Ask, Evaluate, Do, Part 1

This, the first of a three part blog post, is about asking.  A classic definition of  a forest is an ecosystem dominated by trees, which can be really simplified into the trees you are looking at.  That is what you see on TV and in pictures.  Trees are big and beautiful but there is so much more, the entire ecosystem part.

What about the soil and what is living in the soil?  What about plants other than trees and animals living there? What about how air (wind) passes through and over the area? What about the water, standing, flowing, below ground? What about a seasonal change cold and wet, hot and dry? Is there a wildfire risk?  Is your home near or within the forest?  Is what you are thinking about legal or a best (forest) management practice?  What about the tax consequences?  This list is just a little bit of what someone should be asking about when they make a decision to actively manage a forest.

On the other hand it would not be to hard to ask nothing and look at the trees.  Perhaps though it is worth asking about the overstocked forest during a hot and dry wildfire season can sure affect homes and a lot of other ecosystem values.

Evaluate is the next topic, like Viper told Maverick in “Top Gun”, “A good pilot (forester) is compelled to evaluate what’s happened so he can apply what he’s learned”.