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Information Page

Old Logging Photos
Featuring Snags, Down Logs, and Wood Decay

Source:  Library of Congress,
Public Domain Images (with original captions)

We offer this gallery of historic photographs to illustrate how our knowledge and appreciation of the ecology of snags, down wood, and fire have changed over the decades.

We leave it to you to compare historical logging practices and these original photo captions, with current logging practices and current perspectives of the ecological roles of snags, down logs, and wood decay.

Click on the thumbnails to see larger images.

Bad logging Mt Hood NF.-- A natural protective watershed has been destroyed by unscrupulous logging companies. Mount Hood National Forest, Oregon. 1936 June.	Brush piles.-- Brush piled on cleared forest for burning, Bitterroot National Forest, Montana. 1909-1932	Cutover land Mt Hood NF.--Cut-over land in the Mount Hood National Forest, Oregon. 1936 June.	Cut and burned land Mt Hood NF.-- Cut-over [i.e., burned-over] land in the Mount Hood National Forest, Oregon. 1936 June.
Cutover land, Mt Hood NF.-- Cut-over land in the Mount Hood National Forest, Oregon. 1936 June.	Cutover land, Mt Hood NF.-- Blackened stumps of trees and ugly snags cover the slopes leading to Mount Hood, Oregon. 1936 July.	Felling the big tree.  Between 1880 and 1899.	Logging a big load.  Between 1880 and 1899.
Log pile, Cowlitz.-- Logging holdings of the Long Bell Lumber Company, Cowlitz County, Washington. 1941 Oct.	Logs wasted in the woods.-- Logs left in the woods by logging operations, illustrating the great waste of timber accompanying private ownership and exploitation. Wisconsin. 1937 May.	OR NF fire.-- Oregon National Forest. Effect of fire on an old burn. Before fire there was a dense cover of green brush. Previous fire was about ten years before between 1909 and 1932.	Spruce and fir gone.--  A year ago a fine stand of spruce and fir covered this hillside. A gypo logging outfit cleaned it off, leaving only charred stumps and debris. Near Siltcoos, Oregon. 1936 June.
Stump ranches.-- Stump ranches spring up in the wake of the logging company and try to wrest a living from a few acres of forest land. Coast Ranges, Oregon.  1936 June.	Cutting old snags on the Tillamook Burn, Oregon.  ca. 1941	Tillamook gyppos.-- Loading logs onto truck for transportation to mill. Gyppo logging operations, Tillamook County, Oregon. The small, independent loggers are called gyppos.  1941 Oct.	Yachats fire & logging.-- Logging and fire have devastated this once virgin stand of fir, spruce and cedar along the Yachats River, Oregon.  1936 June.

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