Honouring our forests

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Healthy forests once covered a large area of the planet, continuously producing oxygen and filtering H2O. Yet, as imperative as forests are, in as little as a human
lifetime, modern civilization has taken to defoliating the landscape to a point where that delicate life-supporting balance can no longer be taken for granted.

Healthy forests once covered a large area of the planet, continuously producing oxygen and filtering H2O. Yet, as imperative as forests are, in as little as a human
lifetime, modern civilization has taken to defoliating the landscape to a point where that delicate life-supporting balance can no longer be taken for granted.
Imbalance in a living system, when pressured by encroaching development and pollution from industrial activities, is an invitation for disease, bacterial and viral proliferation as well as infestation from invasive species. All wreak havoc on
plant and animal kingdoms, and ourselves, as we’re now witnessing with the COVID pandemic.
Wetlands are the kidneys of the planet. Long root systems of mature, moisture-
loving trees work in symphony with the plethora of subterranean organisms to
capture carbon and nitrogen pollution from the air, feeding it to plants and
in turn, animals, that are all part of the watercourse.
The goal for all landowners needs to be above and beyond minimum requirements, particularly when it comes to maintaining or restoring the delicate balance of functioning ecosystems and wetlands on their property. Ripping out protective wooded fencerows, tree lines on roadsides and creek banks, we now know is likened to throwing gasoline on a house fire, expediting the loss of the very things we need most: biodiversity, unpolluted water and clean air.
The forest might be where we’d be best to direct an apology, as a sentient being,
able to communicate through its intricate mycorrhizal fungal networks to the bastion of interconnected species of flora, fauna and everything in between. While we’re at it, unless we choose to change our ways, we may as well apologize now to our grandkids for ignoring our choice to protect their best chances of inheriting a world as healthy as – or better than – we found it.

C. Watson
BRISTOL