Why are forests important?
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When I was about 9 years old, I began hearing about Rachel Carlson’s book, Silent Spring, which had just come out. This book demonstrated that humans, through their actions, could damage the natural world to the extent that it could literally and figuratively be silenced. It had not occurred to me before that the natural world, which I deeply loved, might not always be there, at least not in a relatively healthy and intact form. I started to imagine a world without trees and forests, and said to myself – I cannot live in that world.
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I began to understand how important trees and forests are on many levels – including in some ways I could not express and to some extent still cannot fully express.
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We, at The Forest Advocate, are inviting whoever feels so moved to write 1-5 sentences expressing why forests are so important. The focus could be environmental or ecological, or it could be more poetic or metaphysical. We would like to create a word collage of excerpts from your writings for our next forest update, and also include some of them in their entirety on The Forest Advocate website. You can email what you have written to info@theforestadvocate.org. Please include your name, unless you prefer to contribute anonymously. We may do very limited editing for cohesiveness.
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We would also love to receive some forest photos that you find uplifting and/or beautiful – examples of what we are preserving for the upcoming generations. Please include who took the photo and the location, and only send photos that The Forest Advocate has permission to use on the website, and can crop if necessary. We will credit you. The Forest Advocate is entirely not-for-profit, so our only purpose for requesting writing and images is to appreciate forests and to help us all get more in touch with the deeper purposes and necessity of protecting and preserving forests.
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The Forest Advocate website will soon have a new homepage menu dropdown called “Forest Appreciation.” In this section of the website, we plan to include a selection of the writing and photos that are sent, so they can be enjoyed at any time.
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Our intact forests are not as sick as land management agencies often maintain. There is still much healthy intact forest left, so let’s appreciate that nature can undertake the transition to a drier climate and still survive and be healthy – and we can be allies in helping to protect and preserve forests. Our forests have the right to exist and thrive.
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I recently wrote an article, “Forest Management: The Words Matter,” about the language that is often used by forest management agencies and the media concerning forest cutting and burning project analysis and planning, which often obscures the real issues. A lack of a realistic and ecologically appropriate use of language concerning our forests creates unnecessary damage to both ecosystems and communities. Such damage takes away from what many of us cherish about forests — that forests demonstrate an intrinsic structure, balance and beauty that we can emulate and be supported and inspired by.
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