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answring the questions from the articles !
d^-Dnlil,ll-!lduaoWW^
BEFoRE sHE roox up the problem ofchemical pesticides in Silent Spring, Rachel
carson (r9o7-r964) was already a respected scientist and a bestselling author. After
earnlng a rnaster’s degree in zoology from Johns Hopkins University in r932, she
spent her eady career as an aquatic biologist with the u.s. Bureau of Fisheries and
its later incarnation as ihe Fish and Wildlife Service. ln r949, she rose to the posi-
tlon of chief edttor of publications for the Flsh ana Witdiiie Service anO puUtist”eO
th ree books about the ocea n: U ndcr the Sea-\Mind fg4t), The Sro iro, na U, 11951,
1nd
Tle Edee ofthe sea lg55). The second ofthese books won the Natronar Book
l:rj: i11
sold so many copies that Carson was able to giu. up h”r-1oJnno o”uot.ner tlme to writing.
With the publication ofher most famous work, Silent Spring,Carson tooK on rheunfamiliar role ofsocial activist. The
ro n.m ef ta J i mpact or pesticides, fi:: Ti’:iil”‘:n’rff I’riiT,Tjhili.
trichloroethane, better known as DDT. Durirg and after Wo;ld Wur. ff, OOf f.,..t U””nused throughout the worid to control insects, remove disease threats, and increasefood production. Carson traced the poisonous effects of DDT and other pesttcrdes
illlrgh 1l;.*”3rrt”m,
beginnrng with ptants and insects and ,”r,”f ,r,,,ry a f,rf,,b r r d s , w i l d l i f e , d o m e s t c a n i m a l s , a n d f l n a l l y t o p e o p l e , f o r w h o m , i r o o n
” r g r . a ,DDT was a carcinogen.
W h e n t h e b o o k w a s p u b l i s h e d , t h e c h e m i c a i p e s t i c i d e i n d u s t r y l a u n c h e o a m a j o rc o u n t e r s t r i k e a i m e d a t d i s c r e d i t i n g C a r s o n . D e s p i t e t h e i r a t t a c k , t h e b o o r < o e c a m ea p n . . n o m e n a l b e s t s e J l e r a n d c a u s e d m i l l i o n s o f A m e r i c a n s t o r e e v a l u a t e t h e i r t a i t hin technology, scientiflc progress, and the role ol gou"r.n r.n,-; f,lJa".,,nr rn",r.i n t e r e s t s .
“^,4:”:n
O’* ofbreast cancer in r964 before she could see the eflect that her workhad on the woid. rn tg7z, largely because of sirent spring, the Environmentar pro-
teciion Agency banned the use of DD
the Presidential Medal of Freedom. olr’:t.n^1″: !:”:: ltt
posthumouslv awarded
ranked sitent Sp,ng as one”r,n” ;”:: ;Jn:;n*,T:#;”J51[:H”ff:f
century.
Carson’s accomplish menl in Silen,
ex po s i n g t h e d a n ge rs of pe,t i c i J l ; ;t:”‘ ;t;,:,::-n:S”‘”*ff*i:, 5::; i :l:::connected natural world, where chan
seen consequences for the enrire .9::^::-^:”: llecies
havl far’reaching’ unfore
her readers,n a .”.n f r.,. ” g”
ji;;; r””,.#;1 ;ni”il;”]ijiirl”.* .:::ij”,T:
R a c h e l € a r s o n
The abligatian to Endure
( 1 9 6 2 )
€A . fi\i c1,,,a”1 AL’-‘*i”t
Nu) Nnla’w+G,NV.;toto
4 1 9
6 . S c r E N c E A N D N A T U R E
42.,
publication ol Silent Spring to rnark the beglnning
of the r’odern envrTonmenta
movement.
C a r s o n ‘ s c l a l m a b o u t t h e d a n g e r s o f c h e m i c a L s
l s p r i m a r i l y s u p p o r t e d b y f a c t s a n o
statistlcs. She tlnkt togtiht’ a slries of historical
and sclenilfic facts to focus read’
ers attention on the negatlve consequences
ol uslng cnernlcals that rnost people
saw only in terrns oftheir positive effect ‘”:’
T”u
“rrro*”
oF LrFE on earth has been a history
of intencrion between living
,i”rr-“”a,ft”” surroundings To a
large extent’ the ohu::”].{-T and the
habits
.i,fr”
“”rafr’, “”*”,”tion
and its anirnal life have been molded
by the environment’
;;;;t th”–hnl” tput.’ of “arthly
time’ the.opposite effect’ tn which life
actu-
il^;Jifi; it, ,.,r,ou”Jit-‘gt,
has been relatively slight only lvithin.the
moment
of time represented by the ptesent century
has one species-man-acquired signil-
i.urrt po*”. to alter the nature of his
world’
During the past quarter century this
power has not only increased to orre of clis-
-+”i.,g
Jus”it”d” bul 1lTTf::ili:1fi::: lt”:,::iliT::: “:;rttrl;assaults upon the er-rvironment ls tne
i””t”r.ti *a even lethal materials This
poilution is for the most part itrecover-
able; the chain of evil it initiates not only in
the world that must support iife but in
ir*, ,or””, is for the most part irreversible
ln this now universal contamination
of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and
little-recognized partners ot radr-
ation in changing the very nature of the world-the
very nature of its life Stron-
ar'”- ;, ,”f””r.irhrough nuclear explosions
into the air’ comes to earth in rain or
drifts down as fallout, lodges in soil, enters
into the grass oI corn oI wheat glorl’n
ii.r”,
“”4t”
,t”,” *t”. ttp it’ nbod” in the bones of a human
being’ there fo remcin
r”,ti’f-rt, a*,fr. Similatly, chemicaLs sprayed
on croplands or forests,or eardens lic
hrng in soil, entering into tivrng organisms’
passing from one to anothef in a chain
.io-.ir.”t”u
“”a
a””th Or they pas mysteriously by underground
streams until ther
“..'”.r” ^”a,
through the alchemy of air and sunlight’
combine into new forms thal
kili vegetation, sicken catile, and work unknown
harm on those who drink from
;;:” ;””;” ,u”ttr. ,q, atr'”tt Schweitzerr
has said’ “Man can hardlv even recosni:(
the devils of his orn’n creation “””li,.”t
ftt”a*d. of millions of years to produce the
life that now inhabits the
“”r,il.o,r,
o{ time in which thar developing and evolving
and- diversifying lite
.”^.t,”a-“”””ofadjustmentandbalancewithitssurroundings,Theenvironment.’*””.-”
fu ,f-r”o,”t
“nd
tlirecting the life it supported’ contained elements
that were
r. Albert Schweitzerr Cerman-Alsatian
theo- Prize in 1952 for his lifelong devotLon
to prLr’
i ‘ ‘ ; : 1 ; i ; ; ; ;
, ‘ , ‘ ” ‘ c h o r a ‘
‘ n d
p h * ‘ v d i n g ‘ n e d c a r ‘ e n c e ‘
i n A r r .
. , ; , , r l b ? 5 I o o s ) , w h c w ” n r r ‘ e \ o b e l P e a ‘ e
R A C H E L C A R s o N T H E O | L l a a r r o N r o E I v D u F E
_ . f i l e i r s w e l l a s s u p p o r t i n g . C c r t a i n r o c k s g a v e o u t d a n g e r o u s r a d i a t i o n ; e v e n $ , i t h i n
::c light of thc sun, fron which all life dr:lrvs irs energy, fhcrc rvcrc short-rvavc racli-
. :,,ns widr powcr to injure. Givclr time time not in ycars but in n-rillennia-life
–liusts, and a balance has been reachecl. For timc is the essenlial ingredient; but in
:l-,e moclern wolld rhere is no time.
The rapidiry o{ change and the specd rvith rvhich r-rerv situations arc creared fol-
l the impetuous ar-rd heedless pace of rnan rathcr than the deliberare pircc ofnatrue.
i.rJiiltion is no longer merely thc backgrouncl radi:rtion of rocks, the bomb:rrdment
: crrsnic rl.rys, the ultraviolet of the sun rhat have existecl before therc was any life
r eirfh; radratiolr is norv the unnatural creatior-r of man’s tampering witl-r ti-rc atom.
hc cherricnls to rvhich life is asked to make its 2ld1ustment are no longer mercly the
–rlciurn and silica and copper ancl all the rest of the mincrals wasl-red out of the rocks
:nJ carriecl in rivers to tl-re sea; they are the synthetic crcrltions of niln’s in\entLlr
:rrn.l, brervcd in l-ris lirborarories, and having no counteryarts in nature.
To :rdjust to tl-rese cl-remicals woulcl reqoirc titne on the scille thirt is nature’s; it 5
,..,u1.1 recluire not merely the ye:rrs of a man’s life but tl-re life of generations. And
:\ en this, wefe it by sone rnirircle possiblc, would be ftrtile, for lhe neu’ chenicals
:ome from ou. labontories in an endlcss stream; almost {ive hunclred annually find
:hcir way into actual usc in thc Unitcti States alone. The figure is staggering and its
rmplications are nof easily graspecl-500 nel, chernicals to which the boclies of mcn
.l1J animals are requireLl somchorv to:rclapt eilch year, chemicals tot:rlly oursiclc the
i m i t s o f h i o l o g i c e x p c r i c n c e .
Among thcm arc many that are used ir-r nran’s war against nature. Since the micl-
1940’s over’200 b:rsic cl-remicals have been crcatecl fi)r use ir-r killing insects, weetls,
ir.lcnts, ar-rd otl-rer org:rnisms tlescribed in the nodcrn vernacular as “pests”; and they
.rre sold under sevenl thousand cliffcrcnt br:rncl n:rmes.
T h e s e s p r a y s , d u s t s , a n . i a e r o s o l s a r e n o r v a p p l i e d a l m o s t u n i v e r s a l l y t o f a r m s ,
v a r . 1 e n s , f o r e s t s , i t n d h o r e s n o n s c l c c t i v c c h c m i c a l s t h a t h a v e t h e f o w c r t o k i l l
e v e r y i n s e c t , t h e ” g o o d ” a n d t h e ” b : r d , ” t o s t i l l t h e s o n g o f b i r d s a n d t h e l c a p i n g
o i f l s h i n t h c s r r c a m s ! t o c o a t t h c l e n v e s w i t h a d e a c l l y f i l m , a n d t o l i n g . r o n r n
. o i l a l L t h i s r h o u g h t h e i n t e n d e d t a r g e t m a y b e o n l y a f e w w e e c l s o r i n s e c t s . C a n
a n y c , n c b e l i e v c i t i s p o s s i b l e t o l a y t l o w n s r r c h a b a r r a g c o f p o i s o n s o n t h e s u r f a c c
o i t h e e a r t h w i t h o u t m a k i n g i t u n f i r f o r a l l l i f c l T h c y s h o u l d n o t b e c a l l e d ” i n s e c –
r i c i d e s , ” b u t ” b i o c i d e s . ”
The rvhole process of spraying sccms caLrght up in iln endless spiral. Since l)I)T
r v a s r e l e a s e c i f i r r c i v i l i a n u s e , : r p r o c e s s o f e s c a l a t i o n h a s b e e n g o i n g o n i n w h i c h e v e r
m o r e t o x i c m a t e r i a l s m u s t b c f o u r t l . T h i s h a s h a p p e n e d b c c a u s c i n s e c t s , i n . r r r i –
urnphant vinclicarion of Darwin’s principle o{ rhe survivaI of thc fittest, have evolvccl
supcr raccs immunc to d-re particular insecricitle used, hcncc :r de:rdlier one lus ahvays
to be .le ve l<4red-ancl ther-r a deacllier one than thar. It has happer-red also becausc,
{or rcasons to be dcscribed later, destnrctive insects often undergo a “flareback,” or
4 t t
6 . S c l E N c E A N D N A T U R E
4 2 2
resurgence, after spraying, in numbers greater than before. Thus the chenical war is
neveL wo11, and all life is caught in its violent crossfire.
Along with rhe possibility of the extinction of mankind by nuclear war, the
central problem of our age has therefore become the contamination of man’s total
environment with such substances of incredible potential for harm-substances
that accumulate in the tissues of plants and animals and even penetrate the germ
cells to shatter or alter the very material of heredity upon which the shape of the
future depends.
Some would-be architects of our future look toward a tin-re when it will be pos’
sible to alter the human germ plasm by design But we may easily be doing so lrow
bv inadvertence, for manv chemicals, like radiation, bring about gene mutations. lt
is ironic to think that man might determine his own future by something so seem-
ingly trivial as the choice of an insect spray.
All this has been risked-for whatl Future historians may well be amazed by our
distorted selme of proportion. How could intelligent beings seek to control a few
unwanted species by a method that contaminated the entire environnent and
brought the threat o{ disease and death even to their own kindl Yet this is precisely
what we have done, We have done it, moreover, for reasons tl-rat collapse the moment
we examine them. We are told that the enormous and expandtng use of pesticides
is necessarJ to maintain farm production. Yet is our real problem not one of oc.’er-
p’roductionl Our farms, despite measures to relnove acreages fron production and to
pay falmers not to produce, have yielded such a staggering excess of crops that the
American taxpayer ir-r 1962 is paying out more than one billion dollars a year as the
total carrying cost of the surplus-food storage program. And is the situation helped
when one branch of the Agriculture Department tries to reduce production while
nnother states, as it did in 1958, “lt is believed generally that reduction of crop
acreages under provisions of the Soil Bank will stimulate interest in use of cherni-
cals to obtain maximum production on the land retained in crops.”
All this is not to say there is no insect problem and no need of control. I am
saying, rather, that control must be geared to tealities, not to mythical situations,
and that the methods empLoyed must be such that they do not destroy us along with
the insects.
The problem whose attempted solution has brought such a train of disaster in
its wake is an accompaniment of our modern way of life. Long before the age ol
man, insects inhabited the earth-a group of extraordinarily varied and adaptable
beings. Over the course o{ time since man’s advent, a smalL percentage of the rnore
than half a million species of insects have come into conflict with human welfare
in two principal ways: as competitors for the food supply and as carriers of human
d i s e a s e .
Disease-carrying insects become important where human beings are crowdeJ
together, especially under conditions where sanitation is poor, as in time of natural
disaster or war or in situations of extreme poverty and deprivation Then control oi
R A c H E L C A R s o N T H E O B L t c a f t o N f o E N D u R E
some sort becomes necess2try. It is a sobering fact, ho\vcver, as we shall presently see,
that the method of massive chenicai control has l-rad only limitcd success, ancl also
threatens to worsen the very conditions it is intended to curb.
Uncler primitive agricultural condirior-rs the farrner had few insect pnrblems. These ! 5
arose with the intensification of agriculture-the devotion of immense acre:lgcs to
a single crop. Such a sysrem set the stage for explosive increases in specific insect
populations. Single-crop farrniog does not t:rkc ndvantage of rhe principles by which
nature works; it is agriculture as an engineer might conceive it to be. Nature has
introduced great variety into the landscape, but m:rn has displayed a p:rssion {or sim-
plifying it. Thus he undocs the built-in checks ancl balances by which nature l.rolds
the species within bounds. Or-re imporrant natural check is a limit on the arnount of
suitable habitat for each species. Obviously then, an insect rhar livcs on wheat can
build up its population to much higher levels on a f:rrm devoterl to whcat than on
one in which whcat is inrermingled with other crops to which tl-re insect is not
adapted.
The same tl-ring happens in other situations. A generation or more agoj rhe rowns
of large areas of tl-re United States linccl rhcir srreets with rhe noble eln tree. Now
the beauty they hopeftrlly created is threatened rvith complere destruction as disease
sweeps through the elms, carried by a beetle that would havc only limited chancc
to buiid up large populations :rnd to spread from tree to tree i{ tl-re elms wcre only
occasional trecs in a richly diversified planting.
Another factor in the modern insect problem is or-re that must be viewecl against
a background of geoLogic and human history: the spreading of thousands of clifferent
kinds of organisms from their niltive l1omcs to invade new lenitories. This world-
rvide migration l.ras been studied and graphically described by the British ecologist
Charles Ekon in his recent book Tfu Ecolop o/ lmrasions. During the Cretaceous
Period, some hundred million years ago, flooding seas cur m:rny l:rncl bridges bctween
continents and living thir-rgs found themselves cor-rfinecl in what Elton calls “coios-
sa1 separ:rte nature reserves.” Therc, isolated from others o{ their kind, tl-rey dcvel-
lrped many ncw species. lVhen some of the land m:Nses were joined :rgain, :rbout
15 million years ago, these species began to movc out into new territories a move-
neDt fhat is not only still in progress but is now receiving consicierable assistance
from man.
The inportation of plants is the primary ilgenr in rhe nodern spread of species,
lor anirnals have almost ir-rvariably gone along with the plants, quar2urine being ii
comparatively reccnt and not completely effecrive innovation. Tl-re Ulrited States
Office of Plant lntroduction alone has introduced almost 200,000 species and vari-
etics of plants from l.rll over the world. Nearly half of the 180 or so major insect enc-
mies of plants in the United States are accidental imports from abroad, and most of
them have corne as hitchhikers on plants.
L-r new territory, out of reach of the restraining hand of the n:rtural enemies that
1 2 3
kept down its numbers in irs n:lrive land, an invadir-rg plant or anim:rl is ablc to
6 . S c r E N c E a N D N a r u R E
1 2 1
become enormously abundant. Thus it is no accident that our most troublesome
insects ale introduced species.
These itrvasions, both the naturally occurring and those dependent on human
assistance, are likely to continue indefinitely. Quarantine and massive chemical
can-rpaigns are only exffemely expensive ways of buying time. We are faced, accord-
ing to Dr. Elton, “with a life-and-death need not just to find new technological
means of suppressing this plant or that animal”; instead we need the basic knowl-
edge of animal populations and their relations to their suroundings that will “plo-
rlote an even balance and damp down the explosive power of outbreaks and new
i n v a s i o n s . ”
Much of the necessary knowledge is now available but we do not use it. We train
ecologists il1 our universities and even employ them in our governlnental agencrrs
but we seldom take their advice. !7e allow the chemical death rain to fall as though
there were no alternative, whereas in fact there are n1any, and our ingenuity couid
soon discover many more if givcr-r opportunity.
H a v e w e f a l l e n i n t o a m e s m e r i z e d s t a t e t h a t m a k e s u s a c c e p t a s i n e v i t a b l e t h a t
w h i c h i s i n f e r i o r o r d e t r i n e n t a l , a s t h o u g h h a v i n g l o s t t h e w i l l o r t h e v r s i o n L o
demand that which is goodl Such thinking, ir.r the words of the ecologist Paul
S h e p a r d , ” i d e a l i z e s l i f e w i t h o n l y i t s h e a d o u t o f w a t e r , i n c h e s a b o v e t h e l i m i t s
of toleration o{ the corrupcion of its own environment . . . Why should we tol-
e r a t e a d i e t o f w e a k p o i s o n s , a h o m e i n i n s i p i d s u r r o u n d i n g s , a c i r c l e o f a c q u a i n –
t a n c e s w h o a r e n o t q u i t e o u r e n e m i e s , t h e n o i s e o f m o t o r s w i t h j u s t e n o u g h r e l i e f
t o p r e v e n t i n s a n i t y ? W h o w o u l d w a n t t o l i v e i n a w o r l d w h i c h i s j u s t n o t q u i t e
f a t a l l ”
Yet such a world is pressed upon us. The crusade to create a chernically sterile,
insect-free world seems to have engendered a fanatic zeal on the part of nany spe-
cialists and most of the so-called contlol agencies. On every hand there rs evr-
dence that those engaged in spraying operations exercise a ruthless power. “The
regulatory entomologists . . . function as prosecutor, judge and jury, tax assessor
and collector and sheriff to enforce cheir own orders,” said Connecticut er-rtomol-
ogist Neely Tumer. The most flagrant abuses go unchecked in both state ar-rd fed-
eral agelrcies.
I t i s n o t m y c o n t e n t i o n t h a t c h e m i c a l i n s e c t i c i c { e s m u s t n e v e r b e u s e d . I d o
c o n t e n d t h a t w e h a v e p u t p o i s o n o u s a n d b i o l o g i c a l l y p o t e n t c h e m i c a l s i n d i s –
criminately into the hands of persons largely or wholly ignorant of their poten-
tials for harm. \7e have subjected enormous numbers of people to contact with
these poisons, without their consent and often without their knowledge. lf the
Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen shall be secure against lethal
poisons distributed either by private individuals or by public officials, it is surely
only because our forefathers, despite their considerable wisdom and foresight,
c o u l d c o n c e i v e o f n o s u c h p r o b l e m .
R A C H E L C A R s o N . T H E O a u c a r t o N r o E N D U R E
I contend, furthermore, that we have allowed these chemicals to be used with lit-
:le or no advance investigation of their effect on soil, water, wildlife, and man him-
.elf. Future generations are unlikely to condone our lack of prudent concern for the
:ntegrity of the natural world that supports all life.
There is still very limited awareness of the nature of the threat. This is an era of
.pecialists, each of whom sees his own problem and is unaware of or intolerant of
rhe larger frame into which it fits. lt is also an era dominated by industry, in which
rhe right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged, Vv/hen the public
frotests, confronted with sorne obvious evidence of damaging results of pesticide
applications, it is fed little tranquilizing pills of half truth. !7e urgently need an end
ro these false assurancesr to the sugar coating of unpalatable facts. lt is the public
rhat is being asked to assume the risks that the insect controllers calculate. The pub-
lic must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can do so
only when in full possession of the facts. In the words of Jean Rostand,2 “The obli-
gation to endure gives us the right to know.”
U N D E R 5 T A N D I N c T H E T E X T
t . W h a t ” p o w e r ” h a v e h u m a n b e l n g s r e c e n t l y a c q u i r e d t h a t , a c c o r d i n g t o
Rachel Carson, makes the current time period unique in the history of fe
o n E a r t h ?
2 . W h a t d o e s C a r s o n m e a n b y ” i n t h e m o d e r n w o r l d t h e r e i s n o t i m e ” l
3 . W h a t h a p p e n s w h e n i n s e c t s a d a p t t o p e s t i c l d e s i n t h e i r e n v i r o n m e n t l C o u d 4. What arguments in lavor of pesticide use does Carson anticipatel How does 5. What role does single crop farming p ay in the rise of lnsect populations) 6. Which ofthe dangers and rnysteries ofpesticlde use does Carson object M a K T N G C o N N E c r r o N s
r . H o w d o l a r g e l n c r e a s e s i n h u m a n p o p u l a t l o n s c r e a t e c o n d i t i o n s i n w h i c h k. tz+)l
z. Jean Rostaad: French bioLosist and playwrlght (1894 199?).
4 2 5 6 . S c r E N c E a N D N A T U R E
4 2 6
2. Exactly how does Darwin’s principle ofnatural selection lnsects’ adaPtatlon to Pesticldes?
3. How have Carson’s vlews of nature such as David Suzuki (p 427) and Al Core (p 454)?
W R r r r N G A B o u r r H E T E x r
t. Conducting extra researcn as necessary’ describe an environr’en-tal the ecosysiem in the area in which you live How are the birds, fish, animals’ and plants connected to each other’ threatened I
z. Analyzecarson’s use ofevidence in this selectlon What make, and how effectively does she support each onel
3. The international accord on pestlcides 2oo4 contains thls “malarla exceptlon” in its restriction of The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic PolLutants o g n i z e s t h a t i n s o m e c o u n t r l e s ‘ e s p e c i a l l y t h o s e i n s u b S a h a r a n D D T r e m a l n s a n m p o r t a r r t t o o l i n t h e w a r a g a i n s t m a l a r i a that ratlry the Convention may continue using DDT for controlling q u i t o e s i h a t s p r e a d m a l a r i a T h u s , t h e C o n v e n t l o n w i l l n o t llkeLihood that people wjll be lnfected wlth malarla
Many environmental groups opposed this ex,ceptlon’ but that DDT had already prevented hundreds of millions of o f m a l a r i a a n d t h a t ‘ l f i t s u s e w e r e e n t i r e l y e l i r n i n a t e d ‘ t h e h u r n a n ‘ o s t s l n an essay sup
p o r t i n g o r o p p o s i n g t h i s e x c e p t i o n ‘ b a s e d o n t h e c a s e a g a i n s t s o n o u t l l n e s l n ” T h e O b l i g a t i o n t o E n d u r e “ -H the smell of sLrnbaked pine needles on a breezl June af- cs the forest floor, ir seeps in inscead of bouncrng offtne smell or sunDaKeq Plne neeqles on a oreezl rune al- cs the torest tloor, lt seeps rn lnstead ot bounclng otf. Lec’s lsstrme, in orher words, rhat you’ve done so-c- channels, carrl,ing sift, causing floods. Norv rou hare ln .rssignmcnt: \\’hat should be .lonr come rhe hor davs of summer. \\re’ve known rhis a long !-t5 ilssunr!’. firr rh.-.lLrr;rrion of rhis ar- “lf v,ru’rc been out in a rainsrorm undcr i mtjor *ith rhc one-rhird of rhe errrh’s r_ rime; the Adirondack Park, rhe | fitsr large experimenr in conser- / S r a c e s , u , a s c r e r r e d i n p a r c b v \ rlii::,Iril:ri’liii1T LTOOCt [;ril6::Jirll”$brorln; fbre’t: .:re tillrng.rcross v -D’ land war.’rshed is compacr.,d or I ) d turned into subdivisiori or shop- y_ . p t n g m a l r . ) o m c o I I n e m J r e T – ! \ c o m e s m o r c t r e q u . n r , r v a r e r
*:rr},ffi:v*::.::iiil trorest / hit;{fff:”,iffi{il -aki.,g :i.ili.T:,1l,:rl*””:#:”T: \\’oRrH NroRE sr.\NDrNc il”ltl;f;:”j:”‘;::”‘:::#””” than Sl billion to protec the w.a- For a long rime environ;nen- By Btq_ MCKIBBEI{ but because a rrearment plant ro Though ornamental ferns are not essensial, a stable rant.rge, given rhar people care abour wheic rhey live, ‘rn rain immense amounrs of carbon that would orhcrw,ise riler,” sevs fhe nrauor. i
Nol therc are big Ilcets of scmis picking th.’m up.’
seerch Center, on Cape Cod- Recenrh, a universitl’ ream as- A *.rrt,’,0 TO SHRUBS TO BF-RRIES
TO FRUIT-SUPPORT
PEOPLE WORLDWIDE.
.l..rn war.r, ser some wildlife. “The comparative ad-
heps it’s rime co address rhe obvi- \bu are holding rhe most basic slowly soak up carbon. But it will be a long rime befole its reclcling rete liom the cu.rent 40 percent to 50 Still, the &ct thar forests are saving the $orld from lv -1 perccnr. Buc the depressing facrs oF exponenrial . \ L D L 3 ( : r \ Onc of the r!’.ls!)ns r.r’e use_.irnd .^’1*1s-5o rngcfi l:rl afrtr s.l ing h” rvouldn’t; rhen, in rhe tall, he limply’ Consider the public forests first. Many of che world’s cause. among other things, it overestimares the price ttT^oP\crFr(.
NORTH\\’EST DOF-S
NOT HAVE TO (-HOOSE
BETWEEN JOBS ,\ND
THE EN!’IRONNIENT.,’
more logical, No one values a P J n r e s w r r n t a r g e L n d u s r r l a l tensively manage” their land to t . . .sUCn aS \reorgta-racrflc to Slote t-
“free good” and rvhatever it clears from selling them foresrs *hr’re each individual tree would be worth far The debate over the value of publiclv owned lrees ro do *’ith it now. If you have a stand of trees, you can ” forests. They want those trees valued for euerything on their investm€nt of 2 ot 3 percent. As a result, 0lockwis€ trom abovor lmanita and sw;rd f€rn in 0r€gon; bNtd cylroas in southsrn Florlda; Californir’t nedwood tlatloral \ r D r g o \ \ | \ \ l 1 \ i l c 9 6 srarted falling at t record pace so the rnoney could bur. The w.hole picture is more complicared rhan that, of But che results of the various calculations have been Maine resembles a dog with terminal mange, with vasr T I r Dtor.,-‘.r cosl
THE FOREST SERVICE
.{NYTHINGTO GROW
TREES. GOD AND THE
FOG TOOK C.\RE OF IHAT.
Even belore the current referendum campaign, the -“‘-,, ,. -, -,-:-.ter quaiitv co atstherics. WhEn iri done, sals Swanton,
“tt -;ll high-r’ield management, some for ecological protection. long time.” In other words, what If the economics of forestr)’ are hoping to inhabit a spruce forest or if loure a logger rrees in the rropics. Developers might have to reparr As a resuit, Nlaine environmentalists are now chal- \\t’ll all need to pal zealous atrerrrion to wasre and 7 dum chat, if approved this fall, would ban clear-cutting That new forestry is slowly being born on a few larg- th. Brown rcpresents the fifth genererion o[ a rimber fami- Clockwiso from rbovoi I slut makss itE toms in Tonnossoo; forost filtratiotl systomg opsrat€ at full forcs in ltaln0,3 Weyerhaeuser, rhe grearesr industrial-fotestry giant of harvests that thcy will not live to reap.” Such injunc- A tinkerer bv nature. Btown has spent the last decade Thevre rhe kind of techniques that David Brynn, the “eneer-quality ( ( T I LooK AT
MY WOODLOT LIKE
A STOCK MARKET
INVESTMENT-ONLY
THERE’S THINGS
LIKE HLINTING AND
FISHING AND CANOEING
THAT YOU DON,T
GET WITH AI.{Y
STOCK MARKET.”
h e l p e d p u t h i s e i g h t k i d s The result is strong, atttactile Drei,gson, the Brirish Columbia acadernic who clear-cut it and put the mone)’ in the bank or the -“ny up to careless forestry. rigor that plevents us from thinking about real costs good deal about small woodlo$ in his most recent col- al. We’ll need to stop thinking so simplisticallv about T L D I B O : _ v 1 \ ‘ – J U N E 1 9 9 t
any pesticide, theoretica ly, not result ln an increased tolerance for th2r np
s h e b u i d r e s p o n s e s t o t h e s e a r g u r n e n t s i n t o h e r t r e a t m e n t o f t h e s s u e s l
Why is it dangerous, in Carson’s view, to limit diversity in specific natural
a r e a s l
to mostl
insects and other forrns of life must be controlled? low does lVlalthus antic-
i p a t e t h e s e k i n d s o f p r o b l e m s i n h l s ” E s s a y o n t h e P r i n c i p l e o f P o p u l a t i o n ”
(p 4ot explain
influenced later environmental wrlters
threat to
lives of lnsects’
and how are they
claims does she
reached in Stockholm’ Sweden’ tn
DDT:
(POPs) rec-
A f r i c a ‘
C o u n t r l e s
mos
i n c r e a s e t h e
supporters argued
people from dying
some ofthe wodd’s poorest countries would be severe Write
D D T t h a t C a r –
inreresting sacks of calories, and that its impact along the wa/,’Hence, rvhen it finally reach-
ternoon me’rel’t’ matches the scent that comes from But if vou cut down the rrees for fields, or for roads, or
rhose conrler-shaped :rir freshenets that dangle tiom for houses, or for anything else that’s not as permeable,
‘lour reln’iov mirror, more of rhat water rolls straight into a srream, curring
thing rott.’n and God has rurn.’.1 1ou inro an economist. And that leaves no li?rer in rhe ground ro seep out
*ith rhc one-rhir,l of the errrh’s rime: the AJiron,lr.L p”,L rL”
ticic, thar ro rou !il.s arc ,.crricil ,ir”lks .”n.1′.: ,..”, Iou know how iong rou can sr.r\.rherc bc-
of fiber, rhat a forest carries no more tbre vou get wet,” says Leslie Sauer, .r principal of the
spiritual or at’sthetic value rhan a park- ecological-design firm Andropogon Associates. “The
ing lor, thac woodland crearures are un- w?rer passcs through a lot ol obstlcles, which reduce
drr land rhat is colcred bl fbr-
– |
e-sti \irq c.rn ctrr it all .{own, s:rle ‘1. y -1r{ varion in chc e’asrern United
i t r l l , o r . l o r n r r h i n g i n b e – t I I l ^ ^
rwecn-bur onlr’.ii rou can de- \ /\ / 11 f| T- downstate business intrests fear-
fend vour i….ions ivirhout ap- Y Y L LdV ful rhat mountain logging would
peJf ro sfnurnent. Botrom line ,^ I drv up che Hudson River and
o.lr’. pfs”rs. f
I rhe Eiie C”r,J. Bur now we un-
Asr.r,.\lrii.r. S,’urh Am,:iic.r. rnd -l- oaved o’er. .’.r sr’,.”;;.
North America. Some of the I .. n i:::i-‘T:::*,ti:l;.’::,1:i;
c h a n g c s a r e p e r r n a n e n t : w , o o d s
l e s s u s e f u l . C h a n n ” l a r e c t t
9a-
deep.r and deeper, tlooding I’e-
on, in order to supplv p;rper. Er- to do all rhese things for fiec,”
cepr fbr chose places rr herc des- ECO\-CI\IISTS NOW Sauer poinrs our. ‘\\’e can’r af-
pcrat€ peesenls are clearing out ford to maintain the inliastruc-
small holcs co grow food, rll this .\GREE \\”ITH ECOLO- rure we have nsvl-x1d lvs ,:31-
activit is juscified by rhe profit rainly can’r afford anr.more.”
moti’e. people ar”
,r,on- TIISTS: FORESTS ARE N”- rirrt iiio. .”.””r1r. ,g*”a
nomic decisions good or bad? IHAN LOGGED. tersheds around irs reservoirs.
\\’hat is a fbtest really worth” Not because it liked the rrees,
talisrs tried ro sidestep this de- | | replace rhe work rhe rrees were
bate. “ln the eighties, industrl L J doi”g for free would have cost
began demanding economic quantificarion,” sals San- 58 to 59 billion. If we restore forests, sat.s Sauer, we
dra Neilv, a policv analvst at the Maine Audubon Soci- can avoid sorne of the same costs in other places.
ery. Neilv, rvho has just completed a surve’t rhat at- Foresrs provide a whole hosc of minoi products-
tempts to calculate the values of the stare’s forests, from bark to shrubs to berries to fruit-that supporr
sals, “\\’e r”ere afraid thar if lou weighed an industrial people n’orldrvide. Acre for acre, living forests are ofren
park:rgainst a *etland, u’ed alrvays [ose. We didnt have more valuable tharr the sum of their timber, especiall]’
the data.’ But now the data are coming in. Biologiscs, because they grow back quickly, Alan Drengson, drrec-
chcmisrs. ecological economists. and ochers have b.-grrn tor of British Columbia’s Ecoforestry Instirute, says,
compiling figures thac shorv just what the naural norld “Many of our forests have a higher value in mush-
is rrorrh. From prairie to .i’serr to reei ro rrvcr, rher’re roorns .rnd ornamental pla.rtr, lik” salal brush and
shorving ho*’*oefullv uneconomical mart oi our deci- s*orJ ferns, than in woody rnaterials. \\’hen I rvas a
sions hale been. But ior now. we’ll stick to forests. bov we used to go out and gather ferns and sell them.
Daun broaks or0r mist-sIrouded old.growth Douglai iii: and wsst6rn hsnlocks ir flashingtofl’5 oliniFic lletloral park,
climate probablv is. The clouds of carbon dioxide *e\’e goes ro those .r.eas that are able ro hang on ro more of
released since rve evolved into Homo d omobil$, Hona rvhat people consider a superior quality of life,” says
thrmostatens, and Homo waL’maiius are now poised to Thomas Porver, an economist at che Universiry of
raise rhe tempetature four or five degrees Fahrenheir in Monrana. His reporr. signed by 60 orher rrea econo-
the next century. Forget the way rhis heat rvill fiel- rnists, concluded: “The Pacific Northwesr does noc
forget the sweat gluing ;’our shirt to your back-;rn.1 have ro choose berween jobs and the environment.
consider only that magic bottom line. Economists hl’e QLritc the opposite: A healrhy environment is a major
calculated, extremely conservatively, that global *,arm- srimulus fi>r a healthy economy.” So, for instance, Sony
itrg could knock 2 percenc off rhe world’s gross pro.1- bLrilr r pl.rnt in Springfield, rn Orcgon mill town ser in
uct over the next ccnrury by depleting resortrces.rnd in- l bc.rurrifirl ere’;r, that emplols J50 people starring xr
creasing cnergv use. Since foresrs and th.-ir sorls con- 59.50
hour. “Thev rvanted a prisrine spot by rhe
c o n r r i b r r t e t o r h e g r ( ( n h o u . e e f l e c t – p , r h . r p . , , n c . r n . l E r r r l ‘ 1 , ‘ v r n c n r f i g r , . ” . r ” l l o n l r , p , r r t , , I c h e s r , r ‘ r .
a half cimes as much as in the atmosphere, ;rccording to Thr-rr”s llso torrrism, and phermeccuric.rls, and rhe way
George rrVoodwell, director of the Woods Holc Rt’- rltat l.rrge fbresrs can moderare local climares. But..”-
keeping the forests standing has
a quantifiable economic impact.
s c s s i n g t h e r v o r t h o F M e x i c o ‘ s
f b r e s t s f b r e v e r v t h i n g t r o m
tourism to nuts found thac their
highest value ri,as as a reservoir
of carbon that xould otherrvise
be released inco the atmosphere,
accelerating climate change. This
rule holds uue in many forests.
“If;ou have a Sitka spruce stand
in rhe Tongass lNational Forest,
i n A l a s k a l , i t m i g h t c o n t a i n
m o r e t h a n F i f r e e n t h o u s a n d
grams of carbon per square me-
ter,” srys Woodrvell. ‘And if it s
clear-cut, it contains verv litcle,”
especially because much of the
carbon is in the now unprotecred
soil. If new trees grolv. rher rvill
PI{ODUCTS-i:RO]\1 I],\RK
ous: If inract fbrests can produce
such cconomic benefirs, whl do
s’e most often cut chem .1orvn in-
scca,,ll Ther.’ lte scveral lnsgers.
some of rhem obvious and some
more obscure.
explanation in your hands. This
nation uses an enormous amount
of flber, fot paper and for tim-
ber, and we are using more oF it
all che rime, Itt rrue that w,e’ve
made tremendous gains in recy-
cling. In some parts of rhe do-
mesric paper indr.rsrry, savs John
R u s r o n o f t h e E n v i r o n m e n t a l
Defense Fun.1, the may’ority of
new mills coming on-line use re-
c y c l e d i n s t e a d o f v i r g i n f i b e r .
A n d t h e r e ‘ s m o r e p o t c n t i a l : I f
rhe United Srates could increase
rhey contain even halF as much as the narive fbresr. pcrcent, chat uould increase rhe world’s supplv of 6ber
rhe greenhouse effect doesn’t do much lor the loc.rl grorvrh .rppll here as in so manl places. Because rhe
economv. Ma!be l’ou re better off just cu$ing rhe trees *’orld s populacion keeps growing, and because thar
down-or maybe not. A team of economists issued a population uses greater amounts of paper and wood all
leport last December artempting to erplain the the time, recvcling doesn’t even allow our forests to run
“Northwesc paradox.” As logging declined in the Pacif- in place. “The demand for paper products is growing
ic Northwest during the past half-decade, the region so rapidly worldwide thac even though we’re adding
didr’t turn into a new Appalachia, as some had predicr- lots of new f.iber through recycling, we’re still usrng
ed- Instead, its economy expanded more than thac of more lirgin fiber everl’vear,” says Reid Lifset, direcror
any other part of the nation. Oregon had irs lorvest un- of Yale Unilersicy’s Program on Solid Wasre Policy, An
emplol”rnent rate in a generation, as new high-tech jobs intetnational consortium of book, nervspaper, and
more than replaced those lost in the partial ioresrry rrregazine prrblishers rccently warned of upcoming pa-
shutdown. To figure out whv, economists had to factor per shortagr’s- In response, thev chose nor to print fen-
in the sillv, senaimental preferences of other Arneri- er of cheir producr or co use smaller t,t’pe or thinner
cans-the facc that, for uharever bizarre reasons. th€l papet lrut to demand thar the World Bank “encourage
wadted to live near some big old rrecs, drink somc er(tensi{e inir-srrnenr in paper producrion.”
ClockrNiEo from aboyoi oak “8pplo” galls in 0r08oni a0tumn in Cande[, Mains, and in 0r0at Smoky 1{o[daing llational ParK,
fiber is rhat it’s cheap, and one of the reasons it’s cheap called rt a mistake an.l asked fbr its repeal. The Con-
is that the economics that drive logging simplv fail to gressional Research Service has alreadv concft:ded rhat
reflect any of the other values of foresrs, the legislacion could cost raxpayers $25 million be-
foresrs are public, under the control of governmenr of- the timber *ill bring.
ficials. In this country, most of our national forests are The Cle.rrwarer National Forest, in Idaho, whicn was
in thi Wesr, in the vasr domain of rhe U.S. Foresr Ser- “sahage logged” a few vears ago, shows what this leg-
vice. Increasinglv, their financial management is corning islative rnisrake will cosr. According ro Carl Ross of
under scrutiny. The Forest Service has spent the past the nonprofir Save America! Foresrs, who rart phoros
decade trying to lend off the charges of American en- of rhe denstation in his newsletter, “Thev did their
vironmenralists that irs “management strategr'”- so-c;rlled sah age logging on a series of slopes, and che
which consists of paving lor the consrruction of roads result hls been a series of mud avalanches rhroughout
co groves of cimber and then selling the logs ofT to the the lbrcsr this frll. Whole srreams are complerelv de-
highest bidder-loses mone)’ for rhe taxpayer. In the strolcd. rnil.’s and miles of trout streams.”
v:rst majority of cases che agencv has been forced co On pri.rc.’ forestland-which means most woods in
concede rhat the cost oF the roads far exc.-eds rhe re- the sourhern and eastern Unired Srates-life is a lirrle
ceipts from f'”., s{es (and to ar-
gue, thereforg, ihit the roads and
clearcuts represeirt reireation op-
portuniries an,l * ildlife-habirat
improvemencs). But it’s alwavs
insisted that because a ferv of rhe
forests in the Pacific Northwest
are able to sell thdir mammoth
trees fbr big bucks, rhe slstem as
a whole breaks even. The biggest
flaw in rhis argument, as Tim
Hermack, direcror of rhe Native
Forest Council, in Eugene, Ore-
gorr, poinrs out, is simple: The
Forest Service turns a profit be-
c a u s e i t s e t s a r a l u e o n t h o s e
publiclv owned rrees of preciselv
zero dollars. It didn’t cost rhe
Forest Service anvthing to grow
them-Cod and the rnoist fog
o f f t h e o c e a n t o o k c a r e o f
t h a t – s o i t f i g r r r e s t h e m a s a
cree at zero. Bglrg trmber com-
forests clear-cut, sprav herbicide
from helicopters, grow, enJless
stands of small rrees, cur rhem
d o w n b e f o r e r h e ” – r u r n i n c o a
true forest, and otherwise ‘in-
p r o d u c e f i b e r w i t h o u t m u c h
thought lor the other values of
the forest. Part\- this {lecause
no one pats big timber owners
c J r D o n o r I r l t e r w a t e r ; t h e ) c a n
m j k e a r ” r u r n o n l u b t s e l l i n g
fiber Bur even that central failing
o f e c o n o m i c s d o e s n ‘ r e x p l a i n
whl the big companies almosr al-
ways choose to cut down small
trees ol’er aod over again insread
o f l e t t i n g t h e m g r o w i n t o b i g
off as profit. This is much closer co Mother Theresa mort’-and lhere, by happy accident, the other values
than to Adam Smith. As Hermack points out, “ln pri- of the foresr woLrld be more protected.
vate industrv anf accountadt who so drasticallv under- To un.lcrstand rhat process, says Joachim Maier, an
valued his companli assets would be immediarely dis- independt’nr foresrry consultant, you need to calculate
missed and might even go to jail.” the future lalue of al asset and thus determine whar
has sharpened in recent months. On the one hand, either cut it down and invest the proceeds or ler ir
more and more gnssroots environmentalists are back- mature until the rees are vety valuable. Once upon a
ing Hermack’s iall for a “zero cut” in the national time. sars Nlaier, foresters ftgured on
.rte of ,”r,rr.,
from storing carbon to supporting local economies “thel got financial rotations that were sirnilar to rhe bi-
with their sheer beaury On the other side, Republican ological rorations.” That is, trees and money grew at
members of Congress-defenders, theoreticallv, of lree rouqhll the same rate, so lou could afford to warc to
enterprise-rushed through a bill last summer ro in- chop rhem dorvn. In the 1960s and ’70s, rhough,
crease the cut in national forests and curtail che right fbrcsrcrs st.rrted basing their decisions on rerurns of al-
of citDens to prolest. Presidenc Bill Clinron signed the mosr 10 p.’rcent, reflecting rising interest rares. Forests
Park; doo.dent old gr0wth in Itount Rairisr llationrl Park, warhington; young poplar3 in th6 Great Snokt Morntrins,
stocks, ocher companies, or new forests in Indonesia.
For several decades now, money has grown faster rhan
trees. Foresters hare thus been forced by the impeccable
“logic oI economics to turn the trees inro mone.r’ as
quicklv as possible.
course. Forest-products companies also need ro calcu-
late factors like supplving their own paper mills, rvhich
also have relenue targets to meet. And propertv cares.
income taxes, and competitive factors also influence .t-
c i : r o n s , . . r l s J o e l S s r n r o n . a s e n i o r m a n . r g e m r n r
forester at Champion International, which orvns l.-1
million acres across the Northeast.
:. predietably depressing. From the air, much of norrhern
clearcucs scretching off in every
direction, In some spots the au-
t u m n c o l o r s t u r n u p i n e a r l l
summer because the hardwoods
have been killed bv aerial doses
of herbicide designed to produce
pure stands of softwoods. Log-
ging roads run eleuwhere, tight
to the borders of Baxter State
Park, rhe state’s big wilderness
tract, which is home to Mount
Katahdin. Recent lederal studies
of several lvlaine counties indi-
cate the extent of the damage,
says Mitch Lanskr’, author of Ba-
ynd the Beautl Strrp, a scathing ac-
count of the state’s industrial
forestry. Red spruce ti€es-a sta-
p l e o f t h e p a p e r a n d l u m b e r
m i l l s – h a v e b e e n c u t a t 3 . 7
times their rate of growth. That’s
bad news if lorr’re a black bear
T
huge timber companies thar control most of Maine’s
forests had begun to respond to public outcries. Cham-
pion, for instance, launched a “sustainable forestrv
in,t,rtir” rh”r is setting goals fo, .u”ryiiing fro-
,t’..;;pi”yt l^nd
be classified–some for
“We think we can manage our ownetship in wavs
rhat meet rhe needs of most people,” he says. At leasc
a ferv enlironmentalists are hopeful that he’s right.
Others .rre more skepcical. Neily, rhe policy anaivst lbr
\,laine’ Audubon, which has yet to decide if it will
back the refirendum, sums up rhe dilemma: “The in-
dustrv keeps looking for ways they can create rhe char-
acrerisrics of old growth-the habirat, the water quali-
t]’, and so forch-wirhour having to grow a tree for a
you need is time for a srand of
trees to grow into a foresa capa-
ble of doing ali rhe other things
we’ve discussed.
to change dramatically (dtamati-
cally enough that you’ll be able
to view the results From a satel-
lite, just as you can monitor the
current deforesrarion), it will re-
quire major shifts in the way the
world does business. {e’ll_rree{
to reirnburse the companles and
counirleS holding carbon-riih
ancient forests. In a few isolared
casel, thati srarted to happen on
a small scale. Wesrern utiliries,
for instance, have tried to com-
pensate for new coal-fired power
plants by plandng oi prorecting
hoping to cut trees sometime in the firrure. upsrteam r’arersheds before they build new projects.
lenging the state’s private logging indusrry almost as look for alternatives to wood and paper. And we’ll,! ,
strongly as western activists attack abuses on pLrblic need a new forestry, one that manages borh private
lands. “Before we’re done, people are going to recog- woodlots and vast industrial forests for many values ‘7
nize that this is as important as the Pacific Northrvest,” now ignoted and that concentrates on growing high- 17
says Jonathan Carter, campaign director fot a referen- qualit’r, older trees. i
in the core of the Maine woods, Though the timber in- er tracts, such as the quarter-million acres the Menom-
dustrv began running television commercials artacking inee Indians manage in northern Wisconsin, and in
the ban before it was officially put on the ballot, small-scale demonstration forests easr and west. If you
Carter’s ttoops still succeeded in collecting a record lvant a sense of this forestry, stop bv Sarn Brown’s
number of signatures in a one-day push. “People *ere rvoodlor in Cambridge, Maine. “I grew up in \\hshing-
sranding Ln line all across che srare,l he says. “The peo- con Stare, and my hetitage was in lumbering,” he says.
ple are angrv, and rhev oughc ro be-rhe1’ue ‘een
places desrrol’ed, the jobs lost.” ll’; his farher worked rn the Pacific Northwest with ‘
Debscon.ag Lakes; tho Middlg prong of ths Cr€at Smoky Mountsins’Littl€ Rlysf; a[d r cricad0 in tho oregor Cord nants.
thern all. But Broqn move.l to Maine, bought 300 tions impll’ a million pieces of subtle technique, each
acres of land, and fell in wirh some “alternative fitted to the palticulai soil and climate-how steep ro
foresters-local pcople who pecked th€ corn a differ- build a road, where to put a culvert, when to turn your
ent r.r,ar’. I liked their results and their anitudc.” back on the woods for fear of harming muddr-s.rils.
delising small-‘.q3lq machiner) rhar allows a foresrei to .o,rnry’ for”rt”. fo, Addison Co.-rnry. \trmont, trres to
work carefull1,, without compacting the soil or damag- teach to small landowners. “It’s tough-careful logging
ing surrounding rrees rhe way a full-size skidder-a doesn’t leod itself to large-scale mechanization,” he
heavy tractor thar drags rlees our of the woods-often savs. “But on these small-scale family forests, whose
does. His current model features a radio-controlled primary purpose is often recreation or peace of mind,
winch mounted on a traile!, so the forester can gently it gives an opportunity for people who consider them-
“tweak” logs out ro the road. “The challenge for me is selves environmcntalists to become mor€ active parucl-
to develop a technology that’s economically possible,” pants in rhe marketplace.”
he says, “with a capital cost low enough that a logger As tlrey become involved, though, they will need to
with some intelligence and drive can do good work make that marketplace more realistic. They’ll need to
without having to sell himself off to John Deere or the consider, for instance, the example of Mel Ames, who
big banker.” (For a small logging
cont!actor, the huge payrnents
on an 580,000 skidder can all
b u t r e q u i r e h i m t o c u t m o r e
trees, more carelessly, than he
might like to.) Wirh his low-
priced system, Brown says he’s
more or less in control of his
destinl “l can practicallv live off
the interest,” he insists. Brown
exlracrs just a half-cord to a cord
of wood oer acre per year, earn-
ing from S5C a cord for pulp to
$600 a cord for
wood. “I’m looking out the win-
dow right now at some ash rees
and some rock maples,” he says.
“Somedav I’ll be able to market
t h e m f o r a d e c e n t p r i c e . O r
s o m e o n e e l s e w i i l – r h e s e t r e e s
will live for a hundred and filiy
to two hundred years,”
I
through college off his woodlot
in Atkinson, Maine. A forester
by training, he’s been managing
the land for 50 years without
ever clear-cutting. He has ah,ral’s
depended on high-value trees,
w h i c h g r o w s l o w l y a n d h a v e
dght, narrow rings.
wood. “Prices are going up, cspe-
cially for quality wood,” he sa1’s.
“When you slarr cutting in a
stand, you’d better understand
w h i c h t r e e s a r e g o i n g t o b e
worth a lot in the future.” As
l o n g a s h e a v o i d s e x p e n s i l e
equipment, he says, “a person
can make a liling”-and grou’ a
forest with more wood per a.-re
than it contained a half-century
before. “I suppose I could have
helped iound the Ecoforestry Institute because no stock market,” he says. If :c, he mrghr well be rrcher,
forestry school was inreresled in th” conc”pt, sa),.s the aDd the land would certainly be poorer. “But I trv ro
new-forestry movement is “not big at all in terms of look at my woodlot like a stock market investment.
wood volume, but in rerms of the number of people Onll there’s a lot of things like hunting and fishing
involved, it’s grown significantly over the past five and canoeing and lookiog at moose that you don’t get
years.” Many of the ne* comers turn to old-time with any stock market.”
forcsters who’ve been practicing the art for decades. All of r-rs who make decisions about our own wood-
It’s a litde like organic farming 20 years ago-and in- lots, about the national forests, or even about the vast
deed, some of the same people who have been con- tracts of industrial forest will need to shed some of the
fronting agribusines for
years are now staading prejudices of the economist-the supposedly logical
Wendell Berrl’, the Kentucky farmer-essayist, writes a end real benefits, short- and long-term, local atrd glob-
lection, Another Tum oJ tk Ctank.’A forest makes things forests, need to try for arr understaading as rich, corn-
slowly,” he writes. “A good folesr economy would plex, and rnultifacered as the woods themselves. We’ll
therefore be a patiena ecoDom)’. It would also be an un- hale to remember that money sometimes grows on
selfish one, foi good foresrers’must always look toward trees, but so do many other things. l
In rrrly rDring in tho Grsrt Snoky florntains, talso Eoiomon’5 8s.l:!rd lriuad Dhrcallr ccrDot ! illl3ido, clrbing orod0n.
