Environmental Outlook: "American Canopy" by Eric Rutkow
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-05-01/environmental-outlook-american-canopy-eric-rutkow
When Europeans first came to the U.S. as settlers, there were roughly a billion acres of ancient forests. America's trees have been under assault ever since. Westward expansion, industrialization, rapid population growth, the rise of the suburbs and various diseases have all exacted a toll. Today woodland acreage is down by about 25 percent - and much of it is populated with young trees. A new book tells the history of America through its trees. Like Dr. Seuss's environmental classic "The Lorax," it's a sad story, but one that's not without hope. In the next segment of our Environmental Outlook series - trees, forests and the making of a nation.
Guests
Eric Rutkow
attorney and historian.
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
I was thinking about the Ozone Layer this morning. Remember when that was THE environmental issue? It occurs to me that as we've stepped up our environmental diligence, the private sector has - artificially - denied/reduced jobs, diverting our attention from longterm, sustainability issues (for children/grandchildren) to short-term, hand-to-mouth needs. It is incumbent on those not living at a desperation-level to forward environmental diligence by demanding that those corporations - now valued by DC & the SuprCt more than actual citizens - are held to acting for the good of the land in which they make their profits. Citizens' taxes & sacrifices, over decades & centuries, created the infrastructure enabling American/int'l windfalls at the expense of our middle class & our American Dreams....NOT the latest Facebook / Twitter app. Pull your eyes off of 160- character thoughts, think & read what's happening to your/your child's future.
Misguided defeatism.
In Arizona the southern oak woodlands - several hundred square miles around Bisbee and Tombstone were decimated - eliminated by the mining companies in the 1800's. The single largest occupation during the mining boom in Bisbee - lumberjack. Few oaks remain. The town of Bisbee and the timber for mine shoring, fuel, and building materials were the oak woodlands. (Visit the Bisbee mine museum and see the timbers shoring up miles of mine shafts - oak. Judging from the rings on the timbers, these trees were VERY VERY large.
The rest of Arizona has been heavily deforested or "harvested" over and over. Wyatt Earp and his brothers owned one of the lumber mils in Prescott! Much of the Arizona we inherit today is the desert created by man from all of his "extractions" - cattle ranching, timber, and minerals.
One of the suggested origins for the name of Arizona - is from the Basque words for good oak - ari zona - they were the first lumberjacks in Arizona.
The importance of trees has always been a primary consideration in my life.
It has always irked me that people will spend so much water, time, and resources on growing a thick turf, and will cut trees to allow for the development of a 'greener yard'.
In your research, did you find the history or start of this emphasis?
Sad as the pillage of American forests is, we are nonetheless fortunate that many old trees remain. It's just that they're scraggly and were deemed unsuitable for timber when their counterparts were cut down. So even among private woodlands and national forests, a scattering of huge but homely trees still stand. In my view, these twisted, old giants with crooked trunks, lightening strikes, and other so-called "flaws" make woods walking still a thrill. I am a Michigander, and a lover of the Ottawa National Forest, where the "black swans of the woods" were saved from the saw by their homeliness. If I were a tree, I'd surely want to be an ugly one....
Well this show has reminded me of one of my favorite trees, a particular grey birch in Shenandoah National Park. I'm pretty sure it's been there since I started going to the park in the early 90's. I hope to go out there in a couple weeks and lie down under it and chill which I like to do. Trees and nature are a needed respite for me and I think are very healing. Losing these wooded areas that provide this is a very real price for some of the development that goes on.
See the Diane Rehm Show - July 2 2012 - where this middle class issue's covered by Jeff Faux ("The Servant Economy"). Perhaps Mr. Faux could tie this issue together for us all.
Like all living things, trees have a life span. They are a valuable natural and renewable resource that unfortunately, we are not taking advantage of. What is happening in our national lands is that the trees reach maturity and die.
There is a misconception that clear-cutting is bad when actually, the opposite is true. A professionally managed clear-cut eliminates soil compaction, establishes that the next stand can be pure, even-aged and healthy.
We could use this resource to our advantage by selling the resource to the many industries who make the many products necessary for our lives. The money could be used for some worthy goal like health care for all.
If nothing else the show reminded us that trees, are a resource and a needed competent of the fabric of life on this planet, and some how for generation after generation, trees, have lived and died and managed just fine without our help.
And they are one of my favorite photographic subjects to share with people.
A clear-cut harvest is counterintuituive to being the best method because initially, and for some years, it is ugly. Selective cutting is the worst method because soil is degraded by compaction and trees not cut are damaged and prone to disease and insect infestation. The tendency is to "high-grade" which is the term for taking the best trees and leaving the inferior ones. Selective cutting is the most expensive harvest method. About the only positive benefit is aesthetics.
Managed clear-cutting with controlled burns is enviromentally, the best method in every way including water and air quality.
A reading of Eric Rutkow's American Canopy cannot be appreciated fully without listening to Bryan Bowers sing Hugh Prestwood's wonderful song Bristlecone Pine. Bryan states in his liner notes ( 2006 Seattle Sounds ) for the CD: " I have been a "tree hugger"all my life, but the first time I ever laid eyes on a grove of Bristlecone Pines I was filled with an emotion that I can find no words to express.
These most ancient of all living things on earth distill the feelings of personal insignificance I've had when looking up at countless stars in the night sky to a new level.
Even if my life exists by comparison for only a brief flickering instant, I am thankful I got to look up at the night sky and ecstatic that I got to see and touch these trees.
As a third generation Tree Farmer I could not have said it better. What a great book and great song !
John D. Laskowski
Carsonville Tree Farm and PA Forestry Assn.
It is funny when people say they do not like plants. I say, well isn't your house made of wood? Are not your clothes made of cotton? Do you eat fruit and vegetables? Then they say, oh I never thought about it like that.
We as Americans always condemn other countries for their deforestation such as Brasil, but we have done far worse damage right here.
Thank you for writing this book.