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Monday, August 21st, 2023

Tree Keepers: Where Sustaining the Forest Is a Tribal Tradition

Author:     FRED PEARCE
Source:     Yale Environment 360
Publication Date:     JULY 24, 2023
 Link: Tree Keepers: Where Sustaining the Forest Is a Tribal Tradition
Stephan:  

Here is another example of how fostering wellbeing is always the better choice. You would think it was obvious, but so great is our culture’s greed it isn’t obvious at all. We are at the crossroads. If we don’t awaken to the truth that fostering wellbeing is always the choice to make, we are going to experience massive suffering, misery, and death. What just happened on Maui makes this point. Imagine if the power company had buried all their lines. There would be nothing to blow over into the trees. The destruction of Lahaina would never have occurred. None of those hundreds of people would be gone.

The Wolf River flowing through the Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin. Credit: Chris Ford / Flickr

The Menominee tribe of Wisconsin has sustainably harvested its woods for nearly 170 years, providing a model for foresters worldwide. Amid climate change and other threats to the forest, the tribe continues to follow a traditional code: Let the healthy trees keep growing.

ike Lohrengel looks up in awe at trees he has known for 30 years. “This is one of the most beautiful places I know. This forest has it all: the most species, the most diversity. Many trees I know individually. Look at this one behind us. It’s got a split way up there. I’ll never forget that tree till I die.”

It is a love affair, for sure. But Lohrengel is no tree-hugger, out to preserve a special, pristine place. He is a timber harvest administrator, overseeing logging in one of the most remarkable working forests in the United States — nearly a quarter-million acres of trees that occupy almost the entire Menominee Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin.

“The forest looks […]

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