[Talk-us] Tagging National Forests

[OSM Volunteer stevea]

Eternal vigilance is what liberty costs.  I maintain that my forests are my forests.  Maybe a sign or current campfire regulations prevent me from collecting downed wood, but if I’m camping in a National Forest (and I’m a citizen or a national) I’m going to assume that is true until it is proven otherwise.  This is the Department of Agriculture’s land (mine, ours) that I’m on.  Those fallen branches are mine, and will make both me and my tea warm, perhaps even hot if I care to go there.

Sure, contacting the local office of the national forest is the best, local, “today” knowledge.  But a national forest is a national forest is a national forest.

I am an adult am the owner of these lands, along with millions of others.  Impassable trails and starting a fire don’t scare me.

Go ahead and consider landuse=forest as useless, that will go down like the Hindenburg.

SteveA
California

> On May 10, 2016, at 7:43 PM, Jeffrey Ollie <jeff at ocjtech.us> wrote:
> I think that the landuse=forest tag as you describe it here is close to useless for the purposes of OSM. First of all, the areas that the US Forest Service (or similar state agency) allows timber to be harvested from is going to change, probably at least on a yearly basis, as the agencies manage the lands under their control. Second of all, the information on where timber harvesting is currently allowed may not be public information since it's part of a commercial contract with a private business (I could be wrong through). Third, that sort of information is probably of little use to the general public anyway since only those companies with the necessary permits would be allowed to harvest timber anyway.  And no, gathering up dead wood from the forest floor for a campfire does not count in my book as timber harvesting.
> 
> If you were planning a hike through a National Forest and wanted to avoid areas that were actively being harvested, you'd be much better off contacting the US Forest Service directly anyway as they'd be able to inform you about other issues with your hiking plans like recent landslides that made trails impassable, wildfires, etc.
> 
> -- 
> Jeff Ollie
>