I am most certainly a proud Canadian.
The scenery provided by Canada’s forested landscapes touches something deep within me every time. It inspires me to hike, camp, and cross-country ski. Either to get out there and experience it or to just sit and breathe. I have loved forests all my life, and my earliest memories include sitting under a canopy of mature trees with my parents.
This love of forests has inspired me from an early age to learn more about them. How to identify the forest trees and plants, and the birds and animals that depend on them. To pursue knowledge of how trees grow; and why they grow where they do. I have spent many years learning, observing, and enjoying forests at all their stages of growth.
These years of observation and learning has ingrained in me an even deeper appreciation of nature’s adaptability and resilience. Including the recognition that new tree seedlings germinating following a forest fire, or those planted after a disturbance such as logging, are as important, and as much a forest, as the mature trees.
It is a given that ecological function differs as a forest matures. But each stage of tree growth, whether seedling, sapling, or pole, provides essential habitat for the plants, birds, and animals dependent on that stage. I am proud that Canada’s forest products industry is so well regulated. In Alberta, timber harvest plans must recognize the needs of all forest-dependent species and users. The protection of watersheds and other forest values are key management-plan elements. And that reforestation is mandatory for every timber-harvest plan.
I know some will disagree. And I know things aren’t perfect. But if the only thing that appears beautiful and breathtaking to you are mature trees, then you’re not really seeing the full beauty of Canada’s forests.
T.C. Huisman
