And there you have it. Our world is transitioning unevenly from times and places where the resources seem inexhaustible, and so we use them freely, to times and places where using it the way we always have reveals itself as overuse. Sometimes overuse is clear, sometimes it will be the next generation that sees the loss of habitat and species. Rarely do we see culture teach lessons of conservation and respect sufficiently to curb our instinct to consume in time to find harmony.

So then you have folks who live in or see the effect of certain practices, and act to inform folks who are not experiencing or seeing - and whose experience informs their instinct to deny the reality of - those effects. The honest difference in opinion and experience is part of the transition we are collectively imposing on the world.

It seems unfair to react negatively to a few children innocently using a few live branches. Certainly in a few years most trees will survive such treatment, most ecosystems and life cycles will not be significantly affected, and it is currently impossible to trace the impact from such a small event on the rest of the world and its inhabitants.

But that does not mean we want to have every child everywhere taking branches from every tree, because we can all imagine the effect of that.

So where does that leave us? As the wise ones who came before us suggest, it leaves us trying to find a balance in the lessons we teach the children [and take to heart ourselves]. Passing on woods skills, love of nature, etc. is important - and should be fun. Kindling respect for nature and natural resources is also important - and should also be fun.

So, especially if the acts were innocent, perhaps we can respectfully strive to use the opportunity to offer the lessons our history and science have taught us. We can briefly share that we know use of live trees has an unknown but potentially significant impact, and because of that such use is often against the law. We can suggest with humor and affection that good woods skills include being respectful to everybody else on the planet, and to future generations whose world we are borrowing, by using deadfall when we can and by not building recreational things when we cannot.

We can teasingly remind that if the branches are left growing we can get pine tea every year from the new growth, and that birds and squirrels can live on the insects and cones that will be part of the future of the branch, etc. With appropriately applied tickling, we can ask the children to stretch their imaginations to see their children enjoying the shade, the tea, the birds, and the squirrels that a live branch can share with us in the future.

It's not just a touchy-feely, tree-hugging, foolish thing; it is a brutal, ruthless, selfish, economic calculation.