[Vision2020] Idaho's massive checkerboard forest seen from the Space Station

[Kenneth Marcy]

Idaho's massive checkerboard forest seen from the Space Station


http://boingboing.net/2017/02/06/idahos-massive-checkerboard.html

/ David Pescovitz <http://boingboing.net/author/david_pescovitz> / 10:33 
am Mon Feb 6, 2017

      The squares in this landscape checkerboard appear to be the result 
of forest management. Similar patterns originated in the 1800s, when 
alternate parcels of land were granted by the U.S. government to 
railroads such as the Northern Pacific. Many parcels in the Pacific 
Northwest were later sold off and harvested for timber.

     The land shown here is now managed for wildlife and for timber 
harvesting. The white patches reflect areas with younger, smaller trees, 
where winter snow cover shows up brightly to the astronauts. Dark 
green-brown squares are parcels of denser, intact forest. The 
checkerboard is used as a method of maintaining the sustainability of 
forested tracts while still enabling a harvest of trees.


Ken


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20170207/66d38d7c/attachment.html>