What is Forestry?

Forestry is the management of forests and their byproducts with a scientific and ecologically centered view. It is, to romanticise, planting trees we may never sit in the shade of! Is there anything more beautiful, more noble, or half as impactful as replanting forests back from decimation?

Why Forestry?

In truth, one can argue against forestry in many ways and have a completely valid point. If we were to get every person in this great republic and make them form groups, it would go like this: One group would say "Oh, but forestry is not economical! we must hyper dense farmage that is controlled and contained!", another would say "we can simply just use bone meal when it's needed, why would we need forests when industrial processes exist?", the next would mumble "its just a matter of pillaging the wilds, theres no need to replant, nature is vast and our needs will be filled...", and I am devistated to say, the final and least vocal group would say "if we don't replant the trees, where will the forests be after our time?".

This is all to say, the answer to the question of "why forestry" is simple, because the future needs us now, and every day we wait, every tree half-slaughtered, is 10 times the effort to fix tomorrow, 100 times the tragedy to the next generation, and 1000 times the devastation to the planet which gives us life. We must embrace forestry and protect the old-growth so that we may continue to use the sole true renewable source of vital goods! A well-managed forest produces fruits, building materials, kindling for furnaces, the inputs for medicine, and just about everything our civilization needs! This is even to neglect the benefits it gives to the environment, how the herbivores flourish with groves of oak, how the birds swell with tall pine, and how microfauna takes forms never seen before under the shade of mighty dark oak canopies.

A pickle to those interested

As a final thought, I will leave you with this: when our children walk fields of barren soil and look up at crumbling stone obstructions, will they think of the majesty of it, or the hubris it took to craft this all as the earth begged for mercy?