However, a decade as a contributing writer is long enough. After 10 years of writing The Forest Around Us for the Hampshire Review, I’ve decided the many hours spent working up each article should now be turned to other activities.
Those who know me well are aware that most of my “free time” is spent volunteering with the Cacapon and Lost Rivers Land Trust (www.cacapon.org). The trust helps landowners keep and protect their property from sprawling development through conservation easements. I’ll now spend more time with the trust, so farms and forests of our rural countryside can provide food, fiber, wildlife habitat and countless other benefits for our children and grandchildren.
I heard an old mountaineer say he “needed a mountain to rest his eyes upon in the morning.” I would add that the mountain should be cloaked in lush forest. In Hampshire County one might take that for granted, but as woods are cleared and houses are built on the slopes and ridges of our forested skyline, there are fewer places to rest one’s eyes. Though still remarkable, our views are not what they were when I started writing.
Often I’ve wondered what pre-settlement forests were like. The forests of the late 1900s that I have seen, pale in comparison to the primeval Eastern forests richly described in scientific detail by E. Lucy Braun. The Last Forest, written by G. D. McNeill and published in 1947, contains a firsthand account of the shocking loss of West Virginia’s native forests in the early 1900s. In my brief 30-odd years in West Virginia, I have witnessed a decline in the health and diversity of the forest around us. The forest has always been changing, but the rate of change and the human-caused nature of those changes seem to threaten its survival.
There has been a steady decrease in interest in the environment and outdoor activities since the 1980s. A recent study by the National Academy of Science shows an 18 to 25 percent drop in the number of Americans participating in outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing, hiking, camping and backpacking. Instead of going out to enjoy the outdoors, our time is spent on sedentary ‘activities’ such as watching TV, browsing the Internet, playing video games and shopping. We substitute nature shows on TV for experiencing nature ourselves. As we move further from the natural world, so do our attitudes. With fewer outdoor experiences, we have less respect for, less interest in and are less committed to protecting our natural environment. As our personal involvement diminishes, so does our awareness of and concern for the environment that sustains us.
We tend to value things because of financial rewards, a sense of security, or due to personal significance or meaning to us. Forests give us benefits such as income, firewood, wildlife habitat, hunting and fishing opportunities and other recreation. Society benefits from wood products for construction, chemicals and other material, as well as less tangible benefits such as aesthetics and beauty, peace of mind and even lower crime rates. Recently have we begun to value forests for the natural services they provide that make life possible. Native Americans referred to rivers as the lifeblood of the Earth and to the forests as its lungs, showing greater understanding than most Americans today. Yet, even these may not be the most valuable benefits from forests.
Like our children, what we value most may be impossible to put a price and be hard to explain to others. Like the mountains, the forest around us makes us feel good, makes us feel at home, give us a sense of place and helps define who we are – West Virginians.
There are still many topics I want to write about. I want to elevate the importance of forests and the natural environment in the consciousness of the general public so people who feel removed from the natural world realize they are totally dependent upon it. The Review staff generously offered to allow my occasional return if I feel so moved and The Forest Around Us may be available through my Web site www.timberlandconsulting.com or in a future book. Until then, I bid you a fond farewell and challenge you to take good care of your own forest. Recognize its role in keeping the planet alive. See, experience, enjoy and appreciate this critically important piece of our landscape so your eyes may continue to rest upon — the forest around us.
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