About Forests & People -- Forests and Beginning Civilization

The Fertile Crescent, land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, is the place where people first gathered together and formed cities.   In today’s world, that’s Iraq, there has been a lot of history played out in that part of the world.  That is where people started using forests in ways different from how the meandering hunters and gathers and herdsmen used forests, so that’s where this story starts. 

Before there could be cities there had to be agriculture that produced surpluses of food so people could have time and energy to think about things other than chasing down an antelope or wooly mammoth for the next meal, or finding places to pick berries and dig roots to make a stew, then moving on to follow more wild animals and berries.  For people to be able to stay in one placer and grow a crop with enough surplus for some security a few things needed to be in place, land, water and temperature suitable for crops, and nearby forests for building materials, tools and fuel.  With these elements and some human knowhow people could grow crops, cities could develop and technology increase.  And that was the situation between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers where Ur, one of the first cities developed.  Unfortunately the next thing that happens in this course of events is war for controlling more land and forests, but that’s another long sad story that is still going on.  Others can tell us about the wars, we’re talking about forests and the land.   

Agriculture started in the Fertile Crescent because there was good soil, forests nearby, favorable temperatures and the people figured out how to take water from the rivers in ditches to irrigate crops.  Of course irrigation was necessary because that area has dry summers, irrigation could happen because the rivers’ waters kept flowing from melting mountain snows far upstream where there were also forests.  Every city and civilization needed nearby forests because wood was the energy source for heating and cooking, it is what people used for building shelters and tools.  As shelters and tools improved over the centuries to the point that bronze and glass were important, it took more energy to keep it all going and growing.  The energy was from burning wood.

Industry and agriculture pushed forests back for hundreds and thousands of years as civilizations grew.  Babylon, the city at the center of the great Persian Empire must have been beautiful, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, were there.  Other nations were also growing.  King David of the Jews wanted wood to build a Temple and government buildings in Jerusalem, but he had no forests.  The king of Lebanon had forests and needed wheat, they made a deal, wheat for wood, cedar wood.  The story is in the Old Testament, (I Kings chapter 5) King David sent 40,000 loggers (hewers of wood) to the Cedars of Lebanon.  They cut trees, lots of trees — they cut most of the forest!  They skidded the logs to the east shore of the Mediterranean Sea, floated the rafts of logs south then hauled them inland to Jerusalem to build the government and religious buildings.  Think of the taxes those people must have paid!

Civilization was off and running, forests were fueling human progress and paying a heavy toll.

About Forests and People

Forests are about the long run, our thoughts are mostly about the short run.  We think, “What’s for dinner?”  “When’s that bill due?”  “Did you make any sales today?”  “How’d our stocks do this quarter?”  Occasionally we’ll think about retirement, but that’s a long way off, or not, and it’s a looming crisis.   Trees’ perspective is for hundreds of years and they’ve been successful at staying around sustaining their organization (yes, organization) for a very long time.  It may do us some good to think more like a tree.

Of course, we need to be concerned about both short-term and long-term, but the immediate needs shout so loud from our TVs, cell phones, and due dates there isn’t much time, or energy, left to think about long-term things like our forests, or the health of this beautiful Earth.   But now, finally, we must make the time and effort.  Our home, Earth, is clearly saying that something is wrong – we give her voice names; mega-forest fires, Katrina, Big Sandy, severe typhoons, tornadoes in November (2013) an Arctic vortex the next November.  She wants us to listen.  She will be heard!  We need to respond with thoughts and plans beyond the most opportunistic ways to make short-term dollar profits from nature.

Scientific studies, largely financed by governments, tell us long-term things to do for the good of Earth, for the good of forests.  We need to listen, to think, to insist governments, industries, businesses and individuals do long-range thinking that considers nature’s consciousness and the long-term needs of Earth and all the people, critters and plants on it.  Forests are a good place to start to understand the natural world, they respond to environmental changes on a daily basis and over centuries.  How things are going are recorded in the tree rings - growth rates, if you want to put it in our economic terms.   

We think about what we know and are exposed to every day, our high speed life, family, IT, quests for security, work, the news - it’s hard to take time to know much about forests.  They are remote from our daily concerns.  But, big thinkers are saying there are four great issues humanity MUST deal with in the 21st century:  1) World population, 2) War and peace, 3) A secure food supply and 4) Sustaining the natural world so people can continue to exist.  Numbers one and four, World population and Sustaining the air, the soil, the water, the critters and plants of Earth are issues humanity has not faced before.  

Forests are a  critical factor in sustaining the natural resources that support us as individuals and our civilization as we know it.  Forests clean the air, profoundly affect water, provide habitat for the wild critters, grow wood for building and they are a place where we experience beauty and renew our spirit.  Forests were important to people long before we began to gather into cities and they have been more important since we’ve been doing that.  Now, it’s time to relearn about forests, maybe more than ever.  We need our forests and we need them to be healthy and we need to know how to help them.

If knowledge and interest precede actions, let’s, each of us, gather a little knowledge, develop some interest and take actions that actually help our forests and Earth.

“What we have loved, others will love and we will teach them how”   —-  Wordsworth

Morning Forest

A good time for a walk in the woods!

About me:

My name is Jerry Covault and my interest in sharing the information contained in this blog began early.  I was born on an Iowa farm in 1938.  By the 1950’s I was building first-hand knowledge of the relationships between soil, weather, plants, animals and economics (although I didn’t know “economics” at the time).  I became proficient at bucking bales, pitching manure, and planting, cultivating and harvesting field crops.  In 1960 I graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in forestry.  This was the beginning of my learning about the relationships between mountains, forests, soils, weather, fire, animals and people.
     
My wife, Lois, and I began our life together in 1959.  My career was in forestry and her supporting roll was in homemaking, mothering and community volunteer work.  We managed our life path so as to stay in the mountains, working on National Forests in Oregon, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana for thirty-three years.  Most of that time we lived on National Forest Ranger Stations which kept us close to the land and the people who use it.

After retirement from the Forest Service I was accepted to graduate school at the University of Montana.   I earned an MS degree in 1997 and began teaching in the University’s College of Forestry and Conservation as an adjunct instructor.  I taught various courses, but mostly the capstone course for graduating seniors, for ten semesters.

These days I build canoes, maintain our wildlife habitat yard, and have time for engaging conversation with Lois.  In a good week I take a day or two to hike or ski in the mountains and I enjoy sharing my observations and experiences.