I realize the causes of
the forest fires are many and complicated. However, we are focusing on symptoms
just as we do in health care. As always there are underlying causes that can
not be ignored.
Monocropping Trees (Industrialized Tree Farming)
It is my opinion that the
main issue that has turned our forests into tinder boxes is monocropping of our forests. This is the underlying issue that creates a sick forest. This type of industrialized forest practice grows trees that are prone to
stress from lack of nutrients and water. This in turn results in infestation of insects,
that in turn leads to dead trees, which are tinder waiting to burn. To understand what I am talking
about, I need to share a little bit more information with you.
Commercially trees are
monocropped for lumber. It is often conifers that are grown in these
forests, generally fir or pine. Growing large swaths of one tree species is similar to
growing big fields of one type of vegetable, fruit or herb. These plants usually do not
do well unless they are coddled by the farmer. They lack community and protection. The environment lacks the soil biology that supports their ability to receive nourishment and moisture from the soil. This sets them up for poor health and eventually they attract insects that
see the large monocrop area as a smorgasbord of their favorite food. The lack of health and vitality of these monocropped plants/trees makes them more susceptible to the insects, drought and disease. Monocropping of plants/trees additionally leads to greater use of insecticides and herbicides by the industrialized farmer.
Trees like to grow in
tight groups. They grow their branches away from each other but their roots are
intertwined in a loving embrace. Groups of trees grow together from the time
they are young. Scientists have found that mother trees support their young and
many trees share resources. Older, mother trees are the most important to
the network. When mother trees are removed this social network collapses and it
is a disaster for the trees left. They will most likely die. When trees in a
forest are harvested and the older mother trees are removed, bushes, fungi, and
other plants, lichens, bacteria, and other commensal soil critters that keep a forest healthy all
disappear or at least have a very hard time trying to eek out an existence.
In contrast to a natural
forest where trees grow together, and share resources, monocrop trees are a vast
group of loners who do not communicate and support each other. They don’t
receive help from the others as takes place in an older interconnected forest and are more susceptible to any type of environmental stress.
The fungal web
Trees
have an amazing fungal, world wide web under the soil that interconnects them. This
underground fungal mycelium network allows them to communicate and share
resources. All of the forest, both under and above the ground are
interdependent on one another. For details on how this works see Suzanne Simard’s Ted Talk on how trees
talk to each other.
How trees share resources through this underground network
is interesting. The mass of fungal micorrhiza connect to the trees and network
the trees together. This fungal mycelium connects to similar species as well as
disparate species. They move things like nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus, water,
defense signals, and hormones form one tree to another. This shows a
mutualistic symbiosis between many trees.
These micorrhizal fungi
associate with trees all over the world. The fungi help the trees take up minerals and water, while the trees
provide sugars from photosynthesis to the fungi. This
relationship protects the trees from stress and drought. Under the soil, the
fungi create a vast network that links the trees. The network becomes a
hi-way for the trees to send messages or nutrients to each other.
Mother Trees and Tree
Networking
Older mother trees tend to
share their resources more with their young than they do with the other trees. They favor their
children. They assist them in their growth to help them get established when
young, and continue to communicate more with them than other non-related trees.
Mother trees feed their young with a carbon solution. The biggest mother trees have the most
links to others. When the mother tree dies they send out carbon and defense
signals to their children.
The trees nourish each other and warn each other of impending threats. Trees under attack, tell
the others of the issue by using the fungal network.
Trees
need other trees and need a variety of trees and other plants, fungi, and critters to
be healthy. Like us, they need community to be healthy and productive.
When you take out too many
mother trees, the forests networking system collapses.
Trees become stressed and sickly. They are unable to share nutrients, water, and
information. They are more susceptible to stress. Insects can more easily
devastate a monocrop forest. This has been happening to the beetle
infested evergreen forests in the United States for years. Beetles are leaving dead trees
all over the place. These dead trees are perfect fire tinder.
Old growth forests have a
lot to share with us, as do sustainable forests. The mother trees, the underground world of micorrhizal fungi, and other beneficial organisms are all important, and they all need to be nurtured, and remain as a unified system, or the whole system collapses and the forest dies. This sets the ground-work for
unlimited fires, that will continue until all the monocrop forests are burnt to
the ground.
Horse Logging, A Sustainable Future
How should we be
harvesting trees? Currently, very large machines are removing trees in the forests. They are heavy and damage the
micorrhizal fungi under the soil, and they decrease pore size in the soil which in turn decreases
the water available. Less water available in the soil leads to stressed and
dying trees.
Horse logging is safe to
the soil and would not cause the damage to the soil pores and mycorrhiza. Selective
cutting with horse logging will protect the forest as an organism. It will also provide additional jobs sorely needed in logging communities. We
need to be thinking about growing and logging families of trees in methods that
add to the forest's health or at least does not detract from its health. We don’t want
to monocrop rows of trees, we want to selectively remove trees in a radiant forest, and only to the
point where the forest can still remain intact and healthy.
Additionally, we need to
reduce consumption, reuse and recycle what we are able to, as well as reduce population growth on the planet.
I suggest you watch
a 45-minute movie from Amazon called "Intelligent Trees"
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