Piles of wood waste in the foreground is from the
peeled logs being sorted and stacked mostly bound for Asia.
The cone in the background is the new
Nippon Paper Industries Biomass Cogeneration Power Plant that
burns the wood waste providing power and steam for the paper mill
and the surplus electricity is sold.
This power plant replaces the power that was once produced
by the Elwha Dams that were torn down to restore salmon runs.
People come up here to visit Olympic National Park.
They can’t help but notice the logging activities.
They tell us how ugly the clear cuts are as they drive through.
Clear cuts are where they strip every useable tree from a timber tract.
They do look bad and they are ugly for awhile.
Come back in ten years you won’t be able to see that clear cut
because the trees are replanted within a year and they grow fast.
But what they don’t see is when the timber comes out of the forest
it is opportunity and family wage jobs.
It turns into lumber, paper products, and for export.
It’s all regulated and studied for maximum production and
environmental awareness.
So everything is not as it appears.
The trees come back!