Certain non profit organizations (Sierra Club) would try and shock you into believing that all the forests are vastly depleting

“Eight-five percent of the virgin forests throughout the U.S. have been destroyed, with losses estimated at 95-98 percent in the lower 48 states. “The State of Disappearing Species and Habitat: A Sierra Club Report.” Sierra Club. 19 May 2004″

Then they make projections which say they’ll all be gone in a matter of a few years.  I’m shocked! Seems like they are all but gone! I feel bad and now need to fill this bad void by doing something… oh look, there is a donation button right by this “study”.

However, the Society of American Foresters has come out and said that, “The country has more trees now than it did in 1920 on approximately the same amount of forestland.”   It also has the largest legally protected wilderness system in the world, while at the same time sustaining a highly productive and efficient woodproducts industry.”

How can these both be true statements?

The SAF continues: “Until the 1920s, forests were generally logged and abandoned. Now, across the countryan average of 1.7 billion seedlings are planted annually. That translates into 6 seedlings planted for everytree harvested. In addition, billions of additional seed-lings are regenerated naturally.”

Oh.  In addition they talk about advanced in fire protection, more efficient utilization of lumber resources, wilderness protection, urban forestry and so on.

Sure, they are not “virgin” untouched forests anymore, but a tree is a tree.  And on a macro level, the overall wellness of the earth is assured . It is being organized on a much higher level that we need not worth about. If we did how the power to destroy the world, we would have done it a long time ago.