“You had me at sustainable.”
Life Cycle
Between the creepy crawlers, unpronounceable diseases, overcrowding, and tinder dry fire-loving conditions, the forest has a lot to deal with. Fortunately, there are active manager types who do their level best to keep Idaho forests healthy and growing. Reforestation always follows harvest in working forests. It’s a healthy, stress-free lifestyle that keeps the forest movin’ forward.
Renewable vs. Sustainable
Here’s how it shakes out. If you cut a tree down, can you plant another one? You bet. That means renewable. Can you do it forever? Only if you balance what you take with what you give back and consider about a thousand other things. That’s called management. And management is what makes things sustainable. There’s nothing like Idaho forests and nothing like being renewable. Truly cool.
Future
What does managing Idaho’s forests have in common with a burly lumberjack in a log roll competition? Both take an enormous amount of balance. The real trick is to stay centered by balancing today’s need for jobs, products, recreation, water, beauty and homes for woodsy critters with the need future generations may have. We all need healthy, growing forests.
