That may have been true of USFS 30 years ago, but as someone who bought log sales from USFS in the past, it’s just not the case in the PNW any more. Considering how much land USFS owns, they effective do not manage the land. I would be surprised if USFS applied some sort of management including hazardous fuels reduction (light thinning) to more than 0.1% of its land in WA in a year.

DNR on the other hand does have some set asides, but a lot of it’s land - maybe even most of its land is managed in a way that is similar to industrial timberland.

I think they use the phrase legacy forest because the term old growth doesn’t really apply to these forests. They are older than some, no doubt but in terms of the natural stand progression or “life” of a PNW forest they are still kinda young. Maybe like teenager or mid 20s if we are using a dog year analogy.

I think the phrase old growth has sort of fallen out of favor as the focus in forest conservation has moved to cultivating complexity rather than old trees

There’s merit to the argument that these forest shouldn’t be cut, but it is important to remember that USFS and WA DNR have set aside really a lot of land to be “wild”.

It’s fine, pretty boring for a young person.

I haven’t lived there, but I worked there for several years. The area around Shelton can be pretty nice and Shelton itself has decent shopping and a few alright places to eat. Living in Shelton would be fine, but not great in my opinion. I would rather live in the outskirts or some of the nicer (and often very nice) rural areas that surround it. There’s quite a bit of poverty and most of the neighborhoods aren’t great. It’s hard for me to believe it’s more dangerous than parts or LA or Chicago in terms of violent crime but there sure is a lot of petty crime and drugs.

Other than that, it’s just a really small town. It’s not too far to Olympia which is also small but notably much nicer. It’s also not far to the bremerton area which has a ferry to Seattle. Great access to the Olympics.

Aren’t they going to fine you for shit like keeping your garage doors open for too long and not bringing in trashcans fast enough when you are at the hospital with childbirth?

Hell ya, I would send them a bill.