example, which has a lifespan of 2000 years, today is harvested after
sixty years, before it can be fruitful, at about 3% of its potential.
Without mature seed, the genetic base of the remaining seed has
deteriorated to the point of infertility. The consequences of this
madness are far-reaching, for as the biological diversity is depleted
of its highest quality organisms, so too are the energies that support
higher forms of life. The destruction of the forest brings with it the
destruction of water, with appalling consequences.Monoculture
If you go into a typical plantation, it is impenetrable, dark, and feels
dead — a veritable green desert. No birds sing nor animals scurry,
and there is little opportunity for any other plants to grow. Those
that do are removed on the theory that they take away nourishment
from the trees. In fact their absence increases the competition. The
individual trees are all of the same age and species; they vie with
each other for space and for nutrients (of which there is a limited
amount for each species), for their roots go down to the same level,
creating a hard pan of salts which prevents access to the valuable
minerals and energized groundwater below. There is only a certain
amount of each element and chemical compound available which is
suitable for that species and all the trees whose lives are wholly
dependent on them must fight to get it.
It is hardly surprising that the wood from such a plantation is
of very poor quality. You might compare the composition of a
human community to a forest. If all the individual humans were
clones of each other, and there were no elder statesmen or wise
elders, how creatively barren and spiritually impoverished would
be that community! These young trees are clear-felled, leaving a
scene of devastation, with the valuable soil vulnerable to erosion.
Students of forestry do not yet learn the purpose of a natural for-
est, nor about biodiversity, which is the keystone of Nature's
order.
Without natural forest, higher forms of life on this planet would
not have been able to develop. Apart from oxygenating the atmos-
phere and replenishing the water, both of which sustain life, it con-
tains the vital pyramid of the different levels of life, without which
creation would degenerate, as it is doing in our time. By a mysteri-
ous process, forests encourage rainfall; appropriate trees planted in
- THE ROLE OF THE FOREST