The sound of chainsaws and wood chippers always makes me uneasy.
Even when the task is right and good, it just seems wrong when a tree falls to machinery and tools.
Still, the century-old practice of fire suppression makes raging wildfires inevitable. So, we strike a balance. We do what a lightning strike or prescribed burn would do, we take out the slash, brush, brambles. We take out the weak and crowded.
We change our world, and go from this ↑ to this ↓.
We clear the understory.
Sad to see, but in the long run a thick forest is a dead forest.
ReplyDeleteWith the chance of wild fire, it's best to clean things up and thin it out.
ReplyDeleteGood work. Now come to my forest and do the same.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a grateful forest to me, with the winter sunlight and blue sky shining in. Just like the forest in the old photos.
ReplyDeleteBalance has been lovingly restored, with recognition as to how difficult it is to watch trees fall to machinery and tools in the process.
EurerGood forest management. You and the trees are safer now.
ReplyDeleteIt looks so much better and safer for you and the remaining trees--plus the wild life and Bums that would be with out a home if you didn't. Well done.
ReplyDeleteyou've done a great job, as evidenced by the photos. you've got a lot of sawdust there. see http://www.woodworkingformeremortals.com/2010/10/whole-lot-of-uses-for-sawdust.html
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading a decription of witnessing a forest fire John Muir wrote back in the mid 1800's, when he and a mule named Brownie were trekking around seeing what the range of Sequoias was. Astounding details and imagery; of course back then there was more room for the fires to range. They didn't have to be managed by humans.
ReplyDeleteYou have to protect where you live...
your trees are lookin' good!
ReplyDeleteYou're doing the right thing.
ReplyDeleteThe forest is happy again.
ReplyDeleteKilling trees is horrific, but death is part of the circle of life and nothing would be gained by allowing the conditions for a wildfire--the trees would die anyway, wouldn't they? But you'd lose your home as well.
ReplyDeleteYou are not taking the trees down callously, but with respect for them and with a hope of saving the forest from worse devastation.
That's the true test, isn't it? Doing the right thing when it's hard.
ReplyDeleteThanks, too, for your kind note - it came at time when it was much appreciated.
Clearing the understory--sounds like what I'm doing with my new novel. Hope it comes out as spare and clean as your forest!
ReplyDelete