Sawdust

"When they turn the pages of history, when these days have passed long ago, will they read of us with sadness for the seeds that we let grow?"

A Farewell To Kings, Neil Peart, RUSH, 1977

The peace and quiet of our little patch of land in the woods has been violated. The owner of the woods next door has sold the timber and now loggers are clear-cutting the tiny forest. It looks like a war zone and sounds almost as bad. This isn't your grandpa's logging operation either, this is huge machines able to hold, cut, limb and stack entire tree trunks fifty feet tall onto a trailer with surgical precision and speed.

We used to see deer, turkeys, and other wildlife in our front yard, but I seriously doubt they'll be around much anymore. For the moment we can't even work outside because the air is saturated with fine sawdust so thick it's like a dust storm. Breathing outdoors this weekend is out of the question.

I understand that loggers need to make a living, and I also understand that with our ever expanding population, timber is always needed, but there is simply no excuse for clear-cutting. It's nothing more than economic expediency in the name of profits and laziness on the part of all parties involved. We know better than to do it this way, yet we still allow these kinds of environmental crimes to go unpunished.

There ought to be a law, but there isn't and there won't be as long as we continue to allow big money and the profit motive to reign supreme in the world.

Some will say I'm a hypocrite for condemning the logging industry (or at least some of its practices) while continuing to burn wood as the sole means of heating my home each winter. I'll admit, it's not what I would chose had I designed and built this structure myself, but it is what it is.

After several years of searching, I have found a fire wood supplier who only harvests dead or dying trees or trees in the path of new construction which will be coming down regardless of all other concerns. To my way of thinking, this is as close to sustainable harvesting as one can get.

Often, over the twenty years I've spent in the utilities industry I've watched in horror as contractors moved in on one plot of land after another, felled all the trees and then simply piled and burned everything not suitable for resale as lumber.

We live in a sad, shallow, lazy culture. Someday our descendants will curse our names for the things that we let happen to their world.