Under the right circumstances, taking your dog out for a short walk in the forest can be very satisfying. Along our nearest forest road, the forest has been thinned. Thus you can actually see into it for a couple hundred yards.
And there is certainly nice stuff to see: grass, flowers, wildlife, sharp ravines, and large snow-capped mountains in the distance. Normally, you can't see any of this -- you just see a wall of bark and needles about 20 feet from your face.
You feel something else, something wonderful: a breeze can actually blow through the forest. Even a 10 mph breeze keeps you cool and brushes off some of the bugs. Bugs have not been a big problem for me, much to my (pleasant) surprise.
The goodies of a thinner forest are the reason to aim for ponderosa forests, but the ponderosa altitude-band seems pretty narrow to me in the inland Northwest. Most of the forest is thick spruces and firs. They are magnificently tall, though. I can't help myself from looking at these tall straight trees and thinking, "God meant for this tree to be a log."
Considering how expensive lumber is, you would think that more thinning of national forests would be normal policy. But I am too lazy to look into the politics of forest management policy. It is probably 10% economics and science, and 90% Green theology. I am not a wildlife manager, but simple observation of these thinned forests suggests they are good for wildlife.
So it makes no sense to concern myself with it. Let me just soak up an occasional lucky place.
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