by Zach Bigalke

Created on: March 11, 2008

Forest have managed for millennia to regulate their own growth, free from the intervention of humans. Forest thinning is a relatively new concept in the history of our planet... and it is inessential for the health of the forests. Thinning is merely a practice intended to make humans feel artificially safe about desecrating forest spaces with their houses and Hummers and HUMANNESS...

What exactly IS forest thinning, though? The practice of thinning the forest essentially boils down to this: reducing the density of tree growth to prevent an overabundance of fuels with which fires can spread. Thinning is practiced near communities to prevent fire's spread to human establishments. Thinning is performed in order to make fire management easier for fire crews fighting a forest blaze. Thinning is done to give timber companies a source of revenue. Nowhere in the motives behind burning is there any understanding of what the forest needs to best sustain its health...

Fires are a natural occurrence. They are a way for the forests to rejuvenate themselves, to eliminate dead and toppled trees, to clear the undergrowth, and to regenerate the soil with nutrients so as to promote long-term growth of the indigenous flora. Lightning has been helping to regenerate our forests for time immemorial. The practice of thinning allows for forests to become just dense enough so that a fire would destroy them without providing the necessary fuel to effectively regenerate.

Forest thinning, furthermore, damages the ecosystem and alters it in ways that may make humans feel safer, yet cause real detriment to the habitat of other creatures who depend on the trees. A new study, expected to be published soon in the Journal of Wildlife Management, has found that the habitats of Canadian lynx and their prey, snowshoe hares, are imperiled when forest thinning is practiced. Dependent on downed trees for shelter, thinning effectively wrests the shelter away from native species in order to make the invasive species - humans - feel more secure in their invasion...

Our forests have outlived human existence, and trees will continue to grow long after the pillagers known as humans wither into extermination. Fire will continue to cleanse the ground, regardless of what thinning practices humans implement in an effort to protect fleeting property. Thinning is not essential to keep forests healthy, but it is a fine way to keep humans placated in false senses of safety and security...

Learn more about this author, Zach Bigalke.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.