Not Chipper

In the 1970's your humble blogger worked as a junior analyst for a timber company. At the time the forest products industry was at, er, loggerheads with environmental groups that wanted to expand the national parks and halt logging activity. The environmentalists won, and today the California timber harvest is but a shadow of its former self.

A conversation from those days: one of our executive vice presidents sat next to a Sierra Club officer on a return flight from New York. The Sierra Club person was extolling the beauty and majesty of forests. Our man's contribution: "The most beautiful tree is one that's lying on its side." (I don't know what was said, if anything, after that.)

What recalled that tale: Here’s where California Christmas trees go to die

(Chronicle photo)

the [Fish and Wildlife] department’s “fish improvement shop” in Yreka (Siskiyou County) will sink 200 or so old firs and spruces into state-managed waters.

It’s a move, ecologists say, that will create valuable fish habitat — and boost fishing, too...

Bass fishing (Outdoor Life)

any sort of sunken wooden object — from manzanita plants to huge pines — is appealing to fish. They lay eggs and nest underneath downed branches, then feed on the smaller creatures attracted to the security and shade of the structure. A large downed tree, according to the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, will degrade over the course of several hundred years and in that time attract a whole community of fish, with 15 or so species calling the thing home at any given time.

Even greens applaud these trees that are lying on their side.