Tour Guide Why you should take a western forest and mill tour

A N AVOWED preservationisr, .CLwhose iob in Connecticut is to study and report on environmental issues, took his first step onto Oregon terrain in wide-eyed wonder: "I didn't think there were any forests like this left," he gasped. No, he wasn't gazing at a patch of old growth, but surrounded by miles of 70-year-old, second-growth Douglas fir so common in the area.

The astonished New England environmentalist wasn't the only one who learned a lot during a recent tour of national forests, private lands and sawmills in Northern California and Oregon. Decades of preservationist propaganda have created countless misconceptions about Pacific Northwest forests among much of the nation's population, including many of your customers and even your employees.

Tours allow participants to see what's going on for themselves, and ask why.

Various regional dealer associations occasionally co-sponsor forest and mill trips, allowing members to learn first-hand, and then educate others. Retail salespeople, said one sawmill employee, "are on the front lines. They're the ones who talk to the public."

Willamette Industries, Albany, Or., employs two full-time communications foresters who spend their entire summers giving forest tours to company employees.

Tours allow participants to see what's going on for themselves, and ask why. Most people just don't understand why the timber industry does what it does.

"What people want is what's here today forever," says Willamette Industries' Cathy Baldwin. They forget, she explains, that forests are alive and ever-changing, that trees come to life, grow and die.

"People think of forests as static, but they're dynamic," agrees one forester on the Willamette National Forest. "You can't just leave forests alone, because, first, people use, need and want wood. Second, it's a law that national forests must sell wood. And, finally, even unmanaged forests will still have disturbances like fire."

A century of fire suppression has turned timberlands into tinder boxes. Preventing out-of-control infernos requires active management, including logging that mimics the regenerative effects of a fire. Fewer timber sales also translates into fewer logging roads that can be used during emergencies by firefighters, less money for maintenance of existing roads, plugged up culverts, landslides, and other hazards.

Collins Pine, Chester, Ca., offers frequent tours of its facilities and forests, certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. "Forest management is a tapestry. Like any business there's a lot of science and art involved," says Larry Potts, v.p./general manager. "How we're doing things in Chester today is not the way things have always been done. Management is a learning process."

While Collins Pine's location and species mix allow them to harvest selectively, other areas are better suited to clear cuts. But while clear cut sites are not attractive, it is compelling to see an area that was clear cut a few years before, quickly regrowing.

A mill trip can show how the wood is turned into products, and the great lengths companies go to utilize dvery piece of wood.

"A tour lets retail dealers witness first-hand how the products they sell are harvested and manufactured, and better understand the environmental issues involved," says Frank Stewart, director of technical and product services for the Western Wood Products Association.

WWPA has been coordinating mill tours for about 15 years, but due to a recent organizational refocus and staff reductions, will only offer a single retailer tour each fall. Last month, WWPA showed dealers from MidAmerica Lumbermens Association and Carolinas-Tennessee Building Material Association forests and mills in Northern California and Southern Oregon.

Next September, WWPA will take members of Lumbermens Association of Texas, Oklahoma Lumbermens Association, Western Building Material Association and Mountain States Lumber & Building Material Dealers Association to Idaho and western Montana.

WWPA limits each group to about 80 people. Playing "part tour guide, part information source," it contacts the venues and works up the itinerary, while the dealer associations handle the money and details like food and lodging. lioht and nutrients, most became weakened, niaking them prime candidates for attack by the spiuce budworm and, perhaps one day, a devastating fire.

An added bonus is the relationships forged and strengthened during each trip. The tour, says Stewart, "creates a new, closer bond between producer and seller."