[Malachai Constant]

It will surely be a mess come winter. Nice view of the old dump. The “ timber” stacked by the road looks like it might be suitable for fence posts or diapers.

[cascadeclimber]

My wife said, "It looks like they flayed the mountain." Yep.

[Randito]

WT3 Summit today

[Randito]

[JimK]

Looks not too unlike West Tiger 3 some 37 years ago.

[Randito]

Yep, and I suspect again around 2060.

[Kascadia]

We went up Sec Ln to RR grade and over to Cable and up a couple of days ago. Coming down, just off the top, we walked the 30 feet over to the WT3 trail with a clear view up to WT2. The only thing taller than 3 feet around WT2 was the tower and a couple of humongous earth eating machines. WT2 was razed down to the WT2 bypass (TMT) trail. It was eerily post apocalyptic.

[Kascadia]

[Randito]

[Kascadia]

[Randito]

[cascadeclimber]

They seems to have gone out of their way to break up the boulder I've been sitting on at the top of WT3 since 1992. And the silvered snag on which I've stretched my hamstrings thousands of times. Both of these things were destroyed after all the trees were down and the slash piles removed. I don't get it or the person I mistakenly spoke to up there who couldn't stop gushing about how "awesome" it is now. It turns my stomach that we are still denuding mountain tops like this when we know better and there are less harmful alternatives. And those myriad DNR signs about staying on trails to 'protect the environment' in similar forests...they mean nothing other than some narrow-minded, righteous fool wants people to use their rock-hard, over-switchbacked new trail. No trail I've ever seen in the Cascades anywhere, including alpine meadows, wrought anything close to the damage done atop Tiger (and over at Poo Poo and...). sigh

[Malachai Constant]

My language would probably get me banned. It just looks like wanton destruction for no good reason other than barely marketable timber. It almost seems like the local trail groups were offered compensation for “restoration” as they never raised a stink. Like CC I have only seen this sort of thing in remote places in Canada.

[treeswarper]

It will be reforested. The method is not new and has worked well in the PNW. We grow trees quite well on the west side of the state as long as the ground isn't paved over or built on. It is sustainable because it will be replanted and will have to meet stocking/survival requirements. Washington State has very restrictive rules to follow. Clearcutting and replanting is a hell of a lot better for the environment than the ever growing sprawl we have going in the west. Maybe some of you who are the most vocal about this might talk to a forester or silviculturist who was involved? You might learn a bit from that. Try learning instead of constantly bitching.

[Sculpin]

What a weird thread. So now I will tell you what I think, and maybe it will get even weirder! I think the biggest problem around here is how much time and effort it takes to get to alpine meadows and views. So people drive long distances and pile up at the trails that make for reasonable day hikes to views. A lot of gas gets burned! Folks here have pointed out that you used to be able to get panoramic views from the Tiger summits after earlier clearcuts. As those views have declined, so has the desirability of these trails, even as usage has stayed high due to a higher population. I think Weyerhauser did this primarily to create views for the public near to Seattle. The timber cost more to harvest than it is worth, right? Why would a for-profit company do that? I bet they make enough money off the leases for the towers that there is no financial penalty in the long run for keeping this land whether it produces timber or not. Maybe a tower operator informed Weyerhauser that the trees were starting to make the site less valuable. I bet they put up a couple of signboards that would make Treeswarper quite happy, all about what great corporate citizens they are and how important tree harvesting is to our general well being.