Vignettes of the land: to clear or not to clear
Re-foresting the farm land.
I asked a Christian Reformed church member about the size of his former dairy farm, what the land was like – if there was any forest on it? He said that he kept trees in a piece because, well, “we did a lot of clearing and it seemed good to leave a little in forest.”
Another Christian from my area of central B.C. said that, after clearing much of his farm he left a small acre of “bush” because, well, “I thought I’d leave a little.”
A retired Christian school teacher bought a parcel of land, let the cleared field revert to old growth grassland, preserved the forested parts and made quite a reputation for his environmental awareness. When he moved for health reasons, the new purchaser promptly logged the remaining marketable timber.
The Hansons
Gary Hanson shared an inspiring story from ‘slash and burn’ country in central British Columbia: “We [Gary and Linda Hanson] own a quarter section (160 acres) within a five-minute drive of Telkwa, B.C. Over the past 42 years, the arable farmland has been leased to a local rancher and the marginal farmland has been planted with trees. Spruce, Pine, Larch, Douglas fir, Birch and Willow are some of the planted species. Being motivated to plant trees is easy, considering the many benefits including improved cover for wildlife, involving the next generations in forest management, increased carbon storage, providing a future source of income, and watching the landscape change with a positive impact on the environment.”
Israel, then and now
Israelis and Palestinians have worked to reforest sections of the land because of the devastating effects of more than twenty centuries of deforestation, war, conflict and settlement. Non-native as well as native trees such as the Aleppo pine (though rarely native oaks), now cover significant amounts of the lands now called Israel and/or Palestine. (Editor’s note: Even trees illustrate the complex history and political conflict in this region. Tree planting has been allegedly used by both Zionists and Palestinians to claim or reclaim land).
Our final vignette is taken from the Bible. It concerns the division of the land of Canaan amongst the tribes, specifically the complaint that the tribe of Manasseh didn’t have enough land because of its large population.
“And Joshua said to them, ‘If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest, and clear ground there for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim. . . .’” (cf. Joshua 17:14-18, NRSV).
How I wish that Joshua had said, “You may have the hill country. Find a way to live well on that forested land. Tend it and care for it.”
