"Nature designed a forest as an experiment in unpredictability; we are trying to design a regulated forest. Nature designed a forest over a landscape; we are trying to design a forest on each hectare. Nature designed a forest with diversity; we are trying to deign a forest with simplistic uniformity. Nature designed a forest of interrelated processes; we are trying to design a forest based on isolated products. Nature designed a forest in which all elements are neutral; we are trying to design a forest in which we perceive some elements to be good and others bad. Nature designed a forest to be a flexible, timeless continuum of species; we are trying design a forest to be a rigid, time-constrained monoculture. Nature designed a forest of long-term absolutes. Nature designed a forest to be self-sustaining and self-repairing; we are designing a forest to require increasing external subsidies-fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. Nature designed forests of the Pacific Northwest to live 500 to 1200 years; we are designing a forest that my live 100 years. Nature designed Pacific Northwest forests to be unique in the world, with twenty-five species of conifers, the longest lived and largest of their genera anywhere; we are designing a forest that is largely a single-species on a short rotation. Everything we humans have been doing to the forest is an attempt to push nature to a higher sustained yield. We fail to recognize, however, that we must have a sustainable forest before we can have a sustainable yield (harvest). In other words, we cannot have a sustainable yield until we have a sustainable forest. We must have a sustainable forest to have a sustainable yield; we must have a sustainable yield to have a sustainable industry; we must have a sustainable industry to have a sustainable economy; we must have a sustainable economy to have a sustainable society."

Chris Maser