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“Step by step, the land is silenced. A warning, of what awaits the human civilization…”

2019-10-27
These forests are my home. Only here I can hear the voices of my ancestors. If someone started destroying
your house, noone would question you from stopping it. Photo: Andris Fågelviskare

This text is written by Andris Fågelviskare:

There is noise in the forest today. Branches cracking as something massive moves through what used to be old growth forest. A panicked squirrel escapes into the strip of forest that remains. The old trees have fallen. The hazelnuts, hidden to become food for the winter, now buried under layers of tree-branches and muddy tracks made by big machines. Two wrens fight over territory where the borders are no longer distinguishable.

This is Sweden, 2019. One of the countries in Europe with the best reputation when it comes to nature-protection. The logging industry has spent millions on propaganda and brainwashing to maintain this reputation. “For every tree cut, we plant two more”. “They will absorb carbon-dioxide and make climate-friendly products for the future”. Their commercials sound very nice to someone who have not looked deeper into the forest itself. In reality, forest in Sweden is being cut down at a similar rate as the Amazon rainforest. Old-growth forest now makes up less than a few percent of the tree-cover in Sweden. And planting trees are not always as good as it sounds. Look deeper. After the old forest is gone, the earth is plowed. Just like on a field.

Forestry fields, plowed and planted with genetically similar spruce. Photo: Andris Fågelviskare
On a normalsized clearcut, there will be thousands of tree-saplings planted. Usually by hand, often by low-paid workers imported from asia or eastern Europe. These saplings are almost entirely spruce. These spruces have been gentically selected for high-speed growth, and raised in laboratory-like conditions. All genetically similar, different than the local spruce that grew here naturally. Genetical diversity within the forest is lost. The saplings are often sprayed with poison to prevent insects or deer from destroying them. Also to consider, spruce are not naturally the first species to reclaim open ground. Birch, willow, aspen and other leafy trees do that. Instead, these species are treated as weeds, and actively removed. The few who survives are often consumed by hungry moose. In the long run, these highly important species loose their place in our forests. Remaining, is straight lines of same-aged, genetically similair plantations of spruce or pine. Dark, acidic, almost nothing can live there. A biological desert, compared to the wild abundance that once lived here. And the wood-quality of these fast-growing trees is very poor, but at least money can be made a little bit faster. Even if native trees were allowed to return on their own, it would still take hundreds of years to restore what is being cut in just a few days.
Modern humans look to the stars wondering if they are alone in the universe. Blind, to the fact that millions of other
life-forms share this planet with us. Photo: Andris Fågelviskare

These forests are my home. Only here I can hear the voices of my ancestors. If someone started destroying your house, noone would question you from stopping it, and police would make sure to catch the one doing it. If I try to defend my home, for instance by simply standing in the way of a logging-machine, I would be the one breaking the law. The one destroying my home is being paid. This is also the home of countless other species. Birds, insects, fungy, deer, fox, wolf, boar, moose and many more. But from the inside of a logging-machine, you won’t hear the warning-screams of the birds. Modern humans look to the stars wondering if they are alone in the universe. Blind, to the fact that millions of other life-forms share this planet with us. The separation from the rest of nature seem to have caused humanity to loose the ability to notice the very existence of the squirrel and the wren. In the spring, all the migratory birds will return, to a forest that no longer exist. They will have to fight eachother, for the few remaining traces of forest, to survive. Step by step, the land is silenced. A warning, of what awaits the human civilization…

 

Deep muddy tracks cutting through the remaining old-forest. Photo: Andris Fågelviskare

Fighting the logging-industry, together with the two other main land-destroyers, the hunting-industry and the industrial agriculture, is like an ant trying to attack an elephant. The only way to succeed, is by being many. And what will bring the biggest effect, is not fighting against, but rather be the change we wish to see. To focus on that what we love, our home on this beautiful planet. It is not about loosing the wild nature, what we are faced with, is the risk of manifesting our own extinction. The web of life on which we depend break apart as more and more threads are pulled out of the tapestry. We all need to rewild, re-align ourselves with the Earth. Every moment I do not act, the fatigue and exhaustion takes me over. Too tired to keep fighting. But I guess the power within, awakens when the call of the heart is answered. It is calling now. Step up, do your thing. There is no time to waste. This is so much bigger than me. Let the fight end here, so that we may live, all beings together, we need eachother to rebuild that magnificent tapestry…

By Andris Fågelviskare. A wanderer of the forest, a listener to the unheard voices. I speak from Mother Earth, the truth.