“If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day,

He is in danger of being regarded as a loafer.

But if he spends his days as a speculator,

Shearing off those glorious woods,

 And making the earth bald long before her time,

He is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.”

Henry David Thoreau 

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The northwood

Lives on in my soul

It has resided within me

Since I was five years old

Its gigantic deep green forests

Its ever sparkling deep blue lakes

Its hawk raven osprey and bald eagle

Gliding majestically on its vibrant wakes

Its majestic deer moose and caribou herds

Its call of the ancient timber wolf and coyote

Its many northwood creatures like the black bear

Who in my heart and soul shall always remain free

Its eternally mesmerizing cry of the sage ancient loon

As it sings out its utter joy at another new northwood dawn

Its hundreds of forest songbirds serenading me each morning

Its tiny chipmunks and rabbits feasting happily on nature’s lawn

Pine scented smoke rings serenely rising from my cabin’s chimney

As I prepare breakfast and yearn to wander paradise yet one more day

Its very ancient and vast cathedral of the tall stately pine oak ash and birch

That for me has always been a better prayer setting than any man made church

Ancient Native American wisdom culture and a deep respect for all of earth’s life

Captivating campfires and intriguing legends I have joyously shared with my wife

Here is where I yearn to spend my last days on earth witnessing my very last dawn

Because now even here in our very greedy and gluttonous modern man made world

 I sadly know in my heart and soul that my vast northwood paradise will also soon be

- Gone -

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†2007, Mr. Ed

For countless millennia, mankind’s impact on Earth’s forests had been minimal; and they had flourished.  Only a few short centuries ago, almost half of the United States and three-quarters of Canada were still forested.

Today, about one half of Earth’s forests have already vanished; and each year, another 16 million hectares (approximately 40 million acres) disappear. The World Resources Institute estimates that only about 22 percent of the world's original forest cover areas remain intact.

And today, in our extremely gluttonous modern world, human impact is both enormous and devastating. Entire forests are being cleared, degraded, and fragmented for conversion to agricultural, industrial, and urban usage, for road-building, and in a myriad other modern ways.

Even our once treasured national parks are no longer safe from our modern day greed.

Deforestation today is sadly expanding and accelerating into the very last remaining vestiges of undisturbed woodland left on Earth; and both the quality and the size of these remaining forested refuges is rapidly declining – including my beloved northwood – and its once thriving and truly captivating nonhuman residents.

Earth is rapidly becoming an artificial world, and I weep for those not yet born, who will never know its former glory.