More Unintended Consequences

I was in a public restroom in one of those interstate rest areas recently with a busload of teenagers and I overheard one boy say to another, “Shun the paper towels and save a tree.”

My first reaction was, how thoughtful of him. But then I reconsidered, because that cliché is being drilled into our kids’ thinking, and it is not necessarily accurate. I wasn’t quick enough to speak my second thought, but it did get me to thinking about it in light of our present economy and the overall indoctrination of today’s youth.

The paper industry, and the lumbering industry that supports it are both very earth-friendly. Big companies like Weyerhauser and International paper employ methods to recycle and to replenish the forests. Why wouldn’t they? Lumber is a crop, and just like any other crop, it has to be planted, nurtured and harvested with a future crop replacing the one we use.

The myth that our forests are clear-cut is just that, a myth. For every tree that is cut down, another two or three are planted in the same land, and they are cared for to ensure that there will be a future crop, albeit the cycle is not an annual one like there is with the food crops.

The fact that new forests are being planted to renew the product cycle is evident to anyone who takes the time to travel to the places in America where the lumber industry practices. And those replanted forests provide jobs for many more people than those who harvest the trees.

For every lumberjack, the brawny brute we picture as the “culprit” in killing our forests, there are probably three others whose work is to develop new breeds of fast-growing trees, planting and inspecting the new growth, and determining where more trees can be planted and harvested to keep the soil and the ecosystem healthy.

Speaking of Weyerhauser, on my trip to the Northwest last year I visited Mount St Helens, and all of the forests replanted to replace those blown down in the 17-mile-radius blast area were courtesy of Weyerhauser. They have been replanting with noble spruce trees since the volcano erupted in 1980. There are tens of thousands of trees growing.

So, if I were to hear that remark about shunning paper to save a tree, I would challenge it with my own cliché, “Use the paper and save a job”.