Ecological Timber

Healthy Forests, Wise & Wealthy Foresters

For the past 9,500 years, amid both natural and sociopolitical upheavals of colossal proportions, the global mean temperature has remained astoundingly steady. The latest measurements indicate that the mean has varied by no more than ±0.65°C since it first stabilized nearly 10 millennia ago. That this unique era of temperature stability has allowed humans to launch, develop, and sustain a global civilization, with a population now in the billions, is nothing short of a marvel. What we may have overlooked or underestimated until recently, however, is the crucial role Earth's forests play in maintaining this stability.

I grew up in British Columbia, a Canadian province some 40 percent larger than Texas and almost...