Colorado Logging

In the 1870s and 1880s with the harvest of railroad ties and other products for construction of the transcontinental railroad, logging began in the ponderosa pine forest of the southern Colorado Plateau. Starting in the 1920s, chainsaws, logging trucks, and bulldozer made it much easier to harvest on stepper slopes. Below is a picture taken in 1904 of the big pines.

In the 1940s-60s, road building dramatically increase in the Colorado Plateau and the West. To insure that the timber supply would last, harvesting large trees were reduced by distributing the cut to two or more entries. This meant that only 1/3 to 2/3 of the available harvesting area was allowed. Ultimately, "stem density increased while tree size and age decreased."

Once the 1970s and 80s came around, timber management practices continued to increase the "even-aged management." This focused on the visual quality, wildlife, and riparian zones and water quality. They wanted to make sure that they were not moving too fast, thus destroying the animals and wildlife.

In 1969, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEP A) was passed along with the FLPMA, Federal Land Policy and Management Act which restricted many management activities in federally-administered forests.