My message about the New Hampshire forests remains in my head as we discuss global warming. I found a series of images of dioramas that show the basic history of New England forest, exactly what I was talking about.

http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu...landscape.html

Because the images may go away, and because people won't follow the link, I've saved them and will put them up here.

Think about it: this is a cycle that is so long, we don't see it in one lifetime. The images below cover 15 generations. We tore the New England forest down not once, but twice, because we needed to go periods of high consumption during rapid growth.

Then we learned to do more with less. We learned to use better fuels, better building materials, and how to move food from better farmlands. Then we learned a cultural practice of maintaining and not overconsuming the land.

93% of New England forest land is on private property. But the forests have returned. This forest was not sustainable in 1850. Today it is.

http://cellar.org/2006/neforest1700.jpg
1700: Pre-settlement

http://cellar.org/2006/neforest1740.jpg
1740: Early sporadic settlement

http://cellar.org/2006/neforest1830.jpg
1830-1880: 70% deforestation for agriculture and fuel

http://cellar.org/2006/neforest1850.jpg
1850-19??: Abandonment of farmland

http://cellar.org/2006/neforest1910.jpg
1910: White pines encroach on abandoned farmland

http://cellar.org/2006/neforest1915.jpg
1915: Cutting of white pines lead to hardwood succession

http://cellar.org/2006/neforest1930.jpg
1930: Hardwood forest grows vigorously

http://cellar.org/2006/neforest2000.jpg
2000: Mature forest succeeds despite new dense population

The story of the forests in New Hampsire is a fascinating one. I remember reading a book in college for a human ecology class called "Changes In The Land" that covered this topic in detail. It was my favorite book in college. I need to dig it out of the basement and re-read it.

But the story of a renewable resource like a forest doesn't apply to mineral and oil deposits. Those materials may be renewable in a geological time frame, but not in a human time frame. Once we use them, they will be gone.

Cronon
 

Changes In The Land is a classic. Cronon wrote most of that book as his master's thesis!

He's still considered a bit controversial because he keeps insisting that there is no "real" separation between the natural and the unnatural, and that the idea of "wilderness" is highly problematic and not helpful when discussing policies for land management.