The Tragedy of our Dying Forests

Lois M. Scheel

1992

Published in:

Social Trends Newsletter Oct 1992, No. 108

In Southwestern Oregon you can look almost anywhere and see reddish brown conifers, signifying a spread of disease and insect infestation. Aerial surveys measure the death of these trees.

Knowledge of our forest ecosystem is disgracefully low. With more emphasis placed on managing money rather than on learning about the important part nature plays in their lives, most children grow up showing little interest in science.

A recent headline in the New York Times News Service reads: TEACH KIDS THE VALUE OF MONEY. Then the writer says: "...Children must learn to earn, spend, save, borrow and invest if they are to function as adults..." By the time today's children grow up, attention to the importance of money and skill in how to make it work best for them may have been the cause of eliminating the remaining forest ecosystem for their future.

Some component of science should be a required subject. If earlier generations of children had been taught the importance of preserving our forests: how they replenish our underground wells, streams and rivers by passing rainwater to them through an intricate root system; how their protective canopy prevents snow from melting all at once, distributing it gradually so it isn't wasted in floods; how forest streams preserve spawning grounds for fish; how the trees cool the atmosphere; how our forests hold topsoil in a firm grip, preventing it from washing or blowing away; how it protects wildlife, providing nourishment and sanctuary--perhaps we would have healthy forests today.

In 1948 Aldo Leopold wrote: "We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. There is no other way for land to survive the impact of mechanized man, nor for us to reap from it the esthetic harvest it is capable, under science, of contributing to culture."