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...unless they are making the religious argument that it was ordained by God to forever have a certain amount of forest on Earth.
I highly doubt the left is citing God.

I still think INDUSTRIAL hemp is a good idea. It's even better than poplar for paper.

Here's a rebuttal. Becasue of the productivity increases in agriculture, a greater % of Virginia is forested toady than during the Civil War. I guess an environmentalist would argue all those forests consist of plastic trees because they are not 'Frontier Forests.'

We do not even know what is lost.

I am in possession of a book, published in about 1913, written by what was then known as a "naturalist". I am sorry but I cannot supply the title, as it is in storage at the moment. If anyone is truly interested, send me a private message and I will supply the title and author when I am able to get access to the book again.

Maybe I can post the articles on a website, as the copyrights are long expired, and I am sure the author would be very happy to have his work published this way in our modern age. He did make a comment in the preface that he wanted to preserve knowledge of the natural American West, because the wildlife was being destroyed so fast! And, he wrote all this before 1913!

It is a compilation of articles that the author wrote between about 1900 and 1912 or so, about his examination of the natural world of the American West before the clear cuts destroyed the forests. It contains AMAZING information!

The most shocking of which is the description of the "Thousand Year Pine." Seems, that yes, indeed, it was huge, visible for tens of miles, rivaling the size and age of some of the oldest and tallest trees in the American Northwest.

When the deforestation of Colorado took place, he was allowed to examine the stump.

He was able to date the 1811/1812 New Madrid earthquake, by the broken roots. A five pound rock had been thrust into the tree inself in that year, from a landslide, and had grown to be completely enclosed within the tree in the intervening years. He apparently did not know of the earthquake directly, he only noted that it was "after the sap had gone down into the roots in the year 1811, but before it rose again in the spring of 1812". Facinating!

The New Madrid quake caused landslides in Colorado! As well as the often noted events on the east coast, of which there are many references, since that area was of course already heavily populated by the European Imports.

Fires had been started on two occasions beside the tree, damaging it. NOTE! Fires were NEVER started beside trees by the Native Americans, as they believed that trees were living things (imagine that!) and deserved respect, and a fire to close to a tree would damage it. We European Imports don't care about that though.

One of the campfires beside the tree was the very same year as the Louis and Clark expedition, and appears to be "a very large tree" that they camped beside, mentioned in the L & C journal. There was also another fire next to the tree, but I forget the details on that one.

Well, the lumber companies clear cut Colorado, so only California has giant trees now, the Redwoods and Sequoias. And, Aspen and Pine trees have taken over Colorado, now everyone seems to think it was always like that. Nope.

Only reason the Sequoias are mostly still there? Cause the wood shatters when the tree falls, so it is not a commercial product. And the Redwoods were saved by the difficulties of transport.

So, yes, there may be more forests today than in previous centuries. BUT, they are NOT ALL the same species of trees, as fast growing trees took over after the earlier clear cuts.