Old Growth

For the most part, I grew up "green". What that means is I grew up learning to appreciate the earth, animals, to not do anything that causes unnecessary harm to the environment. The funny thing is that this was almost an inherent part of my upbringing. It wasn't set amidst the new "go green" trend that is so pervasive in the world and America today. It was just the way I was taught.
There are probably a number of reasons to explain that. Among them I grew up in an environmentally conscious family. But what is mostly responsible, I really do believe, is that I was raised in Oregon. You could probably argue where exactly the ecological movement began in this country, and I'm not going to do that here. But Oregon was one of the first to take environmentalism seriously, and that was exemplified in the early 1970's under Governor Tom McCall and his creation of state-sponsored recycling, the "bottle bill", and efforts to make areas of our state's natural beauty untouchable, meaning not subject to exploitation.
Ecology and environmentalism, I think, are well on their way to becoming the norm in this country. This is just my theory, but after seeing those new series of commercials involving such well-known conservative figures like Newt Gingrich and Pat Robertson calling for citizens to become green, I can't help but wonder if what was considered a radical new way of thinking has crossed what seemed like uncrossable party lines to gain new and recognized converts. Environmentalism is becoming mainstream, no longer just some far-left hippie conspiracy championed only by democrats. I am perfectly comfortable with that too.
That Earth Day just passed is only part of the reason I write this. A few weeks ago we had a Council meeting in which we passed a resolution to do something in my college days I would have hung myself for doing. Basically, we waived a policy to allow for the harvesting of a 200-year old tree on the reservation in order to help build our plankhouse. There were a couple of comments, and one Tribal member even implored us to reconsider. But we didn't, and during the meeting I suddenly felt really bad. My conscience nagged because I approved ending the life of a 200-year old being. A non-sentient one, but alive nonetheless.
In college I was yet another idealist. In fact I can even remember thinking to myself how that if I ever became president I would mandate compulsory recycling, and not another tree would ever be logged in Oregon, much less the country. Yet here, ten years later, I was taking action that really was doing quite the opposite.
I chuckle looking back on it now, because one of the things I learned over the last ten years is that drastic changes, no matter how well-intentioned, should rarely happen overnight. To end the logging industry in Oregon one day would be disastrous, as the business is a huge part of our economy. The fact is logging will never end, as long as people like wood products like furniture, houses, and paper. I have come to terms with my university idealism and reality.
Having said that, I don't think we need to start logging our national parks and forests. Furthermore, I think the logging industry needs to give up its efforts to gain access to those tracts of land. They, like many older industries which harvest limited natural resources, need to come to their own terms with the fact that the "gold rush" is in its twilight, only a shadow of what it once was. They, like other industries, just plain need to adjust.
I realize I haven't completely given up my ideals, obviously. In the near future a 200-year-old tree will fall, a testament to my own realizations of practicality. Not that I enjoy it.