I once attended a conference in Washington state and met some employees of the Washington Department of Natural Resources. Most western states owned and managed forests, but Washington owned more timber, and made far more money selling that timber, than any other state.
Knowing I was interested in old growth, one of the employees asked me, “Have you seen our giant western red-cedar on the Olympic Peninsula? It’s the largest western red-cedar in the world.” I told him I hadn’t seen it.
“It was part of a timber sale, but the company that bought the sale measured it and realized it was a world-record tree, so they left it standing. Another tree nearby was the world’s second-largest western red-cedar, but they cut it down.” Continue reading
