Forest Futures in the Anthropocene: Can Trees and Humans Survive Together?

摘要

Foresters and futurists share a long-range perspective. The lengthy growing cycle of trees has compelled foresters to plan decades and even hundreds of years ahead, in contrast to the short-term view of most fields. The interconnected nature of forest ecosystems has also given foresters-like futurists-a systems perspective. As the American naturalist John Muir said, "When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world." The world's forests range from sparsely populated wilderness to urban forests, from lush tropical rain forests to the vast boreal forests of the North. Thirty-one percent of the Earth's land area and 30% of the United States is covered by forests.