A tree farm is not a Forest

From: Learning to Listen to the Land
By W. B. Willers
"...it is imperative to understand that humanity has not 'reforested' a single acre, because no one has planted and grown a forest on purpose. What we and the rest of the world have done, and are doing under the guise of "forestry," is trade our forests in on simplistic, economic treee farms. And forests and tree farms are not synonymous, no matter how many high-priced public relations firms try to create the impression that they are."

"Before we can discuss a forest versus a tree farm, we must 'define' forest and forestry and a tree farm and tree-farm management. A forest is the most complex, terrestrial biotic portion of the ecosystem, and is characterized by a predominance of trees. Forestry is the profession that embraces the science, art, and business of managing the forested portion of the ecosystem in a manner that assures the maintenance and sustainability of biological diversity and productivity for perpetual production of amenities, services, and goods for human use. A tree farm is an area under cultivation, a group of cultivated trees. And because a plantation is an economic crop, it is grossly simplified and specialized. Tree-farm management is the profession that embraces the science, art, and business of managing a tree farm--an agricultural crop--to reap the greatest economic returns on the least economic investment, in the shortest possible time."
"Today's 'forest practices' are counter to sustainable forestry because, instead of training foresters to manage forests, we train tree-farm managers to manage the short-rotation, 'economic' tree farms with which we are replacing our native forests. Forests have evolved through the cumulative addition of structural diversity that initiates and maintains process diversity, complexity, and stability through time. We are reversing the rich building process of that diversity, complexity, and stability by replacing native forests with tree farms designed only with narrow, short-term economic considerations."

Ok, so that quote sums up abstractly what is happening in the US national forests and elsewhere in the 'developed world'. I personally have witnessed this, walking through a stand of single species pine, next to a clear cut. No one that has actually seen a real forest would mistake this for forest. However, most forestry students get trained in these tree farms and have not even seen old growth forest. The fact that we even have to use the term "old growth" is sickening, forest means old growth, otherwise it's a tree farm! Cutting trees on a thirty or even fifty year rotation does not a forest make!

I am willing to take anyone on a tour of the Ouachita National Forest and show you how they are transforming a mixed deciduous and coniferous forest into a sterile pine tree farm, that is if I can find any of the original forest left! Right now 97% of the US's forests have been cut. YES 97%! And they are still cutting down the last of the old growth redwoods in California. Over 95% of the redwoods have been cut.