My family has a history with forests.
On my mom’s side, forests are a place of peace, escape, freedom, and resistance. My Polish great grandmother met my great grandfather deep in the forests of Poland, at a secret rendezvous for the resistance against the Nazis. On my dad’s side, forests are everything. My Finnish grandfather is Sami, a native of the arctic regions of Lapland, much of which is now part of Finland. Forests are shelter, food, life. Forests are home.
So maybe it’s just in my blood to be so absolutely enamored with the magic of the evergreens. There is no greater sense of freedom than when running barefoot over mossy, pine needle trails, balancing on tree roots and picking blueberries as I go.
My fav pic of all time :)
FOR EXTRA CREDIT
Minnesota, like Finland, has billions of trees—and it’s profitable.
In 2022, one of Finland’s key economic sectors, the forestry industry, was valued at around EUR 20 billion. 20 Billion. AND! Apparently, “forestry operations are no obstacle to berry and mushroom picking and other use of forests for recreation,” (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland, 2023).
In the U.S., forests contribute over $300 billion to the economy and support about 2.5 million jobs (U.S. Forest Service, 2022).
Long story short: wood is good.
Personally, I find forests to be immeasurably valuable even if they don’t directly benefit us humans. However, in a society like ours, it’s easier to protect something if it’s profitable. What do I mean by that? If we want forests, we have to use our forests.
We can fill them with hiking trails (or mountain biking trails!), or we can harvest them for lumber. Ideally in a way that doesn’t obliterate the environment via clear-cutting (a.k.a. The Lorax style). After all, that doesn’t exactly leave much room for frolicking under an emerald-colored canopy. If it was up to me, I would have everyone return their backyards to the way they used to be—forests, prairies, etc.—and let people sell a tree or two to a lumber company every once in a while. This is just an individualized form of selection harvesting, which is basically just chopping one tree, or a small group of trees, at a time instead of all at once. It’s less profitable than clear-cutting, but obviously better for the planet. Priorities.
Wood is good because wood is renewable, biodegradable, beautiful, strong… but not all-powerful. It has limitations. It swells and shrinks with humidity, and is full of imperfections. It’s got knots. It warps. Different trees have different wood that can be used for different things. It’s complicated and usually not as strong as steel and concrete.
For now :)
Hint: Densified Wood may be changing that!
When it comes to wood, there is constant innovation. For example, engineered wood is bits and pieces of extra lumber are smashed together with heat, pressure, adhesives—whatever—to make something bigger, better, and stronger. Plywood, fiber board, and oriented strand board (OSB), are all examples of engineered wood.
What is extra awesome is that most of the time, when a tree is cut, every single part of it is utilized, down to each spec of sawdust. In fact, it’s common for extra leaves, branches, bark, etc. to be burned as biomass to power lumber processing facilities. This is great—biomass for energy fuel is always better than fossil fuels.
I’ve talked a whole lot about wood, and yet I still haven’t even mentioned the most relevant detail. Drum roll… carbon footprint!!!
So, forests are carbon sinks (absorb and store carbon from the atmosphere). Kind of. In the LONG-run, trees will always be carbon neutral. As trees grow, they store carbon (the older the tree, the more carbon it absorbs & stores). When they are cut down and chopped up and yada yada, the carbon remains stored in the wood up until it decomposes or burns. In other words, lumber only stores carbon for as long as it’s used. We should use more reclaimed wood.
I want forests to continue to be a part of my story and my family history; I want people to care about nature like I do; I want people to know that wood, one of mother nature’s greatest gifts, is good, strong, and beautiful.
Just like you :)
Thanks for reading!!!
Works Cited
Forests and the economy. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland. 2023.
https://mmm.fi/en/forests/forestry/sustainable-forest-management/forests-and-th
-economy#:~:text=Forest%20industry%20is%20one%20of,cent%20of%20Finla
d’s%20export%20revenue.
Forest products. US Forest Service Research and Development. (2022).
https://research.fs.usda.gov/forestproducts?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Add comment
Comments