Deforestation

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Many animals cannot survive in young forest (i.e., any forest that's planted and harvested on the typical industrial scale of 80, or more often these days, 30 or 40 years). This is to say nothing of plants, epiphytes and other kinds of life. Tree farms, without question, have their place. But they should not be confused with old-growth forest.

There's little doubt that the photos are of young trees; none of the stumps are huge.

You can gloss over the fact that only about 5% of the native forest in the U.S. still exists, but satellite data and ground surveys tell us that this is what's left -- if we are optimistic (those are facts). Personally, I hope we can keep at least that much of it (that is, of course my opinion).

Just to toss my political 2 cents in. I like trees. No question that we need 'em. However, intelligent conservation and forestry does not necessarily mean logging-free zones. In CA, much of the problems with summer fires is the product of years of 'protect at all cost' fire fighting and anti-culling policy. Periodic forest fires allow cones to produce trees, but only if the fire is not the raging (hot) type produced in unnaturally dense areas (as produced by over-protection). Seems to me that to restore the natural balance of X number of trees per acre, there's a middle ground to be found with selective culling of older trees that is to everyone's benefit. It is not convenient to log in this manner, but it is relatively sustainable.

 

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Seems to me that to restore the natural balance of X number of trees per acre, there's a middle ground to be found with selective culling of older trees that is to everyone's benefit.

No question that decades of hyperagressive fire suppression has led to abnormal fuel accumulation and attendant difficulties.

Stephen Pyne and Roger Kennedy have written terrific, fascinating books about the subject. Highly recommended.

 

[tanel]

Wow, posted this right before going to sleep. Waking up and seeing this getting into such a discussion is nice!

First I'd like to state that I am in no way against logging. It is nessesary for us to have wood and for the health of the forest it is important to cut down dead or otherwise damaged trees.
But as already mentioned here- if someone going to cut down the forest it should be done selectively.

To give a more accurate view what happened there I should give a little background story to it:

The forest belonged to a forest wardens daughter. After her death it was given to a number of person who wasn't connected to the village nor the area where this is located.
About two years back a large are was deforested just few hundred meters from there. Owls that lived there never returned.
The trees shown on the pictures were young and I can't imagine what good are they for the forest-owner. They don't bring profit, they can't be used for building. Everything was cut just because it was more convenient to drag the logs out of the forest. Because the persons have no connection to the are and they don't live there- they don't concern themselves about the effects their action have.
In this case it is mostly about greed and inconsideration towards the local ecosystem.

Of course, wood is important for us. Without that we wouldn't be able to build homes, get warm etc.
But because it is so important for us we should have more respect towards forest and ecosystem. If man just abuses everything on this planet (witch we do) then the future seems pretty damn dark place. Push the planet far enough and it will push back.

Nice work there, tanel. Perhaps you can start a photography project with the conservation agency of your country. Or maybe start your personal project documenting the logging activity in your country.

About 50% or Estonia is covered by the forest. While it might seems that deforestation shouldn't be a problem, the lack of knowledge about forest is a problem. And that can lead to a sad results.
I was thinking about stating this kind of project, to document this subject but I haven't decided yet. I know that it haven't been covered nor documented photographically here before.