TREES OF LIFE:FORESTS IN PERIL
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February 16th, 2015

2/16/2015

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Efforts to reach people with my concerns for our remaining forested lands has kept us busy and time seems to pass all to fast. I really appreciate you taking the time to visit my website blog. I have been been encouraged by the number of visits. If you have any thoughts or comments please take the time to pass them on.
Iris and I have just completed a story of her Native American ancestry that can be traced all the way back to 1627. This was possible do to a marriage of a young Englishman to a Shawnee woman and his insistence that his family learn to read, write and cypher. It turned out to be more than a genealogy search as we have uncovered so much information about key individuals in Cherokee history as well as a deeper understanding of Native American culture.
Iris's heritage, has obviously had a strong influence on my scientific beliefs as to the management of our valuable forested lands. My personal beliefs however, are also driven by in depth observation during my 30 plus years as a professional forester. In addition to the length of service, I had the privilege of practicing my profession in 11 different states. The opportunity to observe several different forest characteristics and conditions as been invaluable. Despite the great differences in tree species and forest conditions and characteristics that one will find throughout this continent, two things always remained the same. Forests are always a mosaic of communities and each community contains a multitude of relationships unique to that unit. These observations are what has lead me to the conclusion that scientific forest management practices are designed based on economic feasibility rather than the need to maintain or enhance health and diversity. I truly believe diversity is the most important goal which must drive the management of our remaining forested lands. It is the condition that provides the best opportunity to reduce the risk of catastrophic events such as wildfires and insect and disease outbreaks. This will occur, only, when the in depth power of observation is connected to the significant advancements that have been achieved in the science and technology of forestry!              

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February 04th, 2015

2/4/2015

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I have been encouraged by the efforts of a few groups and interests to become involved in dialog focused on what we need to be doing in the management of our remaining forested lands. Although these discussions are few and far between, it is encouraging to see any attempt to come together and find some degree of consent. This is the only way we can start re-focusing our management efforts on the needs of our forest communities, rather than the demand for the products we can take from the forests. For over 300 years we ignored the forests contribution to our human environment and focus only the the contribution the products from the forests added to our economy. The last 100 plus years we at least recognized there are limitations to what our forests can supply, and adopted the concept of "sustained yield", where we do not harvest more then we grow each year. This has become know as the "conservation-wise use" theory of management. This has been the basic principles of the science of forestry for the passed 100 years and still is. Corporations that own forested lands for profit, public forestland managing agencies and our academic schools of higher learning are relying on the principles of " conservation" developed in the United States during the late 1890's. I realize Gifford Pinchot defined forestry as "the growing of trees to produce the highest value products for the consuming public", but I believe current time demand a re-evaluation of our connectedness and dependency on our forests for survival of the human species. 
        Since my last article, my wife and I have been studying some of the Apache legends and cultural information from this area in New Mexico. We have also visited some very early Native American sites with an archeologist from BLM. One site was very early, probably in the 1200's. This research continues to demonstrate the requirement for these people to understand the detail and complexity of their surrounding if they were to survive. Their observations demonstrated their connectedness to all living creatures and plants, and alerted them to the multitude of relationships that existed within their complex environment. This is the sensitivity that must be linked to the our advanced scientific knowledge and technology for the management of our forests .  

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