A good cut

摘要

Jon Fosgitt strides into the forest outside Newberry, Michigan, oblivious to the cold rain slicking his shaved head. "I expect great things from this gap," he says, indicating a clearing of sawed-off trees. This part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula is farther north than Montreal, and it feels like it. The wet October air already has a wintry chill. But nothing dampens Fosgitt's boundless enthusiasm for trees. "Look at that white pine!" he cried on the way here, slamming on the brakes of his pickup. "That's a dandy!" Fosgitt is a tree-like presence himself, large and firmly planted, which is one reason his excitement about this forest clearing seems surprising. Sure, there's a single towering white pine, but the rest of the space, 120 feet in diameter,is littered with tree stumps and piles of limbs. This is the site of a logging operation. And not just any logging operation, but one conducted on land owned by The Nature Conservancy, for which Fosgitt works as a forestry consultant.