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When I was a kid, I always thought that where I grew up (southern Indiana) was basically a forest and that the farms and towns and roads that I saw were just "n
by titzer 5y ago
When I was a kid, I always thought that where I grew up (southern Indiana) was basically a forest and that the farms and towns and roads that I saw were just "nestled" in the forest. That's because everywhere you look, there's almost always a line of trees on the horizon. Not being particularly mountainous, or even hilly, it looks from a distance like the tree line is the "forest". In pretty much every direction. I was a boy scout, and we did a lot of camping at various parks. I really didn't know exactly where I was, I just thought we were out in the "forest".
It's a trick of perspective. I had never really seen my local area from the sky until about 2000. Now, Google Earth can show you the whole thing, at zoomable resolution.
Boy, was I wrong. Not only is southern Indiana mostly not forest, it's mostly farms, roads, and fields, and towns, with only scattered lines and splotches of trees. In reality, those boy scout trips were basically in nature preserves and national forests, the few remaining places of actual forest. Human habitation has absolutely decimated the forest...across the entire midwest. And the many millions, billions of animals that lived in the forest, they're gone, numbers dwindled, or exinct. Bears and big cats and wolves and elk....almost all gone here. Not to mention the intricate ecosystems full of life, from squirrels down to insects and ants...uncountable the individual living things that have been absolutely obliterated by our hunger.
Just take a look at Google Earth, switch to satellite mode, turn off all labels, and take in the vast green patchwork of farms that stretches for a thousand miles in every direction in the middle of North America. There is precious else but farm and city and road.
- eggsmediumrare 5y agoA lot of my social circle is farmers or children of farmers, and they almost universally consider the farm to be "nature" or at least a close enough thing to nature. I think society just kinda decided that nature is "not city" and that attitude is holding back progress.
- R0b0t1 5y agoThe trees in the Midwest exist because people put them there. The real prarie is what is gone.
- ciphol 5y agoThe "real prarie" was created by Native Americans burning trees. Trees are what happens when no humans are around (what some would call "natural").
- thecolorblue 5y agoPlenty of other animals will destroy trees to keep the plains the way they are. Pretty much any large mammal will trample saplings and rub up against larger trees until they die. This is easier to see on the African plains with elephants.
- R0b0t1 5y agoYour natural history is way off. There's no trees on the prarie because it's dryer than the surrounding area and the grass fires burn the saplings before they grow. The climate of the interior US doesn't mesh well with forests.
- oska 5y agoI think you're overconfident in your understanding here. It's a very complex subject. Removal of trees from an area of land will result in greater dryness. Trees, in a substantial way, create their own climate and can increase precipitation.
- R0b0t1 5y agoI'm aware, but where are you getting your knowledge specifically of the American plains? They were called the great plains since the founding of the country, because the settlers encountered plains, because they've been plains for approximately 25 million years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plains https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plains.
- frontierkodiak 5y agoIndiana’s deforestation has been pretty incredible. Historically about 90% of land-cover in IN was forest, that fell to something like 10% by 1900, but has since crawled upwards. Today, something like a quarter of IN is forested. Elsewhere in the Midwest, ecological destruction has had a rather different tune. Tallgrass prairies used to stretch from Northern Texas, to Chicago, to Minneapolis, all the way up into Manitoba. Tallgrass prairie doesn’t really exist anymore, except for a fairly narrow strip running through eastern Kansas into the very corner of NE Oklahoma. This area is home to the Flint Hills, which happened to be too rocky to till & convert into farmland. About 4% of the original extent of Tallgrass Prairie remains. Even this portion is under threat. Tallgrass prairie is maintained by the vast wildfires that used to sweep across the Great Plains— there’s few barriers out here, so a lightning strike during a windy storm could easily trigger a wildfire that swept across hundreds of miles of prairie. Native Americans in the region would also periodically burn swathes of prairie to improve visibility (bison hunting) and renew the lands. Without regular burns, prairie quickly will be overtaken by shrubs and primary successional trees (mostly Red Cedar where I’m at). Within only a few years, the land will no longer resemble Tallgrass prairie, but rather a shrubby wasteland. Regular grazing is also essential for triggering the flowering of the full range of native wildflowers. Cows have replaced buffalo in this region, although their hooves do a fine job of approximating the topsoil-disrupting effects of buffalo grazing, a buffalo’s hooves are more acutely scooped and are needed to unlock the full majesty of Tallgrass prairie floral diversity. Although I’ve spent most of my life splitting time between the Appalachians and the Rockies, the infinite expanse of undulating green earth that one can see in the mid-summer Flint Hills is probably the most special landscape I have ever witnessed. No other place feels are unfamiliar, or alien, or verdant, or melodic, or uncomplicated. I would recommend to all a drive through Chase County, KS, where you will stare into the horizon and see nothing but a azure amphitheater atop a boundless emerald sheet, and the silhouettes of a few distant cattle peppered at their margin.