|Biodiversity and Conservation| source ref: biobook.html
Ponderosa Pine forest ten years after harvest, Shoshone National
Forest USDA Forest Service - Rocky Mountain Region Archives doth
punish man or woman That steals the goose from off the Common
But lets the greater felon loose That steals the Common from the
goose" -- Anonymous response in 1764 to Sir Charles Pratt's
fencing of common land (Thanks to US Fish and Wildlife Service
for finding this!) Wherever people have lived in forested areas,
they have always cut down trees, either to use the timber or to
make space for agriculture. Wood has been the dominant heating
fuel, and construction material for housing and ships, for
almost all of recorded history, and in this century vast
quantities are also being used for paper production. Paper
products now use 25% of the world's timber harvest. Paper
production worldwide has increased 20-fold since 1913. There are
alternatives to tree-cutting for paper making. In the last 5,000
years, humans have reduced fores