A Forest Environmentalist's Dilemma

Forest sustainability and management of the global forest ecosystem has never been so complicated. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in its most recent report on our World's forests, suggests that we are losing forests globally but at a slower rate due to increased tree planting. The United States Forest Service reports that tree removals are down since the early 1980's.

Forester and ecologist, Aldo Leopold has embraced the term land ethic which "changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such." The question is, how do we do this?

Our world forests have never been looked upon with such scrutiny. Major disagreements over what to do has polarized both the scientific and environmental communities. We need to cut - we need to preserve; we need to plant - we've planted too much; we should burn - we should never burn; we have a human obligation - we have an ecosystem obligation.

Who is right? Each view is staunchly defended. Each has radically differing agendas which influence their solutions. In any event, they all come about as a result of a very real concern for the future of our forests and the resulting effects it will have on this Earth.

Let me try to give you a brief introduction to these differing beliefs that create and complicate forestry issues. I have come to think of these views as the pantheistic, radical environmental, channeled environmental, and traditional environmental points of view.

• The Pantheist

• The Radical Enviromentalist

• The Channeled Enviromentalist

• The Traditional Enviromentalist