we talk of the forest of many uses but we have to give primary consideration to the local communities and supplement this need for livelihood with the other interests rather than vice versa of saying it's only here to play in and froling in but not to earn a livelihood timber people here point out that the old growth forests long ago reached maturity and are now ready to be cut but Wilderness Advocates see enormous richness in these forests as they are Forest managers have to do more than simply respond to these different visions and interests they have to consider the forest itself understanding that every Forest is a complicated natural system I'm a a forest scientist an ecologist that's spent my career studying forests of all types including old growth forests we thought we knew really everything about old growth forest in fact of matter you know we didn't know the first thing about it we haven't even really known up until very recently you know that it served any valuable purpose at all now they've begun to appreciate you you know hey Wildlife have to have snags they're beginning to even realize hey Wildlife have to have down logs too and The Next Step Beyond that is while that log's rotten there's also nitrogen fixation going on there there are other kinds of creatures besides the ones you shoot at there are other things besides board feet uh they're useful kinds of processes to to hum hum as well as to the system as a whole I've worked in the woods since summer I got out of high school been riding to work here and riding to work there I can do just about any of it there's a lot of squabbling going on all the different sides they're saying I want this and give us that and we got to have this and they're all talking in terms of what I want out of it for me now we got to look at things different we got to look at things according to what we've got not according to how we'd like it to be and we're going to have to take a lot more thoughtful look at how everything's hooked together we're going to start running out of Timber one way or the other but it seems like if we keep on cutting the way we have been it's going to happen a lot sooner and a lot bigger a generation ago you could walk to just about any of these ridges and all you could see was Timber like waves on the ocean The Ridges were covered with Timber and you go up there now and except in the national forest all you're going to see is cut over ground now maybe a lot of it's coming back but a lot of it's not and who's to say what's going to be like around here but that's what I like about planting trees I got to earn a living like all of us but I can earn a living doing something positive in the whole equation you get a nice tree out of your bag here keep the roots protected the wind will dry them out just a few seconds will'll do it and then pull the hodad up at the bottom and then pull the whole thing out away from the hole and as you do you put the the tree down in there but it's got to be one motion and you just got to do it until you do it and when you get it right you'll know if that tree is in there right you'll just feel it boom it's in by cutting old growth forest too rapidly we could change the character of these lands for generations and also risk running short of Timber before enough second growth is ready for Harvest threatening the survival of the local Timber industry as well that's a good argument for being careful about the rate of cutting old growth and a good reason for increased in investment in Timber management and reforestation of both public and private lands we have a chance here to use what we've learned from the past acknowledging that these forests are too important to devote to short-term needs alone needs change and these changes can be dramatic consider the Eastern national forests lands once cut out and then abandoned have grown back and are again in demand and not only for Timber 174 million people live in metropolitan areas within a day's Drive of an Eastern National Forest dayto day these people cope with crowds noise and pollution for many of them time off is time to get away and the national forest offers something increasingly precious Escape [Music] some glad morning when this is allly to a home God bless fly away I F away of Glory [Music] away when I die Hallelujah by and by byly [Music] away just a few we days [Music] and you want to go camping you want to go camping if you want to stay home you stay home you know go out and build your fire on the ground and take your old cast iron skillets and have at it have a ball really let let your hair down and relax till you do your work when you get back home well at one time I'd quit a job to go in the woods if an ocean struck me I just tell them the boss that I had the traveling fever and i' to see him again someday and I'd take off and I I used to hunt half the time and fish half the time and and uh work the rest of the time it's getting to be almost a necessity I think for person to be able to seek change so my advice would be is just to get out and live with it don't just follow the trail of the crowd get off more or less to yourself find little odd spots that just you can just say well now I don't know whether anybody has ever looked at this place for years and years and not I'm looking at something that's uncommon it's Unique you don't hear an automobile horn you don't hear a fire sign you don't see any smoke you just feel like you're out with nature as it was meant to be we're coming to a place here where you can see the scenic drive that we're planning the drive is planned to give visitors a way to get the various activity areas we have planned and also we the national Recreation Area will have approximately 5 m million visitor days when it's fully developed of use uh this will bring on more traffic to the area and we'd like to keep the local roads uh as pleasant as they are right now it's hard to generalize about this kind of thing but you might say that we really have two different kinds of populations here one is people who come from the large urban areas here in the south and east and then you have people who live here in the mountains and have lived here for some time it's a real challenge for the forest service to meet the needs of the urban populations and to do it in such a way that you don't destroy the things that are important locally this is kind of one of the focal places of the whole National recreation area right below us is the community of white top um you can see some of the private and open land down there uh on down the valley is a a community of conck and on down this uh Ridge here is National Forest the boundary of the national forest is pretty much at at the foot of this mountain it's quite obvious to see with a community such as conck uh being surrounded by National Forest land what happens on the national forest is going to have a substantial effect on what happens in the community of conro you want 10 with uh no onions oh you want you want the works uhhuh Le's made manise NS got you 10 of them got you how much is half and half uh third that's 48 4 now the town of conck used to be right nice little town but after hashers moved out they started tearing down the buildings and houses kept getting less and less and less and now it's down to a small thing really but I think bringing in all the recreation is really going to build this part of the country up if they have a lot of recreation somebody's got to take care of it right it's going to mean a lot more work for the people that sh as far as I'm concerned I'm in business the more it comes the better off we are they're all going to spend some money and then I like to see them enjoy the mountains it's nice here we understand that there will be facilities for all these people there will be roads there will be motel and restaurants not private land there will be the attractions on Forest land which these people will enjoy we don't know if we will enjoy this however they may have a good time but we live our lives here and I just don't think it's going to be the same with 9 million people in addition to the folks that we have here I think all of us here enjoy a slower paced life than a lot of people are used to we don't do anything fast around here [Music] n [Applause] [Music] 1 2 3 it's not that we don't like these people that come here from the cities up north and along the Seaboard but it's just that when they leave we're left with a lot of things that we don't like and that they didn't intend to bring with them we're afraid we're going to be left with the the trash with vacant second homes with gashes in the hillside where roads have been cut we're left with jobs that were fine in the summer but they disappeared here in the winter our next stop coming up be the holiday in travel odds putt putt golf course that's where we will be turning around heading back down towards the Gatlinburg area as national forests attract visitors they can also attract commercial development on nearby private land some of this is healthy but if development is not controlled it can have unforeseen side effects threatening not just local Lifestyles but the values many people seeking a forest clean water Wildlife quiet and a feeling of being aw in the East national forests tend to be small and Scattered public and private lands are closely intermingled and are easily affected by one another by coordinating land use planning this interdependency could be used to encourage healthy development and positive change East and and West there is a constant interplay between national forests and their surroundings national forests don't exist in a vacuum they're a productive resource in a complex and changing Society but they're also a vulnerable [Music] Resource as the nation grows and changes competition for the forest intensifies our our decisions about the use of these lands will affect their value both now and for generations to come it's important that we confront these issues that we talk and listen and find Common Ground these forests are a vital National resource managed with care they will be a resource in time we're just temporary users of this ground and from time to time there's new owners and that's the thing with public lands really the public lands represent everybody's needs and everybody's desires of the ground and I think that they represent the future in a way [Music] pretty good J good J good [Music] play a little [Music]