Afghan Logging

Afghan Logging
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

We were driving back from (I think it was back and not to) one of the field offices and I noticed some cuts trees. The trees seem to have been planted here as they are most everywhere in Afghanistan (ok, that is a bit of a generalization since I haven’t seen any other areas apart from Kabul and central Afghanistan) packed as close together as possible. They pretty much just cut everything at once (instead of thinning and then getting even larger trees). In the states clear cutting also just cuts everything but normally the trees have been thinned (many years) beforehand.

The tree sizes here are respectable but I saw many places where trees were literally growing on top of each other forming a veritable wall (literally, close enough that you can not squeeze through). It has occurred to me that considering the level of technical sophistication (or lack there of) that larger trees might not be manageable, in many rural areas people just don’t have access to anything apart from handsaws for cutting and donkeys for transport. I do wonder though if that is the reason why they don’t bother growing them any larger (something tells me that no, that is not the reason).