Forests can take care of themselves
(Original publication: October 17, 2003)

As a biology teacher at Carmel High School for the past 38 years, I am dismayed by the recent decision calling for a logging operation in the forests on Mount Ninham. Suddenly, after nearly 100 years of the forests "managing" themselves, we now need a team of human "experts" to manage them instead. Have the forests suddenly "forgotten" how to manage themselves after approximately 300 million years of taking care of themselves by a well-known process called natural selection?

The forests around us have been evolving slowly to their present state by a well-understood biological process called ecological succession, since the farms were gradually abandoned and transformed into what we see now. They are like teenagers, in their middle stages of succession, and if left alone, will gradually evolve and grow into a magnificent climax forest.

Also, our forests need biodiversity: many species of plants and animals all competing with one another for survival. The best-adapted species survives. Nature — not humans — should be allowed to select what is best suited to live in this particular environment. No one can pretend to know what future climactic or biological changes may be in store. A great variety of both plant and animal species are necessary to assure that a given species may be around, so that, in case any drastic environmental changes occur, there's something left to select.

Just look at the beauty of these "natural forests." How can any human be so arrogant as to think that they can be made any more beautiful or more functional than they are now?

Ray Mainiero, Carmel