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 .
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 .
