Forest Is…
Forest: a bunch of trees. A product. A profit source for shareholders. A place where something useful might be built.
Forest: a living community of interconnected lifeforms, above and below ground, that breathes oxygen, captures and stores CO2, communicates across distance and shares nutrients within a community of tethered trees and shrubs; an evolving habitat and nutrient-rich shelter for birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians; a generator of topsoil and sponge for holding and slowly giving back water or holding it in place until it can percolate into the soil and rock groundwater below.
Our generation is in the midst of deciding which of these definitions will turn the engines of our economy with relationship to wooded places, public and private.
Civilizations past have disappeared after abusing their forests. Our generation is on the verge of making the same mistake in a matter of a few decades and around the globe. This could be The Big Oops.
FOREST and CIVILIZATIONS
Why Did the Mayan Civilization Collapse? A New Study Points to Deforestation and Climate Change | Science | Smithsonian
Amazon Deforestation, Once Tamed, Comes Roaring Back – The New York Times
The Rise and Fall of Civilizations  | UCSD.edu
“Just as has been documented for many past civilizations, the inevitable consequences of our current lifestyles will be societal collapse accompanied by tremendous human suffering. The difference between past civilizations and ours is only quantitative: this time, resource depletion is occurring on a global scale.”
Forests Precede Us, Deserts Follow | Collapse of Industrial Civilization
When forests aren’t really forests: the high cost of Chile’s tree plantations
Deforestation and Its Effect on the Planet  | NatGeo
New Deforestation Hot Spots in the World’s Largest Tropical Forests — Medium
False Forests | Mother Jones
Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.
Awareness is growing. Keep at it.
I was surprised to read how much you had turned your photo into art. At first glance it looked unaltered!
I like your current theme. All of this needs to be said. I’m so happy you are doing this.