"The Great Big Giant Sequoia Scam" film

              

 

Rob Lewis (on Substack: The Climate According to Life) notified us of a new documentary film titled "The Great Big Giant Sequoia Scam" that exposes what's going on in some of California's groves of Giant sequoia, namely, Kings Canyon National Park, Sequoia National Park, and Sequoia National Monument. 

Everyone who cares about these trees and parks, and all our public lands, should watch this 24-minute film to see what's going on there at the hands of the US Forest Service and National Park Service, following fires in those groves.

The film was a joint effort of The John Muir Project, the Our Public Lands Podcast, Western Watersheds Project and Wilderness Watch. It can be seen on Youtube here. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New film: "Proforestation: Letting Forests Grow Old"

The hurried, hectic life many of us lead today tends to make us take for granted the physical world we live in. Do we think about what made Earth a planet that fosters life, unlike the other barren planets around us? Somehow, water appeared in great quantity here, which certainly is the basis of life. But just the presence of water alone was not enough to fully support the complex life forms that eventually arose. Forests evolved over hundreds of millions of years to produce the environmental conditions that give us a place to thrive: an atmosphere with oxygen; fresh water; food; shelter; a moderate climate; fuel; etc. Had forests not come about, we might not exist either.

Over a relatively short human history, we've managed to rise to the top of the species list (at least from our own perspective). But, with our success, our numbers have inflated wildly, creating huge demands for resources and dangerous overconfidence in our knowledge. We've become highly disconnected from and destructive of that which underpins our existence. Civilizations have come and gone, many of which have exploited forests to the point where the forests disappeared, followed quickly by the civilizations. 

The over-exploitation of global forests is ongoing. More and more land is being degraded and deforested, putting it on the descent toward non-forest and even desert-like conditions. The Amazon rainforest. The Congo Basin. Parts of the Americas. Even boreal forests are coming down. 

 

Pristine stream in old-growth forest

 

Forests give us life, but not just any forest is good enough. To keep Earth as a place where we can continue to live in relative comfort requires regions of Nature-managed, old forests around the globe. Only time creates forests where natural biological, evolutionary processes can recover and play out. These forests created
livable terrestrial conditions over eons in the first place, and evolved forests are the only thing that we know is capable of maintaining those conditions. Evolution cannot be planted, but tree plantation "forests" and “working” forests are useful in providing resources. They are not adequate for sustaining complex life - they are never given the chance to evolve in place over generations. They lack the genetic "wisdom" of a forest community.

Scientists are not unaware of all this, and many recognize that a growing trend toward managing and manipulating everything must be reversed, without delay. We don't want to (and can't) stop harvesting all forests; but it's essential that we recognize that we need forests for the life-sustaining conditions without which we cannot survive. Large, contiguous old forests bring fresh water to land from the oceans; they provide oxygen; they keep streams and rivers flowing; they cool, regulate, and moderate the climate and keep heat-trapping gases out of the atmosphere; they regulate winds; they are wildlife habitat; and much more.

 

 

In 2019 a new scientific term was coined to describe the simple concept of allowing some forests to grow old (and thereby provide us with their benefits)... "proforestation". It's not a complicated idea; it just means "letting forests be managed by Nature, to adapt and evolve as they always have". There can still be "working" forests, where we manage them for the resources we need. But we have just as great a need (actually... greater) for substantial areas of natural, unmanaged forests, including in the Northeast. Proforestation of the Adirondacks since the late 1800’s is a remarkable example of temperate forest recovery still underway, and happens in any area that is managed with an intent to prioritize natural processes in the forest, i.e. a “Wildland.”

We have just completed a new film that explores this topic, titled "Proforestation: Letting Forests Grow Old." It features some of New England's remaining old-growth forests. Three scientists speak on the subject: an ecologist, and two co-authors of the term "proforestation". 

You can view the film on the New England Forests Youtube channel. 

 

 

 

  

Film Event: "Old Growth Forests - Nature's Biotic Water Pump"

 

  

 

Last April, we presented the film "The Return of Old Growth Forests" at the Simsbury (Connecticut) Public Library; it was the first film in the New England Forests America 250 series. 

In that film, the Biotic Pump theory was described by its co-author, atmospheric physicist Anastassia Makarieva, who described how large, contiguous, old natural forests bring fresh water inland from oceans during photosynthesis by transpiring water vapor into the air. That water vapor leads to precipitation, creating a feedback loop that keeps water vapor coming inland and the land hydrated... forests bring water to themselves, and us. That's part of the Earth's hydrologic cycle. Furthermore, with contiguous forest cover, water is effectively "pumped" across continents. As a result, not only do we get a terrestrial fresh water supply, but our climate is regulated, stabilized, and moderated as well. But that biotic pump mechanism can be shut down by degraded, interrupted, or eliminated forests. 

On Monday, February 23, 2026, we are pleased to be showing the second film in the New England Forests America 250 series, which is a follow-up to that film entitled "Old Growth Forests - Nature's Biotic Water Pump". 

For decades now, we've been hearing considerable discussion of how greenhouse gases, particularly CO2, cause climate change. But what has been almost totally ignored is the effect that alteration of land cover has on our climate. It's not just about carbon, and never was.

Keeping the land hydrated is crucial to terrestrial life, but many cultures have destroyed the very thing that makes the land habitable... forests! Places such as Egypt, Africa, Australia, and others, have become deserts because their forests were cut to the point where the hydrologic cycle was disrupted, then the soil dried out and could not recover on its own (ie, it became a "landscape trap"). That destructive behavior is still happening today in places like Canada, America, Chile, and the Amazon, putting those places also on the trajectory to desertification. 

 

Change to land cover, especially the cutting and removal of forests, is referred to as "the second leg of climate change". The greenhouse gas effect is just one half of the climate story; land cover change is the other half, and just as important. 

This story is told in much more detail in "Old Growth Forests - Nature's Biotic Water Pump". Anastassia Makarieva has become world renowned for her continuing research on the critical role of forests; in this film, she adds more information about the biotic pump mechanism. 

This event, co-sponsored by Simsbury Land Trust, Simsbury Grange, the Simsbury Public Library, and Real Art Ways, is free and open to all, and will begin at 6:30pm. A Q&A session will follow the film.