snip
P. monticola in my experience are associated with far older stands:
100-600 year old trees often surround the ones I have seen, with
usually some Western hemlock, Whitebark pine, and even Engelmann
spruce present. But I _think_ it is more common in OR than in WA.

Both age and health may be a function of soil types in this case. Much
of the Puget Sound area of WA is geologically formed on a cobble base,
which allows for wonderful drainage, but also allows for little humus
soil build-up. I would expect more variety in soils for the Forks
area, but also a lot of steep slopes.

South of Forks, near Aberdeen, the late Gary Menser inoculated
Douglas-fir with French Black truffle (Tuber melanosporum), hoping to
get some truffle production. T. melanosporum requires soil pH of
8.0-8.7 to fruit. To date, no truffles have been found at the site.
And yet...examination of the roots shows T. melanosporum mycelium is
still present. If an area with higher soil pH and existing Douglas-fir
could be found, it might be possible to establish a whole new economic
crop from such areas. Since the pH would have to be kept high, it
would also provide an area where crushed oyster shells would be
welcomed and recycled.

Interesting. That's quite a different vegetation type than that on US
Forest Service lands near Forks. Western white pine occurs in both the
hemlock, sitka spruce subzone and pacific silver fir types. Old growth
sections of both have multi aged components - Red Cedar to 1000 years,
PSF to 500, WH to 350, etc. These stands are rare and usually well
protected.

A much larger age class is WH and DF in the 30-80 year age group. A good
deal of this was aerially seeded in the '50s. Some was planted by the
CCC. These guys were NOT aquainted with the benefits of truffles. These
are second and third growth stands, at all elevations, all sites, the
oldest of which in big burns. Some are pretty poor looking due to being
planted seriously off site. Much of this stuff really should be
converted from both a forest manager's and a restorationist's point of
view.

There are basically four log sorts left - two sorts of domestic sawlogs,
Chp&saw and pulp. Sawlogs have to compete with not only Canadian imports
but the combined product from US short rotation forests. Pulp logs, per
se, will be minimal since DF isn't used much and the utilization for C&S
can go to a 2" top. The only use I see for much of this is something
involving engineered chips - but that's not done here yet.

I suppose it's possible to make loggers work for even less than they do
now, but why does this seem like such a good thing to the present
administraion?