Friday, March 25, 2005

Plantation Trees

An interesting post at Dirt and Soundwaves today. The similarity of “plantation” trees, be it their genetic makeup, age, or size, puts the trees themselves at greater risk and our “crop tending” makes these planted plots less attractive, even dangerous, to wildlife.

Unfortunately, large timber companies are unwilling to enter into “sustainable” harvesting agreements with tree plantations because it isn’t cost effective. Certainly, sound conservation practices would make it most difficult for the timber companies to turn a tidy profit and, in some cases, they may even suffer a loss. I don’t believe the same difficulties would befall smaller operations, though.

I have to look into this more, but it seems to be another case whereby localizing the production of a commodity can result in a net gain for all, including the resource being used. But, as Buddy Holly sang, “That’ll be the day..."

2 comments:

Mikhail Capone said...

In the grand scheme of things, the two approaches are like the difference between a bright flash and a candle that burns forever.

Anonymous said...

You do however, live in the dark a lot longer after a single bright flash Mikhail. "In the grand scheme of things" is not a human time frame.