Page 24 - GLL test

“ ”24 Great Lakes Logging • Expo Edition 2025Continued from page 23
reaches sawtimber sizes, the quiet,
cathedral-like forest of whispering
Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved
pines can be therapeutic.
Another frequent objection is
for gods and poets, but humbler folk
the higher altitude perception that
“production” forestry is somehow
may circumvent this restriction if they
an abusive practice. Few things
could be less true. Providing wood
for society is an essential endeavor,
know how. To plant a pine, for example,
as wood is used in thousands of
products. Wood production not
one need be neither god nor poet; one need only
only has the lowest environmental
footprint among raw materials,
own a shovel.
it has multiple other public and
ecological benefits, much different
than that soybean field or a wood-
land subdivision. Wood is good.
Aldo Leopold
“A Sand County Almanac”
It is unlikely that any Lake States
wildlife or plant species has been
extirpated or gone extinct as a result
of forest management. Conversely,
there is a growing list of “species of
concern” that benefit from forestry.
The Kirtland’s warbler is a post-
er-child for these success stories.
Forestry is good for wildlife, as
well as for other values.
The major challenge in maintain-
ing red pine in our forest matrix
is the reforestation effort, and the
subsequent need for proper fol-
low-through. A forestowner must
have the desire and foresight to
see beyond their own lifespans,
and rely upon the dedication and
knowledge of the next generation.
Much of forestry is this way.
The best way to predict the future
is to create it, according to Abra-
ham Lincoln.
The expense of planting can be
difficult to justify, especially in
this age of luxury forests, where
the land no longer must “pay its
own way”. This form of “benign
neglect” shifts production forestry
pressure from the vast private
forestowner land base to corporate
and public forests.
Aldo Leopold illustrates the
restorative impacts of planting
red pine in his classic volume “A
Sand County Almanac.” He writes,
“Acts of creation are ordinarily
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