Tree Farms and Forests

I am pro-forests. . .at least the naturally occurring kind.

In my part of the United States lumber is a big industry and as a result there are many "tree farms." Tree farms are just another form of totalitarian agriculture, but receive lots and lots of credit as being "green," and good, and wonderful, because hey, they're trees!

If you've never been to one, this is what they consist of:

The owner of a large portion of land will use bulldozers to obliterate the forest and vegetation from the allotted land, and burn all the detritus. Then the farmer will plant pine seedlings, all identical, in long, long, very straight rows a short distance apart. Then fire trenches will be dug around the "tree farm" so that the underbrush can be burned off every so often. The trees grow until they're tall enough to harvest, and then the process starts over.

The end result is a forest consisting solely of canopy. No undergrowth, just pine needles, and sometimes those are harvested too, so sometimes just bare dirt. Not a very welcoming forest environment. Especially compared to the plethora of life it replaced--the variety of oak trees, pine trees, cottonwood trees, shrubs, etc. The local animal population is severely stunted as well, by the initial loss of their forest, and the continuing lack of hospitality given by the trees maintenance. A few species flourish in this new "forest," but no where near the abundance of variety that existed before. It is a sad and boring forest, a depressing sight, and while better than concrete, it is not something I am for.

The tress may be producing oxygen, which I'm all for, but I'd much rather have a natural southeastern rain-forest. Unfortunately, these tree farms are going up daily where I live, and will continue with our unceasing consumerism. I seriously doubt that 50 years from now any natural forest will exist in the southeastern U.S. except for those in parks.

I am against this type of forest.

I am for natural forests, diverse forests, inhabited forests. I grew up exploring them, forests where bears, bobcats, deer, turkeys, coyotes, owls, woodpeckers, tortoises, alligators, snakes, and many other species lived.

They're disappearing, and it is one of the most depressing things in my life. Most of the forest I spent my childhood in has been plowed under for a subdivision, the rest for cattle fields. The swamp behind my parents house where I once went fishing is choked with refuse from a local farm, and no one cares.

I love forests. I seem to be the only one.