"...they planted all the same kind of pine tree..."

That's what the big timber industries do here in the U.S., creating just another type of monoculture. What they can make the most money on is what they plant. They are fertilized, sprayed and are totally non-sustainable. Since they have no regard for biological diversity, when something like the Southern pine beetle, or a borer or a disease hits it, it goes through the miles of plantings like a forest fire in a high wind. And just because the timber companies brag that they replant doesn't mean the trees survive. The devil is in the details, they say.

People keep saying that trees are a renewable resource, but not when they're clear-cut by the mile, replanted to just what types are economically valuable, and shipped out of the country by the boatload. Here in the NW, it's hard to believe all the lumber that is being delivered to the cargo ships.

That's not sustainable, and just because we've always had a lot of trees doesn't mean we always will. We will probably be like Japan, eventually.

Sue