Homer Bound:
An Account of My Solo Travels to Homer, Alaska in a 1966 VW
Westy Named Clara
September/October, 2009
A Few Unsolicited Comments I'd Like to Make Concerning
Logging
My realization that the people of British Columbia continue to be
faced with the tragedy of a continuing deadly infestation of pine
bark beetles softened my anger at the heavy-handed logging
reminiscent of that continuing in California, Oregon, Washington,
and many other places. Like the beetle infestations that are
being fought elsewhere - the spruce-bark beetle kill in Alaska,
and the Asian longhorned beetle destroying hardwoods in New
England, and many others, the methods required to combat these
voracious tree-killers are draconian by necessity. What is so
shamefully sad is that part of the reason these insects which are
part of the normal cycle of life have become scourges is the
effects of global climate change, and that, whether you are aware
enough to admit it or not, is something that we as humans DO have
a hand in, despite idiotic claims to the contrary. So it softened
my anger only a little, and not for long, as I realized that the
aggressive logging practices predated the beetle scourge, and the
millions of dead trees were being used as an excuse by industrial
logging operations to open up new roads, clearcut great swaths of
land, silt up streams and rivers and basically wreak havoc on the
forest and its denizens, citing “forest
rehabilitation” as reasoning, and eliminating any chance of
the ecosystem to regain its own balance. There is a "get it
while the gettin's good mentality involved. It is of concern,
you see, because "salvage" logging is overdone and
misunderstood, and as a term, twisted and misused. There are spin
doctors and out there that are NOT in the business of making sure
we don't lose the natural world to industrialization and
worse, or that said industry is sensitive to the environment and
the things that live in it and depend upon it, including us. They
want our money, and will stop at nothing to get it. These are
evil people. Sometimes, though, the people who cause the most
problems through their actions are those that think to
“play God” by “helping nature”, and
again, years later, the results prove that they know less than
nothing, and that their efforts helped nothing and no-one
… excepting, perhaps, themselves, and only for the time
being, which is most of the reason that logging is done in the
way it is done ... because in the short term, it makes money.
True "stewardship" of the forest means doing more than
paying lip service to the term, and understanding that anytime a
resource may seem to be inexhaustible, you might want to think
again, for it is a certain madness that you are succumbed to -
that human trait that allows us to focus only on what is most
dear to us, and if that be money, then nothing else matters.So, what do YOU use as motivation for your actions?
Perhaps it should be considered that there is nothing wrong with going onto the woods and felling trees with which to build a shelter, be it cabin or house. Felling the trees you need onsite creates the clearing in which to build. Logging as a profession, to provide timber products to those in need elsewhere, can be done sustainably, but not so much under the current definitions of that term. Unfortunately it doesn't make a lot of money to do so. The big logging companies are definitely in it to make money ... they are NOT your local volunteer fire-prevention crew! Quite the contrary!
So-called "selective" logging can mean such things as taking all the good trees and leaving only the stunted, twisted ones with the bad genes, or taking all but the hardwoods, or just "selecting" all the currently marketable (big, tall, straight, mature) trees and leaving the younger one which will be harvested when they are older, twenty or so years from now. And the word "salvage" in reference to logging is generally a misnomer, used to imply waste, and we all hate waste, don't we? Who cares if the forest will not be able to recover as it should after a natural fire? Perhaps, you think, the fire was not natural? It was fueled by trees that should not have been there? Do you truly think that we humans are superior to the other living things on this planet, and that our fates are not tied to theirs? Perhaps you believe the term "over mature" or believe that some bearded God put us on this earth to make sure that the forests were logged? I thought not - you would be most foolish to believe THAT! But that's what the logging guys want you to believe, since without your faith in their words, you might not be convinced to drop YOUR money into their plate when it comes around, and as long as they hold your attention on the sacrificial forests that burned as an example, you might not notice the sacrilege that is going on in the hills that are YOUR true holy land. Are you content to sit back and let short-sightedness and greed cause the ultimate demise of many entire species? History will not look kindly on the generation that had the ability to see, and to communicate, and to do something, yet chose not to act. Shame on us!
Since we all seem to use wood products in our lives, it stands to reason that perhaps it is not our use or our lives that create the problem, but the sheer quantity of us! This has been a known problem for some considerable time and now, just barely, is the topic of overpopulation coming into the mainstream of serious "Things to Discuss". Fraught with danger is this subject, for it touches on people's rights as people. It's funny, though. The general ratio between education and the amount of children produced is inversely proportionate. There are exceptions, of course. I am one! I barely got out of high school alive, yet I know enough to see that children would simply ruin my life, not to mention increase my "carbon footprint" if you want to look at it like that. Is it because education makes people less fertile, or is it that they realize there is more to life than having babies? One summation of the situation that I saw recently read: "The 'Green Mom of the Year' award is bestowed upon a sterilized woman with two adoptees." How eloquent is that? Probably more so than what I'm writing here, but there you go. I'm sure that this is not agreed upon by everyone, but really, how can possibly it be denied? So many of the world's problems are those of scale, would it not be better for everyone if "everyone" was fewer? It has been said that if every family who wanted to be a family, and was able to be a family, was self-limited to only two new children, then the population would decrease, and then stabilize. You will hear that while the population is greater (per square mile) in developing countries, yet that it is the industrialized nations causing the majority of the grief. This is probably true. With exceptions, of course. I'm not talking about the "developing nations", however. I'm talking about the world I see first-hand. If we are less densely populated, imagine what is going to happen as our own population increases! More ravaging of forests, more spreading of urban development, more destruction of wild places, and less and less of the resources we all take for granted. Look at the traffic you see every day, and tell me that you feel good about it. Right.
So the problem, unfortunately, is that "everyone" is too many, and showing no signs of slacking the rate of expansion. Stupid. Why is it that very few can see that you can recycle all you want, drive "green" machines, curb pollutants from industry, install efficient appliances and bulbs, and all that other wonderful eco-happy stuff, but if the population continues to increase, or even simply remain the same, the resources we've all been depending on will suddenly NOT BE ENOUGH! And no, before you start to tell me that there is plenty of SPACE at least, think of this: Since the Sixties, they have been issuing permits to hike in certain wilderness areas. This is what it takes to keep the individual's experience resemble something akin to hiking through wilderness. As in NOT seeing other people! The permit and lottery system is also required to keep these delicate wild areas pristine. The word for today: "Overrun." Consider this for a moment.
I'm not saying don't try to lessen your impact on the natural systems that support us, but that that is not all there is to it. Hopefully, doing such will allow us the time we need to figure out how to balance our population with the resources without simply using them up and destroying this beautiful place in the process! Remember - you don't normally see the full effects of all this money-grubbing ecosystem despoilment. They keep that hidden for as long as possible for a reason! Really, if you fully understood just how bad it all is, would you be sitting there on your duff doing nothing about it?
But more unfortunate is that when we are trekking around in our buses or on foot, appreciating the beauty that is left, the bits of wildness here and there, we cannot simply lose ourselves in the awe of it all ... we are reminded, at a time when we should be enjoying ourselves, that all is not right.
The time to act is NOW, right? Or should we all wait until the bitter end?
So what can be done? Lots of things ... this is a very incomplete list ... starting with educating yourself, your friends, children, and colleagues. Gently at first - no need to force receptivity! Live by example: Reduce, re-use, recycle. Consume less. Buy whole foods. Use re-usable shopping bags. Avoid plastic wrappers, bottled water, processed foods. Use paper products from recycled and reclaimed pulp - 100% if possible. Become a scrounger ... someone is surely throwing away what you are about to go buy! Consider helping others and yourself with their desires and needs through Freecycle and similar organizations. This helps reduce the demand for new product. Consider working closer to or from home! Think longer about going out to get something from the store ... coalesce your trips. Learn to be happy with what you have, not what you are programmed to want by advertisers! Look for ways to express your opinion to our representatives in government. These people NEED to know your opinion! Here are some links that will help you to get in touch, and will help you focus and express those opinions:
The Sierra Club
The Wilderness Society
Earthjustice (ecological law firm)
International Environmental Organizations
Wikipedia Article on Nature Conservation
Feedback!:
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Thanks for reading!
Gene Cornelius
mizamook@geemail dot com
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