This is the first of a three-post examination of forests in the American East. Part 1 diagnoses an “environmental generational amnesia” that makes people think it is okay to not have real (old-growth) forests and to tolerate, if not facilitate, massive and repeated clear-cutting and/or deforestation in the name of creating “early successional habitat” for species of wildlife that we need not be concerned about. Part 2 will shed light on a conspiracy of self-interested timber companies, misguided public land foresters, misinformed wildlife biologists, and Kool-Aid-drinking conservationists. Part 3 will suggest ways to partially—but significantly—bring back the magnificent old-growth forests that have long been lost.
Top Line: Old-growth forests in the American East have been so far gone for so long in the public consciousness that Big Timber (from private corporations to government foresters) has conned conservationists and buffaloed biologists into believing that massive and repeated logging is the only salvation of “wildlife.”
Figure 1. So little primary forest remains in New England that dioramas at the Fisher Museum are often the best chance to “see” a real virgin forest. This re-creation is of a forest in 1700. Source: Harvard Forest, Harvard University.
In Freeport, Maine—which bills itself as the birthplace of Maine but now looks more like the mall of Maine—lies the intersection of Main and Bow streets (adjacent to the L. L. Bean mothership store; open 24/7 but no dogs allowed). The building on the southeast corner of the intersection is markedly set back, more than the others. Back in the day, such allowed the wagons carrying the huge ship masts of eastern white pine cut from Maine’s woods to make the turn down to ships at Mast Landing on the Harraseeket River. The trees exceeded 6.6 feet in diameter. Today, any log cut in Maine, which is either 8 or 16 feet in length, could roll down Bow Street sideways at no risk to sidewalk shoppers. The name “Mast Landing” lives on as the name of a microbrewery and a bird sanctuary.
Most forests in the United States are severely littled, but none more so than in the American East. There may be twice or more as many trees in number, but they are small fractions of the girth of their predecessors and of the height of the original primary forest. Rather than reforestation after logging, the timber industry practices weeforestation.
Figure 2. An old-growth forest and pond diorama. Source: Harvard Forest, Harvard University.
An Insidious and Invidious Plague: Shifting Baseline Syndrome
Usually, first identifying the problems leads to a diagnosis. In this case, first understanding the diagnosis helps one to understand the problems facing forests in the American East.
Consider this contention from Henry D. Thoreau in his essay “Huckleberries” (ca. 1860):
I find that the rising generation in this town do not know what an oak or a pine is, having seen only inferior specimens. Shall we hire a man to lecture on botany, on oaks for instance, our noblest plant—while we permit others to cut down the few best specimens of these trees that are left? It is like teaching children Latin and Greek while we burn the books printed in those languages.
Figure 3. A “primary” forest is one that has never been logged. Source: Harvard Forest, Harvard University.
Though Henry nailed the problem before the American Civil War had begun, it wasn’t until more than a century later that science named and described shifting baseline syndrome (SBS). In a 1995 seminal essay, fisheries scientist Daniel Pauly noted “that fishers and marine scientists tend to perceive faunal composition and stock sizes at the beginning of their careers as the unaffected baseline condition against which catch size is subsequently judged, and that this is likely to result in a gradual acceptance of the loss of fish species.” Alas, most state wildlife biologists are similarly afflicted.
Figure 4. Far more than in the American West, forests were removed to facilitate farming. Such was happening in 1740. Source: Harvard Forest, Harvard University.
In 2018, two scientists, Masashi Soga and Kevin Gaston, refined the diagnosis of SBS:
With ongoing environmental degradation at local, regional, and global scales, people’s accepted thresholds for environmental conditions are continually being lowered. In the absence of past information or experience with historical conditions, members of each new generation accept the situation in which they were raised as being normal. This psychological and sociological phenomenon is termed shifting baseline syndrome (SBS), which is increasingly recognized as one of the fundamental obstacles to addressing a wide range of today’s global environmental issues.
Figure 5. The inverse twin peaks of deforestation and agriculture in New England occurred between 1830 and 1880. This scene is from 1830. Any residual “forest” was reduced to woodlots for lumber and fuel. Source: Harvard Forest, Harvard University.
Soga and Gaston went on to note:
Consequences of SBS include an increased tolerance for progressive environmental degradation, changes in people’s expectations as to what is a desirable state of the natural environment (i.e. one that is worth protecting), and the establishment and use of inappropriate baselines for nature conservation, restoration, and management.
Figure 6. Beginning in the mid-1800s (1850 shown here), farming declined broadly across New England for more than a century. As the farms retreated, forests returned. Source: Harvard Forest, Harvard University.
An example used in the scientific paper is the loss of most old-growth forest in Japan and its replacement with inferior planted or modified forests. An even more stark example is that of the American East.
Soga and Gaston found SBS to arise from three major causes:
(1) lack of data on the natural environment
(2) loss of interaction with the natural environment
(3) lack of familiarity with the natural environment
Figure 7. The forests that reclaimed abandoned farmland were “old-field” stands of white pine. This scene is 1910. These second-growth forests were logged for “box boards” until cardboard boxes became ubiquitous. Source: Harvard Forest, Harvard University.
A fundamental consequence is that
SBS is also likely to alter people’s expectations as to what is a desirable (i.e. worth protecting) state of the natural environment. This is not surprising as most people’s beliefs about what is a “good” or “healthy” condition for the natural environment will be shaped by their personal experience, particularly during childhood, and earlier states cannot be recalled.
Figure 8. After the old-field white pines were clear-cut, hardwoods returned, as white pines do not sprout from stumps as can hardwoods. This scene is 1915. Source: Harvard Forest, Harvard University.
What Can Be Done About SBS?
The two scientists offer four recommendations to “prevent and ultimately reverse SBS”: (1) restore the natural environment, (2) monitor and collect data, (3) reduce the extinction of experience, and (4) educate the public.
Restore the Natural Environment
First, restore the natural environment—in a word, practice rewilding, a term coined by the late great Dave Foreman in 1992. (See my two Public Lands Blog posts “Remembering Ecowarrior Dave Foreman, Part 1: The Kalmiopsis Connection and “Part 2: Moving the Needle.”) The Rewilding Institute defines rewilding as the “comprehensive, often large-scale, conservation effort focused on restoring sustainable biodiversity and ecosystem health by protecting core wild/wilderness areas, providing connectivity between such areas, and protecting or reintroducing apex predators and highly interactive species (keystone species).”
Figure 9. Around 1930, the hardwood stands that replaced the old-field white pines were dominated by red oak, red maple, white ash, birches, and black cherry. Source: Harvard Forest, Harvard University.
Monitor and Collect Data
The North American breeding bird survey, a cooperative effort between the US Geological Survey and the Canadian Wildlife Service, started in 1966, spurred in part by Rachel Carson’s five-alarm book Silent Spring. Better late than never, but had the NABBS started in 1666, perhaps we would have a different North American landscape.
Figure 10. Today, large expanses of hardwood forest are maturing (assuming they are not clear-cut). Yet evidence of an agricultural past, such as rock-wall fences, will long remain. Source: Harvard Forest, Harvard University.
Every last mature old-growth stand and tree needs to be documented. If we don’t know we have it, we will never know we’ve lost it. Besides monitoring what we have, scientists need to reconstruct historical conditions.
Figure 4. Quite the pastoral scene. None remember and very few know it was once a vast old-growth forest. Source: Harvard Forest, Harvard University.
Reduce the Extinction of Experience
To cure SBS, people need both the opportunity and the orientation to interact with real nature. Opportunity means nature nearby, while orientation is convincing people to get their heads out of their smartphones and into nature.
Educate the Public
Traditional forms of education (outdoor education classes, museums, botanical gardens, ecotours, and zoos) should continue and expand to educate individuals about the joy and importance of nature. However, the education of the masses happens best, and often only, through conflict. Loudly and constantly demanding the conservation and restoration of mature and old-growth forests and blocking the logging of such through means both legal (lawsuits) and illegal (tree sits) is what will educate the masses and force political and societal change.
Figure 5. Scenic enough at first glance, but any evidence of the original old-growth forest has been eradicated from the landscape and the public consciousness. Source: Harvard Forest, Harvard University.
In Part 2, we will examine the loss of old-growth forests in the American East and a conspiracy to prevent their return.
For More Information
Harvard Forest. Conservation Issues in the History of New England Forests (web page). Harvard University.
Soga, Masashi, and Kevin J. Gaston. 2018. Shifting Baseline Syndrome: Causes, Consequences, and Implications. Frontiers of Ecology and the Environment.