Willie, sorry to have read you post wrong and jumping on you like I did, next time I'll clarify better, hope there are no hard feelings.
Don't get me wrong guys, everyone used to depend on timbers for everything, from heating their house, to lumber used to build buildings, fence posts were cut from timbers, you name it, it was utilized, the last 70 or more years, nobody bothers with anything from them, nobody culls out bad tree's, new tree's are not allowed to grow via management, once a logger gets done, nothing is done with the timber, its just forgotten about basically and before long, there is nothing left of worth, nothing anyone wants or will ever want is in them, some hunters might use the timber somewhat, but that's about it. With the uptick in save the tree's mentality and new ownership of the land, cleanup is under way, but that in itself isn't new, anyone who buys land, does things to it, shapes driveways, builds a new house, puts up hunting blinds, shapes waterways, you name it they do it, its now theirs and they bought it and plan to do whatever to it. I've cleared thousands of acres over the years, I have yet to clear off anything descent, if you'd roll back the clock 100 years or so, none of what I've done would need doing, the owners would have done themselves, those 150 feet from the fences, would never have gotten that bad, once a tree fell over it would have cleaned up by the owner, in the last 70 years if a tree falls over, nobody needs the firewood, just farm around it, someday he'll get to clean it up, then the next on falls over and so on and before long your 150 feet away from the fence, you can't see the fence, someone might need to repair the fence but if you ignore it long enough, maybe not, livestock disappear so the fence isn't needed anyway, the other side of the fence looks like this side and it just keep going. If the work is close to a road, people will stop by and scream at you, swear at you and harass you for destroying those valuable tree's, first thing I do is look around and ask, you mean those dead rotten ones laying on the ground, the answer is always, yes?? Well their free, bring a pickup and you have can take it home, lay it down behind or in front of your house and keep it safe yourself.............only to be told I'm an a**hole that should be shot for what I'm doing. I've been threatened to be sued so many times over the years, if I'd have put a dollar aside every time I'd been threatened, I could retire by now, as of yet, none have ever materialized, I've been video taped [for evidence to be used in court] I've been put on the internet via video for the destruction of timber and tree's [was only told about never saw it myself] have even been called by attorneys and threatened if I didn't stop doing what I was doing, and none of it was by anyone who owned or was anyway connected to the land I was working on. I as of yet, have never had stuff vandalized, but those I've worked for have hired law enforcement out of their pocket to stand guard all night long beside my equipment [we agreed on this beforehand]. And the whole while I'm thinking to myself, if anyone would attempt to tell any of these people what they should or shouldn't do with anything they owned, all hell would break loose and they'd hire an attorney and file suit against those attempting to tell them anything, its always a one way street with those people.
Well along came the Dereco in Iowa a couple years ago, which in itself if tragic, I had kids of my own in it at the time, all turned out safe, but the destruction was unbelievable to say the least, I don't think anyone who lived through it will ever forget it or the aftermath anytime soon. Now they say out of tragedy comes hope and survival....................I'm not sure, but out the Dereco might come the fact laws could be changed, turns out, even though the media won't report it and if they did they'd screw it so badly it wouldn't matter anyhow. But for the first time ever, many can find out what laws do in fact mean to them, starting with tree's, many found out really fast, tree damage is covered by insurance, tree removal isn't, so the owners had to bear that cost, they also are finding out, stuff done for free at the time, will be taxed on those who had it done and be collected later on down the road, so that whole massive tree cleanup to clear city streets, increases taxes over decades to recoup those costs, [who would have ever seen that coming] and lastly, those laws in place in many area's, namely to replace tree's once they are removed, might have some stiff opposition when the homeowner who couldn't afford it, had to pay tens of thousand of dollars to remove the old destroyed trees just two years ago from their property, not to mention all the damages to their houses the tree's caused that weren't covered by insurance, many are also finding out insurance doesn't cover 100 percent of the damage, [apparently its a shock to some if not most] Now the city wants them to pay to replace their trees, or be given more trees to plant back?? and basically orders them to put back..........yea that might not be going too well at the moment. Right now in my state, in many cities I don't think tree huggers are being rallied behind at the moment, matter of fact, I think my state is kind of being avoided by them at this time and people want the laws changed, to make it the property owner decision IF they want trees planted back at all. Big government of all kinds can single out a few at a time and make examples of them and force action against them, but when it comes to the masses, maybe not so much, those masses vote and right now, their not happy and even though they may have the right to be upset, I hope they all have to obey the laws they voted in themselves and shut up about it obey those laws, THEN change those laws back. Time will tell how this goes, but right now while there is controversy going on within the state, many are using it to their advantage and rightfully so. I can't discuss politics, but laws are not really politics, they are in place and things we are supposed to obey and observe and right now, those laws are really being talked about locally and many are upset over a whole raft of issues, starting with tree's and their definition and exactly who has the right to do what and who should or shouldn't be allowed to make that determination. As they say time will tell in the end, but for the first time in over 30 years, many can now understand for themselves what I've been trying to tell them all along, it might be nice to tell others what to do, but kind of sucks to be told by others what your going to do or else, especially when money is tight, and things are not going too well for you the way it is, you know, pretty much life in general. I know other areas deal with hurricanes, but things are designed to withstand some of those winds, my area has never seen those prolonged wind speeds before and virtually nothing was designed to take it, and they failed miserably due to that fact. Now the upside is, maybe some of the codes will be updated to help in later events, we'll see, again maybe some good can come out of a disaster.
