It is often said that the world is becoming more interested in nature, but what does this mean? Steps are certainly being made globally to ‘save the trees’, yet if trees could talk and had a catchphrase, might it be ‘this can’t be right’ or would it be ‘hurry up, it’s too late’…
Trees Trusting In Us
The quiet, cohesive ways of the woods notice commercial harvesting or industrial replacement. Aspens and birches are being replaced in some countries by more commercially viable pines and firs.
The most valuable trees worldwide are those used for veneer purposes. Walnut trees have long been one of the most sought after trees in the timber industry. Oaks maples, cereals, and ashes are also profitable. (1)
The cutting of wood that is in violation of national laws is known as illegal logging. This includes the harvesting of protected trees, felling of protected species, or exceeding quotas for logging. In countries with weak governance and law enforcement, illegal logging often takes place. China has become a significant market for timber, accounting for half of global illegal timber imports according to one study from 2015. As a result of weak forest governance, illegal timber accounts for over 70% of some countries’ timber exports, such as Peru, Bolivia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Brazil and Indonesia, lower proportions of the total timber produced is illegal (Brazil – 25%, Indonesia – 50%). Illegal logging is mostly carried out by local communities in countries such as Cambodia or Peru, which receive limited economic benefits, while timber operators and ringleaders receive most of the income. (3)
USA, UK, Finland and Uruguay come out on top as sustainable developers both in planned harvesting and educated regeneration legislation. Responsible approaches have led to better results in both industry and forest land, and are a testament to the beneficial effect of treating nature with respect. (2)
One forest ecologist, Suzanne Simard, has put in three decades of research into Canada’s forests. Her experimental efforts have concluded that trees talk to each other, and just like humans, favor their own kin and families. They are apparently not impressed when we simply try to replace them- especially with a different species. (4)
It’s True, Trees Talk
She set about experiments, and grew mother trees with seedlings of kin and strangers. She also deliberately injured and poisoned a tree and used carbon isotopic tracing to study messages the dying tree would send out. With larger mycorrhizal networks, the dying mother tree tried to colonize it’s kin. Simard found changes in the tree’s carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, water, even defense emissions!
To make elbow room for it’s children, the tree even decreased its own root rivalry. The carbon moved down her trunk into the mycorrhizal network and into her neighboring seedlings. The compounds sent increased the resistance of kin seedlings to future stresses. The tree remembered it’s family. It’s defense signals were clear.
Simard hopes to help forests deal with climate change. Mycology research is one of the largely untapped fields she wishes to explore, because of what we are now beginning to learn about fungal networks and mycelial ‘internets.’ (4)
Trees are the foundation of forests; viewpoints of magnificent glory, towering with brilliant branch networks, making woodland walks wondrous. Yet when it comes to laws of nature, the branches, soil and underground house another whole world, sometimes screaming to survive. A forest is much more than what we see.
