Why you should tell your children about vanishing #fireflies

I’ll be telling my son stories about the wild lives that existed in the places we go before anyone thought to call them “Maine” or “California.” If he won’t inherit an ecosystem with all its parts, he’ll have a shot at reassembly.

Advice by Michael J. Coren, August 29, 2023

"The #PenobscotNation is among the oldest continuous governments in the world. Some of its members still recall stories of Atlantic salmon filling #Maine’s rivers and of alewife, or river herring, swimming upriver by the uncounted millions, says Chuck Loring Jr., the Penobscot Nation’s director of natural resources. Last year, fewer than 1,400 salmon returned to the state.

"Loring, who manages forests, game and fisheries across 121,000 acres, doesn’t think in decades in his work. He looks back centuries. 'We have a seven-generation approach,' he says. Unlike most commercial timber harvesters, he’s aiming to create an old-growth forest like those that existed hundreds of years ago across Maine but now cover only 0.05 percent of the state.

"Instead of cutting trees every 30 to 40 years, Loring plans to grow them for a century or more. And he’s not optimizing for wood. 'We’re one of the biggest timber tribes,' says Loring, 'but the most highly regarded goal is water quality.'

"For the #Penobscot, the goal is restoring a landscape and its inhabitants’ place in it — from fish to moose to future members of the Penobscot Nation. 'That’s one of our goals getting into the school, and talking about everything we do,' says Loring. 'The tribe has made ensuring a viable forest in the future the priority, even if we’re not generating income from the forest.'

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/08/29/shifting-baselines-maine-forests/

#Extinction #SevenGenerations #Maine #MaineForests