Seeing the Forest for the Trees

If the axes and bills enter the hills and forests only at the proper time, the wood will be more than can be used.

Thus was the basic concept of forestry, and the purpose of foresters, so aptly stated over 22 centuries ago. But mankind, as it is wont to do, must re-learn its lessons with each successive generation. It has been said that a forest is history, but it is more. It is a living reminder of the effluence of time. Oaks standing guard at Stonehenge once watched ancient Iberians of neolithic times stage ancient rituals. Shimmering Cottonwoods along the creek and river valleys of the Great Plains on the American Continent once stood testimony to the great horse cultures. Olive trees along the remnants of the Appian Way once swayed, possibly themselves even in awe, as mighty Roman Legions passed in review. Prehistoric Ginkos shaded but the Great Wall once whispered basic truths to meditating eastern philosophers. And Cedars of Lebanon surrounding Jerusalem once drooped their branches to comfort Christ during his trial of conscience in the Garden of Gethsemene. Trees have much to tell us, and forests even more, if we only listen.

Forestry is a profession that listens to these whispers, and as such is one of the oldest of the world's professions. Most people think it has modern roots, and in some sense it has. The foresters of today are very different from the first foresters of Lebanon who maintained sacred groves 5½ millenia ago, or the woodwards of medieval Europe who enforced forest laws to protect the hunting priviledges of sovereigns. But while the reasons to protect and manage forests have changed, the need to do so is as old as mankind's avarice. As far back as 3,000 B.C., timber shortages were occuring in China, and similar shortages were to follow throughout all the world's great empires. Forestry is not a new profession, but an ongoing attempt to manage the natural world in a postive manner, usually in response to overuse, greed, and self-serving doctrines.

There is a great deal of information about how to manage trees, particularly about mankind's scientific attempts to sustain and protect them. There is even a great deal of information on the history of modern forestry, largely from its roots in German forestry a few centuries ago. But what seems missing is the place that forests have held in the context of world history, and the impacts they have had on our social and spiritual well-being. Trees have always been used to manufacture products that make our lives more comfortable. But when we look beyond the trees, we find that the forest has enriched our lives in many significant ways. That is what this site attempts to do -- to delve into the richness that forests have brought to our basic lives over the course of time.