TREES OF LIFE:FORESTS IN PERIL
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January 30th, 2019

1/30/2019

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                                                   I’m Just A Tree-Life Depends on Me

 Our children’s book is finally available from Amazon Books and we are anxious to get it out to the schools and the public. The book is unique, as it focuses on the many element’s trees provide to support life, including human life, on our planet. The tree is explaining to the children the complex connections people share with trees, which sustain life on Mother Earth. One example is, trees provide much of the life-sustaining oxygen we require as they convert carbon dioxide into food for themselves. Others include the storage of carbon dioxide, the purification of our water supplies, prevention of soil erosion and impacts on weather conditions.
The book is different as it presents a top-down education process by first introducing the reader to the problem and then providing the scientific evidence required to understand the relationships and connections we share with trees. This new approach introduces the reader to the link between scientific information and the human elements, so the child begins to appreciate the importance of the natural world. The book will introduce educators to the importance of linking human requirements to our expanding scientific data base. In the past, I have had the opportunity to participated in environmental education classes studying biology, forests and trees. The students were learning about the biological science relating to trees, but were not receiving information on the complex relationships trees share with other life systems. If we are truly interested in the future of our planet, we must establish a strong understanding and appreciation for the natural world in today’s youth.
Although our youth are critical, I am also concerned about the education of our future forest scientists. We must start by educating forest scientists in forestland management rather than natural resource management. The wealth of a country is not measured by its gross national product but by the number of secure, wise and generous people and the health of its environment. Our focus must be on maintaining the important elements that support life systems on earth instead of managing the resources from the forests. It is not enough to think of Earth as a storehouse of natural resources, our responsibility is to understand the complexity of the natural world and the relationships we share so we can participate in the transformation which is still occurring. The expanding world population is placing unbelievable pressure on our remaining forestlands and the predictions by the US Census Bureau, suggest major concerns for the future. Continued loss of forest cover is one of the top environmental issues we face worldwide. Appling PRESERVATION principles will continue to exacerbate the problem as will current sustained yield principles defined by Gifford Pinchot’s CONSERVATION concepts. The future requires scientists with a strong understanding of the importance of our remaining natural world and the knowledge to apply the tools and techniques that will enhance the health and effectiveness of our remaining forest communities. Accomplishing our stewardship responsibilities for the natural world will require intensive management, particularly of our remaining public forested lands. 
Education is essential in developing a population which appreciates the critical importance of our natural surroundings and the required adjustments we all need to participate in. Our book is one small effort intended to highlight the important required changes. Starting with our youth whose minds are open, appears to be the best way. Renowned Harvard Biologist, E O Wilson states, “While most people around the world care about the natural environment, they don’t know why they care, or why they should feel responsible for it.” This attitude must change!  Failure to act will result in unacceptable impacts on Earth causing the potential loss of 80% of all life. Dr. Wilson points out, “The organisms most affected are likely to be the larger and most complex, including human beings.”
We stay focused on what we do can to help, but we need you to join and create a Nationwide movement to make the changes required for a more desirable future! We plan to reach out to public school systems and present programs to highlight the new book and a different way of introducing our youth to the natural world. I’M JUST A TREE – LIFE DEPENDS ON ME!  ALL THINGS ARE CONNECTED FOR NOTHING IS ITS SELF WITHOUT EVERYTHING ELSE! THE EXTENT OF DIVERSITY IS THE MEASURE OF PREFECTION! THE RESTORATIVE POWERS OF OUR NATURAL WORLD WILL BE REALIZED ONLY WHEN WE ARE ABLE TO USE THESE SAME POWERS WITHIN OURSELVES! THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON WHAT EACH OF US ARE WILLING TO CONTRIBUTE!   
               
                      
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January 17th, 2019

1/17/2019

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NATURAL WORLD CONNECTIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS 
 
After finishing our evening meal, Iris and I were relaxing on the sofa and observing the small woodlot just behind our back yard. Fresh snow had fallen which enabled us to detect the detailed conditions of the interior of the woodlot, beyond any of our previous observations. Iris pointed out the decadent conditions of this small forest community that were enlighten by the lack of leaves and new snowfall. We know the property owners and are aware their desire is to have this wooded area provide solitude for their home site. The woodlot is very old with one very large hickory tree that I am sure is well over 200 years of age. Many large hardwood trees have fallen and are decaying as they lay on the ground. The remaining eastern central hardwood trees are dense enough that the crowns, when leafed out, provide a closed canopy preventing enough sunlight to reach the ground for young seedlings to grow. Essentially, the community is a portrait of a natural stand approaching physical maturity without any management assistance from human sources. It is not a healthy condition, but it will gradually regenerate following the principles of preservation which will meet the desires of the property owners. There is nothing wrong with allowing this community to follow nature’s process of regeneration, but it is an example of how inefficient very old forest communities become without proper management to keep them healthy and yet maintain natural diversity. Our discussion led me to begin thinking more about the numerous relationships that exist within our natural world and Earth systems, and how interdependent and connected we are to every element within the universe. Dr. Thomas Berry wrote, “Our own future is inseparable from the future of the larger community that brought us into being.” Long ago it was suggested that, nothing is itself without everything else. Yes, everything is connected and humans are just one part of the life systems on Earth. To understand and appreciate the Earth community, requires the acceptance that all life has rights and to produce the wonderous world around us requires humans to understand the amazing sequence of transformations the universe has endured through creation.
Our connectedness to all life is evident through the abundance of relationships that exist within our natural world. “The relationships between plants and animals are overwhelming to the point one might think it had to be dreamed into existence,” Dr. Berry stated and went on to say, “relationship is a constant throughout the universe. “
Our connections and relationships with the natural world, provides evidence of the necessity for change in the management of our valuable remaining forest covered lands. Our expanding population and shrinking forest acreage will place continuously increasing pressure on the remaining forest communities. Simply, slowing the rate of deforestation and planting trees on abandon lands is not sufficient for the future. Understanding connections and relationships with the natural surrounding must provide the new focus for forest management. Berry states, “Our distorted dream of an industrial technological paradise must be replaced by a viable dream of enhancing human presence within the natural world and Earth.”  This statement suggests, we have a responsibility to manage the remaining forest communities so they are capable of providing the elements required to support life on our planet.  We must shift from our commodity-oriented goals to a focus on forest health and diversity. Berry wrote, “Our challenge is to move from a purely human oriented or personal salvation focus to one that embraces the universe in all its forms and recognizes our immersion out of the long evolution of the universe and the Earth.”
Our remaining forests must function at optimal levels which demands good health and we must remember that the extent of diversity is the measurement of perfection. The transition into the emerging Ecozoic Era will challenge the science of forestry, and demand a new set of principles that recognizes the connections between the knowledge of the scientific community and the human community requirements. The industrial revolution has been devastating on the natural world and science and technology cannot provide the desired future.       Dr. Berry states, “Not even the overwhelming evidence of the threats to life on our planet itself, have enabled our industrial culture to break free from the mythic commitment to progress. The tragedy is that our economy is being run by persons with good intensions under the illusion they are only bringing great benefit to the world and fulfilling a sacred task on the part of the human community. “ 
The opposing worldviews of science and religion are hindering our ability to implement our earthborn obligations we are both morally bound to share. It is time we join in a new approach that recognizes our common dependence upon the natural world and adjusts our actions and attitudes for the future.    Someone once said, “We will not save what we do not love and we will not love or save what we do not experience as sacred.” Are we capable of returning to the sacred relationship our ancestors and our native brothers and sisters shared with Earth? What we do to Earth we do to ourselves!  Earth does not belong to us, we belong to earth!      
 
 

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