“A Forest Journey” subtitled “The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilisation” by John Perlin.” Published by Patagonia Books reviewed by Tony Orman. The book can be purchased from https://www.patagonia.co.nz/collections/books or through a local bookseller.
New Zealand is no exception to the destruction of forest cover. Historically, New Zealand was dominated by forest below the alpine treeline, but about 1000 years of Polynesian and European colonisation has resulted in the destruction of nearly three-quarters of the indigenous forest cover.
“The arrival of the early Maori migrants about 1000 BP initiated widespread forest destruction. The Maori burned significant areas of lowland forest to encourage the growth of bracken fern as a food source, to make cross-country travel easier and also as a strategy for hunting moa (Stevens et al., 1988). Maori were, however, not the sole cause of deforestation during this time, as climatic change, volcanism and naturally ignited fires have all been implicated as factors driving Holocene vegetation change in New Zealand (Fleet, 1986; McGlone, 1989). As a result of these combined factors, forest cover had been reduced to an estimated 68% of the land surface by the time European settlers arrived in the early 1800s (Salmon, 1975), and about half of the lowland forests had been destroyed (Stevens et al., 1988; McGlone, 1989)” says a scientific paper by New Zealand and English scientists on ScienceDirect.
Ever wondered why streams and rivers had much bigger flows than today? Why streams now trickles were navigable to small craft? Anglers’ close association and empathy with rivers will make them more aware of dwindling flows.
How much better environmentally for rivers, their freshwater ecological health and fish like trout and salmon, if Man had not been so short-sighted?
The destruction of forests over thousands of years, has been world wide and it’s all told in compelling fashion in this book “A Forest Journey”. While it concentrates its focus on Europe, the UK and North America the message is clear – mankind has been short-sighted in its exploitation and cutting down of forests as far back as ancient civilisations.
The book is some 520 pages long, delving way back into history to ancient civilisation times about the importance of forests in supplying wood. In harking way back into human history the book shows there’s nothing new – the message is inescapable – humans have been exploiting, indeed raping and pillaging forest resources since the first civilisations.
The author writes”new insight into the causes of the end-Permanian extinction, (251 million years ago) when Earth lost almost all life on land and sea, suggests that rising carbon di-oxide levels and massive tree loss were the primary culprits, demonstrating that when considering the survival of life on Earth, we should worry more about deforestation than asteroid collisions. In the light of the environmental and life-giving actions provided by trees, it is tragic that trees have been felled and burned remorselessly.”
The lessons in history are still being ignored today.
”Deforestation continues at an alarming pace—-people continue to remove trees at an alarming rate of 15 billion per year.”
“Sadly the present assault on our forests is part of the same cycle begun thousands of years ago.”
But the author is optimistic.
“It also encourages hope that we can learn from past mistakes and break out of the cycle deforestation and land degradation that undermined earlier civilisations.”
There’s a strong, urgent message for the world – New Zealand included – in “A Forest Journey”. Getting the message across is paramount in a book of this nature, and “A Forest Journey” is very easy reading, engaging and sends a very strong environmental message.
Consequently “A Forest Journey” is highly recommended!
The book is grandly produced by Patagonia Books, well illustrated with impressive colour photos, black and white photos and historical diagrams and maps.
The destruction of native forest in New Zealand was tragic. However New Zealand governments still haven’t got it right in on-going afforestation policies of planting monocultures of pines for timber, pulp and paper and the ludicrous “carbon farming” ideology.
Forests of native species should be planted. Instead it’s the opposite. On Canterbury’s braided rivers, the mis-named Environment Canterbury – and government – is allowing farm land to encroach and even spraying river beds with Glyphosate-based weedkillers.
“A Forest Journey” looks an impressive timely book.
Yet another excellent review by Tony. “A Forest Journey” is automatically enlightened by its title. A forest is an ecosystem. Too often people and groups wanting to promote “environmentalism” focus on endangered single species or groups. It is when ecosystems are endangered that single species or groups come under threat. The glyphosate examples of ecosystem destruction in Canterbury are a well chosen example by “Chinook”. Lets all support Tony’s call for indigenous forest replanting. In New Zealand we already have too much exotic monoculture forest for our own needs. Most is exported at minimal profit. In a recent case a forest owner was told that log export was his ONLY option as there were no longer any suitable timber mills within economic carting distance.
Apparently the number one use of NZ pine is for boxing concrete in China… construction has collapsed there, which must have serious implications for our plantation forests. Once pines are over about 1-1.2m in diameter they are much harder if not unviable to harvest with the equipment we have and that is reached in about 35-40 years. So if demand does collapse and the trees grow too large to harvest/process we will be stuck with thousands of acres of trees that will suck water sheds dry for no gain economically, or even cost us to manage as the trees age out and die, leaving a legacy of acidified soil and a good deal of productive farm land lost for generations.
And Justice Will B Dunn, what of carbon farming where trees are just left to themselves?
It will in biodiversity terms, be biologically sterile? From these unkempt forests, wilding pines proliferate. And a world demand for protein cannot be met because productive farm land has been converted to pinus radiata monoculture.
What is needed is a planned zoning approach to land use, incentivising farming forestry with trees planted of several species of ecological value.
Instead Sir Geoffrey Palmer’s RMA let people do what they wanted on their land, which in this case is “money for jam” under John Key’s very flawed ETS scheme and its stupid carbon farming.
Palmer and Key’s legacies were poor and I add not just for the respective reasons of RMA and ETS.
Trees should be planted for environmental reasons not just for maximum money.
Forests are vital in watershed management and have a direct relationship to trout fisheries. Control of runoff by vegetative cover is so important for healthy trout streams. Remove the trees and worse still by clear felling and the silt-laden runoff and silt deposition, smothers the stream bed and aquatic invertebrate insect populations, which is trout food. Invertebrate populations decline and consequently with less food and a lowered fish carrying capacity, trout numbers in turn, decline.
Commercial or carbon-farming monoculture forests of pines radiata as are planted here in New Zealand, are no value and in fact are detrimental to the health of water ways. Runoff acidity levels are increased by pines compared to native forests and as I understand, even farm pasture runoff.
Clear felling of commercial forests causes heavy silt loads to be deposited.
Unfortunately politicians and departmental and local body bureaucrats can’t see the wood for the trees!
Book sounds very timely. I note from internet the destruction of rain forests goes on. What a bad joke – politicians fretting over climate change, whether natural or Man-made, and turning a blind eye to forest destruction.