Got it bass-ackwards, again. The only real question is whether logging can tolerate conservation and whether there is a role for conservation at all.
Is there a role for logging in ensuring the future of the world’s tropical forests and their rich diversity of plants and animals? For many this idea is absurd, because timber production achieving conservation goals have long been viewed as incompatible opposites. “Loggers” were tarred as planet plunderers, “greenies” were branded ignorant idealists, while researchers found themselves caught between warring factions with little interest in data from outside their own views and experiences. Sadly, this myopic and highly polarised view of preservation versus production rarely helps save vulnerable landscapes. Fortunately these views are changing.
Finding outcomes that offer real improvements for conservation gains depend on recognising some myths and acknowledging the dynamic nature of forests. Many people, especially in Australia, generally imagine all “logging” as broad-scale clear-felling. However, timber harvesting takes many forms, and large-scale clear-felling is at one end of a broad spectrum. In well-managed forests, foresters seek to harvest in an ecologically-appropriate way. Generally, clear-felling is appropriate only in forests that are naturally adapted to major disturbances (such as Australia’s wildfires). At the other end of the harvesting spectrum, single-tree selection is appropriate in forests that evolved with small-scale disturbance (such as many species-rich where most trees die standing and finally collapse from decay), and where seedlings tolerate heavy shade.
The main difference between forestry and agriculture is the time scale involved. Eventually all arable land must be managed carefully and expertly to maximize the long-term availability of resources for human use. Unfortunately, this requires planning on the scale of decades, while the attention span of the average human who claims to be concerned about the environment is a scant 12 months. It is all they can do to remember back a single summer or winter, while trees develop slowly and are not ready for harvesting for a decade or more.
If the activists continue to have their way, we will not need to worry about forest management. The fires in Colorado are just the start. When the real fires start, over 4 million acres of forest will burn and it will never recover in the life time of anyone currently alive on Earth today.
Sorry Randy, thai’s not quite accurate. It was the US Forest Service that made it official policy that no fire be left to burn itself out.
It was only a few years ago that it became generally recognized that fire is a natural force in the ecosystem, and that the plants had adapted to endure it without lasting harm.
By then, fuels had accumulated to dangerous levels.
But even after a catastrophic fire event, the system will recover much faster than you would think.
Check out the history of the fires at Yellowstone National Park.