Protect it

PROTECTING WOODS FROM HARM

Proactive care can go a long way in protecting the woods you love.
Credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Forests are forever, right? Wrong!

Although trees may look strong (some look practically invincible!), forest ecosystems are actually quite fragile and continually under threat from natural and man-made dangers. Some, such as storms and fires can immediately destroy vast tracts of wood. Others, such as pollution or human activity, erode your forest's resilience and ability to renew itself, gradually reducing the health and beauty of your woods.

Over time, nature renews itself. Trees are destroyed by wildfires and new ones grow in their place. Invasive pests and weeds cause havoc in woods until a new ecological balance is found. And trees gradually adapt to changes in their environment.The problem is that natural time is not the same as human time. In the long run, nature might well be invincible. In the short run, we need to protect our woods to keep them healthy. Knowing that nature will find a new balance in time is small consolation to a family that loses a stand of beautiful ash trees to the emerald ash borer.

Scale also matters. Forests are becoming increasingly fragmented today, which makes them less resilient and poses a host of problems for the animals and birds that rely on them. Human activity has changed the landscape sufficiently that woods need some degree of management and care to keep them healthy.

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