[Preliminary Thoughts: IX]
I’m looking out over the railing of my deck to the back into the forest: a couple acres of diverse PNW foliage. It’s not beyond me that the wood on the deck is biological kin the the Cedar and Grand Fir that accent the forest. If pressed, I could tell you the value of one of those trees per assembled deck costs. That is, each one of those trees could be felled, milled, and used to build a deck almost identical to the one I’m looking over, and that piece of completed construction has a dollar value on the marketplace.
And that’s an important connection to make. Natural resources aren’t born in Home Depot or Whole Foods; they are natural to a place and require significant labor to harvest and deliver. And in the case of my deck, they take even more work to assemble make useful. All that material and labor costs.
But that’s not the only value of the tree. It’s worth far more than the measure of its linear feet of raw lumber.
What’s the value of the air purification it provides?
The value of the oxygen it gives?
The value of the annual return of organic matter it offers the soil beneath its canopy?
The value of the shelter it provides the birds and other animals?
The shade?
The storm protection?
The anti-erosion?
The role it plays in the biodiversity of the forest?
Knowing the value of a linear foot of lumber is one thing; knowing the full value of a natural resource is quite another.
This is true of natural resources like waterways and trees. It’s also true of people and communities. Culture and tradition. When we reduce value to the price something fetches at the store, we’ve missed most of the picture!
I look forward to doing some reflective work on trees and forest management this year. I appreciate all feedback.
