We change. I'm glad we do.

35 years ago, I owned a 5 acre property, and I remember using a chain saw to cut down several mature trees for firewood.

Today, this would be very hard for me to do because I understand what those mature trees represent.

I get that we humans need wood, but when I see an image of a human with a chainsaw cutting down a magnificent tree, I now feel only sad, and shame for what we do to the natural world.

I know you might see me as a tree hugger, but this is how I feel in the 66th year of my life.

a reply to: droid56
I know what you mean. Most of those big trees have been around longer than any living human. Now, we use wood for heat here but we mostly cut down stuff that's dead.

I would feel sad too seeing a tree chopped down. There are so many places where there are buildings and what-not and hardly a tree in sight.

a reply to: Night Star
That sounds like my old apartment. What trees there were, were tiny and sick looking. All I could see out the window were houses and other buildings. I kept the windows covered.

What we are doing to this jewel of a planet is so sad.

originally posted by: Skid Mark
a reply to: Night Star
That sounds like my old apartment. What trees there were, were tiny and sick looking. All I could see out the window were houses and other buildings. I kept the windows covered.

That's what I fear if I have to move this year. Will there be trees around? I sure as hell hope so!

Well, go plant some more.

I have planted 1000's of trees in my life.

Nothing I have found gives me the same thrill.

Some are giants now...

a reply to: whyamIhere

What you do is very good. But it is not the normal thing.

So my husband working at a sawmill would not go over well???

To be fair they only cut pine that has usually been grown specifically to be farmed (Timberland). But folks do need wood. With the cost of electricity and the economy being what it is, some folks just need to cut it to burn. We still need houses and we can use wood or we can use other unnatural resources. Reclaimed wood would be nice of course, but alas... that's too high too.

The good news is, the US requires (Reforestation) on most land. Of course if you own it and want to make a parking lot out of it, they can't require that... but logging in areas just to log, they normally do. There also seems to be some evidence that forests in the US have grown in size in the last century. I would guess it's because we do practice reforestation more now.

This article will tell you some things that might surprise you...

sharplogger.vt.edu...

Of course you are still entitled to feel the way you feel, but knowing more may make you feel a little less bad? Who knows?

I couldn't blame the cutters.

I'm just sad to see the big trees fall.

a reply to: droid56

I feel immense pleasure in being able to report some good news!

Seriously, what?! Good news?!

We now have 3.04 trillion trees on earth!

Surprise! The earth has trillions more trees than we thought

In a banner announcement for shade-lovers everywhere, a new study out of Yale University finds that there are more trees in the world than previously estimated — way, way more.

The research, published this week in Nature, drew on global satellite imagery and more than 400,000 sample counts from forests around the world in order to estimate that there are currently 3.04 trillion trees on earth. This is 750 percent more than the previous best estimate, which was 400 billion.

US Has More Trees Now Than 100 Years Ago

Thanks to decades of forest growth exceeding harvesting rates the US officially has more trees now compared to 100 years ago.

The United States has the fourth largest forest estate of any nation, with 8% of the world’s forests or about 300 million hectares of forest, exceeded only by the Russian Federation, Brazil and Canada. Thanks to sustainable harvesting practices, creation of National Parks and less land being turned to agriculture the rate of forest growth has steadily climbed in the US. In fact, many forestry companies now plant trees than they harvest.

Feel free to congratulate yourselves humans, you can even have a nice fire if you want!

a reply to: droid56

Now I can agree with that. Most kids will never see a truly huge tree in person. Even at my age, when I see a fairly large tree it does make me pause at the rarity and beauty of it because it is something I just don't see a lot of. Anyone who does some digging can find pictures of behemoth trees that were cut down decades upon decades ago. And if you look even harder, most all of the trees they cut down back then were that huge. Just whole forests (looking at the background in older photos) of massive trees and it was normal then because we didn't always log like we do know (at the same rate anyway).

They are gorgeous to see and leave me in awe like you.

ETA - Some pics for reference. I have never seen anything close to these trees in size...

a reply to: droid56

I'm a little older now than you were 35 years ago and during the Christmas break recently I chopped a very large tree down in my back garden because it's roots were slowly moving our garden fence and gate so it wouldn't shut and lock. It's leaves every autumn were also causing a bit of a nuissance for my neighbour on the other side of that fence. I used a chainsaw and went branch by branch before finally going for the trunk

When I had finished and I looked at the tree trunk on the ground and the stump where it stood. I felt sad too. Kind of regretted it a little.

So I know exactly what you mean

a reply to: Skid Mark

There is nothing stopping a person who has five acres of property, who knows the value of ancient trees, from planting fast growing, numerous trees, to farm for firewood. It just takes a little management of things to be able to have both firewood, and preservation of the wonder of the natural world.

originally posted by: droid56
I know you might see me as a tree hugger, but this is how I feel in the 66th year of my life.

There's NOTHING wrong with that! Heck, we literally hug trees in my family.

You sound like a person who values truly important things in life. Your thread warmed my heart, thank you.

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

Those are some amazing pictures. Thank you for sharing.

Someday I hope to buy a ton of abandoned properties and do some planting.