"As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides, many a feebler branch, so by generations I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever-branching and beautiful ramifications."
Charles Darwin
Joan Maloof is a powerful advocate for old-growth forests and this book is a plea to conserve what pitiful remnants are left of them. Human greed, short-sightedness and our arrogance towards all other species, tinged with elements of religious fervour and the pioneering desire to "break the land" have left but little intact, a mere spectre of what used to be.
And still the assault continues. Enlightened communities that should know better, with bureaucrats without scientific training rejecting the advice of experts, are cutting down vestigial stands of old growth forest. Diversity is sacrificed, the web of life interrupted, another strip mall and faceless housing tracts replace what was one a thriving community of mosses, lichens, fungi, molluscs, insects, birds, mammals, a laboratory of photosynthesis, a carbon sink, a source of oxygen.
Foresters in pursuit of profit sacrifice long-term benefit for short-term financial gain, aided by near-sighted unions who have no vision beyond the next pay cheque for their members.
Clear cuts mar the land. Second-growth forests are poor imitations of what they replace, yet pseudo science and misinformation abound, and the land continues to be scarred and defiled and future generations are deprived of their rightful patrimony. Most of our children will never experience the sense of awe generated by a walk in nature's cathedrals; gone forever is their birthright.
Politicians cater to the demands of lobbyists, ever mindful of where their campaign finances originate, and greed all too often trumps science and a commitment to ecological integrity evaporates like moisture on a hot day. Like sheep being led to the slaughter we continue to elect politicians of this ilk. Conservationists are at best ignored, at worst subjected to vicious smear campaigns that can ruin lives.
There is hope - and then there is realism. The optimist in me tells me that we can change our ways, but the stark reality tells a different story.
I appreciate enormously the vigour of Maloof's defence of old growth forests and her advocacy for them. I fear, however, that she is spitting in the wind.
Fact check
On page 59, Maloof refers to "..... only nine thousand bird species."
I know that taxonomy is fluid, but 9,000 doesn't even come close to being correct. The four main ornithological authorities give the totals of extant species as follows:
IOC - 10,980; Clements - 10,525; Birdlife - 11,126; Howard & Moore - 10,175
Disagreement there may be as to what constitutes a species, but we would have to shave off more than a thousand birds from the most conservative authority to get down to the nine thousand stated by the author.
Nature's Temples: A Natural History of Old- Growth Forests - Princeton University Press
Joan Maloof
Paperback - US$19.95 - ISBN: 9780691230504
232 pages - 5.5 x 8.5 inches (13.75 x 21.25 cm)
41 black-and-white illustrations
Publication date: 04 April, 2023
