TREES OF LIFE:FORESTS IN PERIL
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March 25th, 2020

3/25/2020

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Maintaining A Balanced Environment
 
Our world is currently waging war against a catastrophic disease called corona virus, which has the potential to infect millions of people and to kill thousands, possibly millions, of individuals. The entire world was caught unprepared for this crisis, finding it difficult to provide the personal protective equipment and required medical supplies needed to protect health care workers and infected patients. It is frightening to realize we lack the information necessary to understand the intensity and duration required to gain control of this health issue. Just two years ago, the Administration eliminated the Pandemic Department of the Centers for Disease Control.
For decades biologists and ecologists have been observing and studying the concept of carrying-capacity of domestic livestock and a variety of wildlife species. Their observations have demonstrated that when over-grazing occurs, major damage to species environments takes place. Such things as soil erosion, stream bank deterioration and erosion, noxious weed invasion and loss of site productivity result. For centuries livestock grazing activities have utilized herders and cowboys to manage and rotate the herds on large grazing allotments; to prevent over use and damage to portions of the allotment. Biologist have also been conducting rangeland condition surveys to determine the number of animals we can allow on any given allotment or pasture. Since homo sapiens began domesticating certain animal species thousands of years ago, we have understood the necessity of managing the number of animals and the utilization of the forage, to protect the natural food sources.
In the late 1600’s, European settlers began arriving in significant numbers and bringing with them their domesticated livestock, most of which was non-indigenous to the North American continent. They found the land covered with forests and teeming with a wide variety of wildlife species. Things were about to change! Competition for the available forage would increase as more domesticated stock numbers increased. The total carrying capacity of the land can only shrink as more animals utilize the area.
By the late1800’s, biologists were developing concerns about shrinking wildlife populations, mainly due to over harvesting of predator species which killed their domestic animals and issues like the massive harvesting of the buffalo population for profit. Wildlife populations are considered the property and responsibility of the individual States. The States began establishing Departments of Natural Resources with Game and Fish Divisions responsible for management of states forest lands, wildlife and fish populations. The first steps were to restrict hunting and fishing activities by establishing seasons, requiring licenses and limiting harvesting numbers. Eventually, the competition for food between livestock and wildlife resulted in major complaints from farmers and ranchers. This raised interest in evaluating carrying capacity of wildlife habitat by biologists to determine population numbers for various communities. Studies and observations disclosed the fact, as population numbers and densities began to stress their environments, nature seems to intervene with disease or starvation to reduce numbers and density to bring back balance.
I worked on wild turkey study in southern Missouri with the State Game and Fish biologists in 1963 and 1964. The study disclosed how the type of bed rock the soils were derived from, influences the productivity of the site, thereby determining the vegetative growth rates and species diversity, effecting the carrying capacity of the forest community for turkeys. This information provided insight into how nature appears to maintain balance between food supply and population density.
Some years later, I worked on a wolf project in northern Minnesota with Dr. Dave Mech. Dave did his doctorate thesis on Isle Royale, Michigan under Dr. Durwood Allen. Dave’s thesis was interesting as it confirmed the natural process of population control in the wolf population over several years. The island is an enclosed environment with the wolves primarily food source being moose. The island supports a single wolf pack which tends to have an average of 22 members. The pack raises one litter of pups annually and although the number of members may vary by one or two each year, the pack size appeared to naturally remain within the carry capacity of the environment.
For years, we have been observing situations where non-human species have over loaded their habitat and nature has intervened to bring things back in balance with the environment. Natures actions and human efforts to control population numbers have been an acceptable practice, as our society has never considered assigning rights to non-human life forms. If they have no rights or value, apparently it is permissible for nature and humans to intervene in population control. What about the human species? Throughout history, we have observed numerous situations where human populations have destroyed their environment, and in some cases their populations have totally disappeared.
As I think about our current health issue, I am drawn back to situations I have observed with non-human species and natures intervention to attempt to bring balance to the environment. My studies and observations of the complexity of Creation, has revealed phenomenal processes that have been built into the evolutionary development of the Universe and Earth systems. Processes like; photosynthesis, transpiration, the significance of the changing of the seasons, connectedness of all living organisms and the necessity of diversity have been designed and incorporated into creation. Is it possible that a process, designed to maintain balance between life and Earth’s carrying capacity, was also a part of the creation plan? We are told Earth’s carrying capacity may be between nine and ten billion people, and our world population today is seven and three quarter billion. Are our requirements and desires stressing our planet’s limits? Humans have developed unbelievable intelligence in science and health, but are we really capable of controlling nature? Are we being challenged to better understand the complexity of Intelligent Design? We seem to have great power to destroy, but limited power to control the natural world!      



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March 11th, 2020

3/11/2020

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A JOURNEY TO UNDERSTANDING OUR NATURAL WORLD.
 
My college education provided the knowledge required to manage the renewable natural resources from the forests and the variety of silvicultural systems that had been developed for treating the forest communities. I learned the scientific names of the various tree species, how to read aerial photographs and survey land units, the variety of measurement systems for determining lumber volumes and the agricultural processes used to grow trees as a crop. I was ready to become a forest land manager, or so I thought! Just 2 months after graduation, I received a permanent appointment with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; and realized my education was inadequate and I was about to begin a long journey of advanced education based on observation and experiences. After thirty-four years, I was left with a successful career and many questions and concerns about the science I had dedicated my life to. I had achieved my personal goals, had a wonderful family with a wife that had provided the strength to succeed in my chosen career and retirement seemed to be the next step. I was not however, ready to forget about the concerns developed through empirical observations I had developed during my working years. Retirement offered time to analyze and study issues and concerns which required a much deeper understanding then I possessed at the time.
My first thoughts were with the scientific theory itself, but soon realized it was a people problem and the cultural values humanity had developed. I was still frustrated with the difficulty of understanding why issues and concerns were so complex, until I realized previous actions had failed to consider the connections our natural world shares with humanity. Everything is connected, from the smallest micro-organisms to the advanced human species. Decisions cannot be made on scientific knowledge alone, but require an in-depth discussion and understanding of the relationships and impacts that will affect living organisms. Past actions have actually resulted in the extermination of some species. Today, we have the power and knowledge to do the same for human beings. This is the concern that has led me to search for a deeper understanding of humanity’s connection to the natural world.
Philosophy and environmental ethics seem to offer at least part of the wisdom I have been searching for. Environmental ethics analyses human being’s ethical relationship with the natural environment. Science has taught us how to put humans on the moon, construct weapons of mass-destruction, remove fossil fuels from a mile beneath the surface of the ocean, fill the sky with satellites and the list goes on. The next thing will be the development of artificial intelligence to replace humans. All these great discoveries will accelerate the destruction of our natural world. What will all this advanced technology do to the mental and emotional stability of the human species? The answer is simply we, as human beings, will perish if we fail to constrain our demands we are placing on nature.
It may be acceptable for individual scientists to focus on developing new information about their specialized subject, but decision makers and managers are responsible for a much broader understanding of the impacts their decisions will have on humanity! A decision-maker must have access to scientific data, the ecologist’s understanding of relationships within the non-human life systems and the ethicist’s appreciation for the moral relationships of human beings to the values and status of the environment and non- human contents. Leave anything out and the future will suffer. Many of the concerns we have regarding the environment, are serious concerns because of the way they can affect human beings. This helps explain the major concern I have been focused on from the beginning, (our focus on profitability rather than the impacts on human requirements and their destiny)! In other words, an anthropocentric ethic claims that we possess obligations to the natural world for the sake of our individual well-being and prosperity. What about future generations? Some philosophers actually deny that human beings in the future have moral standing because they can give us nothing in return, and certainly non-human species have no standing based on biblical teachings. Maybe this helps explain our reluctance to change our life-styles and demands for the limited resources provided by Mother Earth! The fact is our actions will impact those who will exist in the future! Brian Barry (1999) has argued that our obligations lie with ensuring we do not prevent future generations their basic needs!
What does all this mean? It is apparent, my quest for a deeper understanding and appreciation for the value and necessity of our natural world has not concluded, even in retirement. My continued interest has led to philosophy and environmental ethics, which has provided insight into humanity’s relationship with the natural world and has provided considerable personal insight. I now see the responsibility of leadership and management requiring a much deeper knowledge base then had been defined before. A degree in forest science, or any natural resource science, does not prepare a person for a leadership and decision-making role in managing our natural world. The future of our human species depends upon our ability to radically overhaul prevailing philosophical perspective and ideology of the western society. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service must play a critical role in this overhaul effort, as forest management of our public forest covered lands, needs to set the example for managing our remaining forests worldwide. Forest science and academia must cast aside the concept of growing trees as crops and introduce new principles that amplify the availability of life sustaining elements required by humans and non-human species for the next generation of life! We must start by recognizing that as human beings we are not removed from nature, but are interconnected with it. Richness and diversity of life forms allow life systems to function, and humans have no right to reduce this richness and diversity for future generations! The foundations of the environmental crisis lie in the dominate ideology of modern western society, and demand a radical overhaul of this ideology! Do we live for today or do we have obligations to the future?     

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