Forests: Tend Them or Lose Them
To go over this again (without apologies), the reason that the recent Johnson-Franklin testimony to Congress [here, here] is important is because the authors call for treatment of old-growth forests in order to prevent their destruction.
Without aggressive management on a landscape-scale, our old-growth forests will be lost to fire, insects, and/or disease. So says the Father of Old Growth, Jerry Franklin.
The authors’ point-of-view is the opposite of that of the No Touch, Let It Burn, Watch It Rot anti-forest crowd. It is the opposite of the Burn It Today, Black Forests Are Beautiful, Whoofoo Everywhere crowd.
It is the opposite of the Mother Nature Knows Best crowd.
The point-of-view expressed was that of Tend Them or Lose Them.
That’s a big deal, given the stature of the authors, and a big turnaround.
It might be best not to get hung up in the petty details of personality, or the exact treatment that’s best for each individual acre. Instead it might be better to recognize the general message:
Without human treatment, specifically restoration forestry, our old-growth forests will die out, most likely due to catastrophic fires, and will not be replaced.
With professional stewardship our forests have a chance; with abandonment to assured destruction they do not.
Forests: Tend Them or Lose Them
That’s the message.
