questions

-H inreresting sacks of calories, and that its impact along the wa/,'Hence, rvhen it finally reach-

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. 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

Lec's lsstrme, in orher words, rhat you've done so-c- channels, carrl,ing sift, causing floods. thing rott.'n and God has rurn.'.1 1ou inro an economist. And that leaves no li?rer in rhe ground ro seep out

Norv rou hare ln .rssignmcnt: \\'hat should be .lonr come rhe hor davs of summer. \\re've known rhis a long *ith rhc one-rhir,l of the errrh's rime: the AJiron,lr.L p",L rL"

!-t5 ilssunr!'. firr rh.-.lLrr;rrion of rhis ar- "lf v,ru'rc been out in a rainsrorm undcr i mtjor 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

*ith rhc one-rhird of rhe errrh's r_ rime; the Adirondack Park, rhe drr land rhat is colcred bl fbr-

| - |

fitsr large experimenr in conser- 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 ^ ^

/ S r a c e s , u , a s c r e r r e d i n p a r c b v 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-

rlii::,Iril:ri'liii1T LTOOCt [;ril6::Jirll"$brorln; fbre't: .:re tillrng.rcross v -D' land war.'rshed is compacr.,d or 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

I ) d l e s s u s e f u l . C h a n n " l a r e c t t

turned into subdivisiori or shop- y_ 9a-

. deep.r and deeper, tlooding I'e-

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 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"

-aki.,g ,r,on- TIISTS: FORESTS ARE N"- rirrt iiio. .".""r1r. ,g*"a

:i.ili.T:,1l,:rl*"":#:"T: \\'oRrH NroRE sr.\NDrNc il"ltl;f;:"j:"';::"':::#""'' than Sl billion to protec the w.a- nomic decisions good or bad? IHAN LOGGED. tersheds around irs reservoirs. \\'hat is a fbtest really worth" Not because it liked the rrees,

For a long rime environ;nen- By Btq_ MCKIBBEI{ but because a rrearment plant ro 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,

Though ornamental ferns are not essensial, a stable rant.rge, given rhar people care abour wheic rhey live, 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

'rn hour. "Thev rvanted a prisrine spot by rhe

rain immense amounrs of carbon that would orhcrw,ise riler," sevs fhe nrauor. 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.."-

i

Nol therc are big Ilcets of scmis picking th.'m up.'

seerch Center, on Cape Cod- keeping the forests standing has a quantifiable economic impact.

Recenrh, a universitl' ream as- 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

A *.rrt,',0 PI{ODUCTS-i:RO]\1 I],\RK

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- 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.

\bu are holding rhe most basic 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

slowly soak up carbon. But it will be a long rime befole its reclcling rete liom the cu.rent 40 percent to 50 rhey contain even halF as much as the narive fbresr. pcrcent, chat uould increase rhe world's supplv of 6ber

Still, the &ct thar forests are saving the $orld from lv -1 perccnr. Buc the depressing facrs oF exponenrial rhe greenhouse effect doesn't do much lor the loc.rl grorvrh .rppll here as in so manl places. Because rhe economv. Ma!be l'ou re better off just cu$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,

. \ 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' 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-

Consider the public forests first. Many of che world's cause. among other things, it overestimares the price 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

ttT^oP\crFr(.

NORTH\\'EST DOF-S

NOT HAVE TO (-HOOSE

BETWEEN JOBS ,\ND

THE EN!'IRONNIENT.,'

more logical, No one values a cree at zero. Bglrg trmber com-

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 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-

tensively manage" their land to 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

t . . .sUCn aS \reorgta-racrflc to Slote 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

t-

"free good" and rvhatever it clears from selling them foresrs *hr're each individual tree would be worth far 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

The debate over the value of publiclv owned lrees ro do *'ith it now. If you have a stand of trees, you can 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.,

forests. They want those trees valued for euerything on their investm€nt of 2 ot 3 percent. As a result, 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

0lockwis€ trom abovor lmanita and sw;rd f€rn in 0r€gon; bNtd cylroas in southsrn Florlda; Californir't nedwood tlatloral Park; doo.dent old gr0wth in Itount Rairisr llationrl Park, warhington; young poplar3 in th6 Great Snokt Morntrins,

\ r D r g o \ \ | \ \ l 1 \ i l c 9 6

srarted falling at t record pace so the rnoney could bur. 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.

The w.hole picture is more complicared rhan that, of 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.

But che results of the various calculations have been :. predietably depressing. From the air, much of norrhern

Maine resembles a dog with terminal mange, with vasr 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 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 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-

-"'-,, ,. -, -,-:-.ter quaiitv co atstherics. WhEn iri done, sals Swanton,

"tt ,t'..;;pi"yt l^nd

-;ll be classified--some for

high-r'ield management, some for ecological protection. "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

long time." In other words, what 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.

If the economics of forestr)' are 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 inhabit a spruce forest or if loure a logger rrees in the rropics. Developers might have to reparr hoping to cut trees sometime in the firrure. upsrteam r'arersheds before they build new projects.

As a resuit, Nlaine environmentalists are now chal- \\t'll all need to pal zealous atrerrrion to wasre and 7 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

dum chat, if approved this fall, would ban clear-cutting That new forestry is slowly being born on a few larg- 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

th. Brown rcpresents the fifth genererion o[ a rimber fami- places desrrol'ed, the jobs lost." ll'; his farher worked rn the Pacific Northwest with '

Clockwiso from rbovoi I slut makss itE toms in Tonnossoo; forost filtratiotl systomg opsrat€ at full forcs in ltaln0,3 Debscon.ag Lakes; tho Middlg prong of ths Cr€at Smoky Mountsins'Littl€ Rlysf; a[d r cricad0 in tho oregor Cord nants.

Weyerhaeuser, rhe grearesr industrial-fotestry giant of harvests that thcy will not live to reap." Such injunc- 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.

A tinkerer bv nature. Btown has spent the last decade Thevre rhe kind of techniques that David Brynn, the 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

"eneer-quality 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,"

( ( T I

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 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.

The result is strong, atttactile 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

Drei,gson, the Brirish Columbia acadernic who clear-cut it and put the mone)' in the bank or the 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

-"ny years are now staading prejudices of the economist-the supposedly logical

up to careless forestry. rigor that plevents us from thinking about real costs Wendell Berrl', the Kentucky farmer-essayist, writes a end real benefits, short- and long-term, local atrd glob-

good deal about small woodlo$ in his most recent col- al. We'll need to stop thinking so simplisticallv about 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.

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