Lumber Laws

Today, I’m going to be talking about the laws on restricting the timber industry. Right now, some states have laws the require the timber industry to protect the environment and replant the land. These laws state, “…replant the site within two years and it needs to meet green-up standards by six years…by state law we are required to leave two live trees standing and two downed trees per acre of clear cut harvest.” Now, that may sound nice, but I see two problems with these laws. The first problem is that only some states have these restrictions. Others might just let timber companies go to town and cut down as may trees as they like. That’s why all states need to have these laws, so that we don’t end up without any trees. The second problem is that I feel that the laws are not strict enough. It gives the companies two years to replant the trees. Now, it’d be great if the companies replanted the trees right after they cut them down, but say they don’t. What if they’re lazy, and they replant it right before the deadline, a week or two before. This may seem fine, but it’s not, because that’s two years that the trees could have been growing, and they might already be half grown by then. But just because some companies were lazy, now it has to keep growing for another two years. Now, I’m not saying all timber companies would do this, but it’s still harmful if one or two do. That’s why it should be cut down to a more reasonable number, like 3 months. That’s plenty of time to replant all the trees, and they’ll have another year to grow than if they had been planted after two years. And another thing. We shouldn’t leave only two trees standing. We should keep at least like ten, so that it isn’t a barren landscape. We don’t want this,                                         we want this.                                                                           So from an environmental, conservation, and sustainability perspective, I believe that firstly, all states should have laws restricting the cutting down of trees, and second, the laws should be restricted further so we can get more trees faster and leave more behind. That’s all for now.