Sustainable Forestry

At Bright Orca, the environment is always near and dear to my heart. I have always been a big supporter of environmental causes and wish to use this platform to talk more about why the environment needs protection and how we can coexist with nature in a more synergistic way. Being heavily pro-business (which I am) doesn't mean you have to be anti-environment.

Far too often I find that individuals equate the two as being mutually exclusive and they immediately scoff at the notion of the environment and successful businesses coexisting. For this first environmental post I want to talk about the importance of sustainable forestry and how fostering a system that is good for both economics and the environment is within our reach.

We have been trained to view lumber harvesting as a very destructive process that ruins the environment. I can remember many childhood movies showing villainous people coming in and clear cutting rainforests to harvest extravagant wood for fancy tables. This negative perception of lumber harvesting has led to destructive conversations that do not advance the cause of coexistence, it just looks to paint the foresters as the bad guys and the environmentalists as communist hippies.

Lumber is a vitally important renewable resource for everyone. The key point there is that lumber is renewable, we know that if we cut down a tree we can always grow it back. We know that, given enough time, we can regrow entire forests that have been lost to deforestation. There have been many nations who have successfully reforested areas that were once clear cut (such as India and the Appalachian region in the USA) but it would obviously be better to not need to clear cut native forest lands in the first place.

This renewability of our forests is an amazing trait, by continuing to strategically improve forestry practices we can minimize the need for clear cutting and better protect their ecology.

To minimize the need to clear cut natural forests, it seems like a good idea to strategically grow farmed forests. We have the ability to meet a large chunk of the world's lumber needs but the major challenge is the time commitment required to grow trees large enough to fulfil lumber requirements for the heaviest consumers of the product. That is where we should start planning now for more expansive farmed forests that can (literally) grow to meet the industry needs over time. This will go a long way towards minimizing our impact on natural forests.

Another excellent idea is selective cutting of trees in existing forests. Using this method, foresters are able to go into a forest and remove enough trees to meet their needs but not so many that it destroys the environment. In fact, this can even be beneficial in places prone to wildfires.

Removal of some of the trees can lead to increased space between trees as well as reduced debris on the forest flood. Both contribute to reduced risk of large forest fires. This tactic is especially useful for obtaining older growth trees, such as Oak, that would take too long to grow to justify farming.

In all, we know that lumber is a vital resource for society. We understand that we will likely always need some level of new lumber entering into the system but that lumber can be harvested sustainably. The goal should not be to halt lumber production, but rather, make the lumber harvesting sustainable and minimally harmful to the environment. I would love to hear some of your thoughts on how we can better sustain our forests while continuing to harvest much needed lumber. Please comment below and as I would enjoy having this conversation.