As the founder of the Old-Growth Forest Network you can trust that I will be writing a letter to the Forest Service. This is a critical moment. I hope and pray the amendment to strongly protect our oldest forests passes. Thank you for making tis film, and thank you to the funders.
Thank you for writing, thank you for watching, and thank you for your work! Please feel free to share this with anyone you think needs to see it - we made it so anyone can advocate with it!
If you watch this documentary, there is no possible outcome where you don’t come out feeling incredibly inspired and amped up to save these living giants. This is a masterclass on how to make a documentary - its more than just saving trees, it shows how much people and communities all across the country directly and indirectly depend on these old growth forests for food, water, protection, and pure enjoyment and connection. You will not regret spending the 50 minutes to watch this doc. Alex, you’re a legend!
I live in Poland and I always wanted to visit the majestic forests in Appalachia and Oregon. US nature is the most valuable thing you have and you should fight for it. I hope I will be able to see these beautiful trees with my own eyes. I feel that weird connection and longing watching places like McKenzie River. Thank you for this video!
@@TheSiemek I hope you’re able to visit someday! Thank you for the kind words. You’re welcome to send in your own comment even if you’re out of the country, since this impacts you too! Your comment will be weighted less than those in the U.S., but will still be considered! protectourforests.org
This video needs more views. Its so tragic that we still have to fight tooth and nail to protect our forests. There are so few left! Trees help stabilize the environment. Its important to protect them. I am very emotional from this.
Came by the recommendation of Thomas Drajer on the yes theory Instagram... What a beautiful documentary and story! I'm just a bit sad that not more people have watched this, I really hope the word gets spread in time. As a 19 year old from Denmark, this is such a fascinating story, and I've sent the letter even though I live across the pond. Thank you to all the people involved in telling this story, and for putting so much time and effort into this project.
Thank you for coming by and watching! Means the world that you took the time to watch, participate and help make a difference in the world - sending warmth your way from the US and so grateful that you're part of this!
Incredibly well done. I hope this reaches a wide audience, not just because of the artistry behind it, but because of the message. I've signed the letter and asked a few of my friends to sign as well.
@@evano4578 Thank you SO much, for your words and for taking action :,) That seriously means the world! This film belongs to all of us - please know you can run with it wherever you’d like to help protect our home! We made it for everyone!
How can they even be considering these clear cuts 😭💔 Thank you for making this doc and raising awareness. I pray our old growth and mature forests will be protected. 🙏🏻
Thank you for this awesome documentary and the work you do, never give up, the people are always behind you and need people like you keep up the great work
Powerfully well done!! Best documentary I have seen in a long time Let's start at this moment to make a difference in saving our old growth trees that give back so much to humanity.
Thank you so much for your commitment to preserving these beautiful forests and spreading the knowledge and stories of the real stewards or our homelands!
Watched this with a group at Cascadia Wildlands in Eugene, very inspiring. It is a call to arms to learn about ancient forests, and more importantly TAKE ACTION to protect old growth.
Wow. What a Magnum Opus of a production to a meaningful cause. If you ever find yourself in Seattle again I'd love to have you for another hotpot and hear about what you plan on doing next. -Stefan
As a member of Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and a Broadband Leader for the Inland Empire of Southern California, I welcome this opportunity for education! I just attended the Forestry Institute for Teachers and got inspired to Focus on Forests! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Be active in your community and let your voice be heard. Do not let the government or big business overstep its bounds. Protect your homeland, wherever that may be.
Just came here from your instagram. I thoroughly enjoyed the documentary, incredible work. I will be writing a letter in support, I did want to say though, I don’t know if you are running the website you link for submitting letters or are just partnered with another group running it, but I think it would be very helpful to include links to the amendment itself on the page. I like to be familiar with exactly what I am writing in for so I ended up researching it on my own, but I think including those resources could help encourage people to understand and support the effort. Keep up the great work, I’ll be sharing your videos with everyone I can?
Appreciate you doing a documentary on my home. If you come back to leadmine, they’ve done more cutting. Hile Run looks awful. It’s been hard not to notice if you live here. Uncle Sam demands lumber.
Thank you for being receptive to it! So sorry to hear that more cutting has happened. Hopefully the amendment will put a stop to the public portion of that. If there’s anything we can provide to help, please shoot me an email (John has it) and we’ll do what we can.
Now THAT'S a documentary worth watching. Thanks for making this, Alex. Proud to have submitted my letter and even prouder seeing all these comments of motivated people pushing for positive change. We got this, yall 🤝🌳💚
I just screened part of this in my film class. I hope your teachers can find time to at least screen the trailer ... and ask students to sign petition. Thanks!
Planting trees takes decades and even centuries for them to reach their carbon sequestration and storage capacity. Planting more trees is always a good idea, but saving the old and mature growth that we have the number one way to have a chance in this climate chaos.
As much as I love old growth trees it’s roadless areas that is the more important narrative and topic. Roadless was not talked about enough if at all. As soon as roads are built the impact begins. And many of the roads follow the streams and rivers paving over the riparian areas. Many of these roads should be removed if we are serious about it.
The Forest Service has NOTHING to gain from damaging public land. They are managing it for sustainability and multi-use. That means-let’s use the resource wisely, so it comes back healthy, AND we can also use it to build that picnic table you’re sitting on, and the warming hut behind you. The Forest Service is just as vested in the forest thriving as all of you. Not to mentioned, that particular stand has been rehabilitated (by thinning it several times in the past) from the mass cutting that ALREADY happened in the 1920’s BEFORE it was public land. SO, it cannot even be considered true old growth, BUT managed well it can still maintain those same wonderful old-growth characteristics. Furthermore, the practices you are elevating in the Menominee example are almost identical so it’s hard to understand why you’re championing that management practice but not what’s happening in Eagle River. Conservation is absolutely important and I completely agree with that overall global goal, but taken too far and too broad feels a little tone deaf. Let’s remember this is a National Forest not a National Park.
" . . government is to protect us . . . . " . . . . BUT, we haven't had a govt since 1871. We have service corporations that have the same name as the country IE: UNITED STATES, INC. All the letter agencies, including Forest Service, are all private corporations masquerading as government bodies. Check dunn and bradstreet to find their corporate listing.
I saw a very interesting video about a comparison of go..v cuts as opposed to a private land owner going through to weed out problematic trees and guess who had the most healthy trees?????? Private owner won, the over cutting by go...v, rendered the property they cut to all kinds of issues they could not correct so guess who they went to for advise????? The private owner😂😅😮 Think it was outside US but cant remember but it was real interesting.
A lot of our old growth stands are in an unnatural state and will be destroyed if left unmanaged. I hope the national old growth amendment does not prohibit us from managing old growth through thinning or prescribed fire as this is often the only way we can restore them to their natural state that can then be preserved. We love our forests, but we don't want to love them to death. Here is a quick video that explains why we need to manage old growth if we want to preserve it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-mZDol3pHkMI.html
I'm sorry, but so much of this "documentary" is factually incorrect. I'd start by pointing to the Min. 10:33 when you talk about wildlife usage of the clear cut. That was a beautiful young forest patch, that when you zoom out as you did, is missing as part of that landscape. That stand had with out a doubt, a higher species richness than adjacent stands. So many bird species, game and non-game, absolutely require those patches of young forest. So many invertebrates, especially pollinators, need the plants that immediately re-sprout in those patch clear cuts. When we don't create it, we are literally robbing a home for young forest dependent wildlife in favor of our own human desires to have a forest that's "nice to look at". The definition of NIMBI. The young child in Wisconsin saying that a forest should be healthy is absolutely correct. It just so happens that a diverse forest mosaic of young, middle aged, and old trees is the healthiest forest. Peer reviewed science research supports the need for diverse forests that can better resist the effects of climate change. At Min. 25:32, the gentleman says that the Forest Service doesn't know how much carbon is being removed from the forest. However, if you read the Environmental Analysis for the Sunfish Timber Sale, the Forest Service absolutely did the work to quantify carbon sequestration and climate impacts. Read the documents. But then I just had to laugh at Min 29:30. The Forester from the Menominee shows you a former clear cut that regenerated naturally to white pine and you are amazed that they didn't need to plant that site, that it regenerated naturally to those young trees. That natural regeneration is no different than the regeneration in the clear cut you visited in Lead Mine, or the clear cut you visited at Sunfish. Those forests regenerated naturally too. None of those forests are plantations, none of those examples are going to become plantations. So you paint a picture that this management is bad, but then good? That makes no sense. Even the gal from the Menominee says that they manage a diverse forest. She says that old growth isn't always the right call, that clear cuts aren't always the right call, that they look at many different treatments. Hello, she is talking about a diverse forest made up of many different age classes! She is honestly incredibly smart. Be more like her. And next time, ask her to take you to the portions of their forests they manage for early successional habitat. There are whole swaths of their forest that are managed no different than the Forest Service manages the Nicolet National Forest, because of the Aspen timber type. Go to the MTE website and look up their management. 21,171 acres of their forest is the aspen cover type that is managed through a type of clear cut called a coppice. The same practice used on the Sunfish timber sale. And before you disagree with what I am saying, go back to Min. 3:31 or 11:40 or 17:22 or 17:26 and see from the air how everything looks the same. All of the trees are the same age. There is a distinct lack of young forest or any age class diversity. Look at Min. 16:08 and see how there is nothing, and I mean nothing in the understory of that forest that could support abundant wildlife (no escape cover, no forage, no nesting cover for ground nesting birds, no mid story). So much is factually wrong with this, I might honestly do a reaction video. Rant over, but not over.
Thank you for adding even more knowledgeable context. Makes me wonder why they interviewed the Menominee forest management people and not the NFS people. It’s has if the entire agenda was to lambast them , not to actually understand the practices!
I'm in the video and live in Leadmine. My family has been there 8 generations. My Grandfather worked timbering in the early 1900's when they clear cut pretty much the whole state. Since then, places have been left to grow, and other places cut. So there is diversity in the age and size of the forest in the area. Also, as we discussed in the documentary, the FS is not counting the numerous private property cuts in the area which do provide what you are saying. We are extremely worried about the cumulation of all of the clear cuts the FS wants to do, n addition to the clear cuts on private property. IN addition, we also have plant and wildlife that only benefits from the old growth stands and trees and many of those species are endangered. They will not grow in the new growth area for many, many years. Let me also add that this summer we have had a horrible drought in the area.....the worse they say in over 60 years. Grade school science class teaches us that the trees in these forests and mountains directly effect rain fall. No one here was saying they did not want any timber cutting. We were saying the amount of clear cuts they proposed is way too much for the area and the terrain. My understanding was the FS would not be interviewed. They have shown us very little attention.
@@paulastahl2654 Cool, I live in Northern WI near the Four-mile project. 4 generations of scientists and professional natural resources managers in northern WI. I also know some of the MTE foresters shown in the video. What the forest service is implementing is science based management that benefits a wide variety of forest species and will create a landscape more resilient to the effects of climate change. I see the problem with your type of perspective is that it is not science based and is not coming from the perspective of a professional natural resources manager. Fact is, the Forest Service has to take into the consideration, the cumulative effects of management (and lack of management) on private lands around the forest. They've already done that evaluation to move the project forward and the FIA data that evaluation is based off of shows that young forest is under represented on and off of the National Forest around Lead Mine and the Fourmile project. You have the right to disagree with that, but the data shows that we are losing it, mostly to the ephemeral nature of young forest. Fact is, it can take 10 years for the USFS to get a project approved and another 10-15 years to have fully implemented. That is problematic as young forest conditions for a lot of endangered young forest species may only be usable for the first 10-20 years after the cut. That's why the Forest Service is proposing so many cuts, and spacing them out over time in an effort to maintain a certain percentage as young forest, usually in line with the Forest Master Plan. Recognize that the small amount of young forest that is being created today, could be 40 years old by the time the next Project in that area is approved. By the time the next project is completed, that young forest shown in the video today could be 60 years old. Also recognize that maintaining a variety of age classes for ALL wildlife also enables the forest to better withstand the effects of climate change, like the drought you mention. Old trees get stressed by drought, young forest doesn't. Stressed old forest will invite disease, and then we will likely be talking about far more salvage cutting of dead trees instead of just managing a resilient forest. The forest service would likely not be interested in being interviewed because they knew the production would not be factual and mention these points. Lastly, are you the private landowner who said they were concerned about their home value, in this video? Because that tells us all we need to know. Citizens around Leadmine are more concerned about their home value than the Forest Service doing its job, with the best available science.
It'll have to be reservations, or it will never be safe. The federal government still owes us more reservation land and anyone who knows the history knows it.
The filmmakers obviously have good intentions and that is appreciated. But this film is a decidedly mixed bag. It begins by describing the importance of mature and old-growth forests, and the need to protect them from logging. That is good. Then, at the 26:00 minute mark, the film turns around and promotes "sustainable" logging. In fact, there is no scientifically agreed-upon definition of "sustainable" logging; it is simply a buzzword used by the timber industry to make people feel good about business-as-usual logging. The film highlights "sustainable" logging by the Menominee Tribe, which is better than most industrial logging. However, this is far from a natural forest; their logging program includes cutting down 200 year-old old-growth trees and processing them into lumber. In the process, they are releasing most of the original carbon in these trees into the atmosphere through their logging operations, transporting logs, processing trees into lumber, and disposing of the "waste. (most of which is likely to be burned). Next, at 38:00 minutes the film endorses “prescribed burning” as a strategy for reducing the risk and intensity of fires in the West. This strategy is promoted by the U.S. Forest Service, the timber and firefighting industries, and their political allies, as justification for more logging and other intensive “management” on tens of millions of acres of forest. In fact, there is little credible scientific evidence that human-caused burning mimics natural disturbances, was widespread before European settlement, restores forest health, or decreases wildfire intensity and risk to communities. Here is an article that sets the record straight on fire. thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/588796-fire-suppression-myths/ So, it is good that the filmmakers are urging people to comment to protect mature and old-growth forests, and I hope they do. However, the film sends confusing messages that blur the lines between forest protection and forest exploitation. After people watch this film, I recommend that they watch another one which will help to clarify these issues: The Return of Old Growth Forests. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lVx45KG-DQs.html
The clearcut scene at 10:00 really just demonstrates for me what a poor grasp you have on the importance of clear cuts in creating wildlife habitat. “I can’t even imagine deer making their way through this”, if you had spent any time at all observing whitetail deer you would know that clearcuts are an absolute boon for deer. They are a species of edges that thrives when there is abundant shrubby growth and declines and harms the forest through overbrowse when the canopy closes.
“Wildlife aren’t going to choose this, they’re going to choose the nice mature forest with an open understory” This is just so absolutely absurd of a statement. It is a real blemish on an otherwise well-videographed documentary. There are numerous absurdities in this documentary that really just discredit it for me.
Almost clicked away within the first 10 seconds. This is a good message, but the narrator's voice is so annoying. "We spent an entire year exploring"... OMG that's an annoying voice. You can hear him use a normal speaking voice, so I'm not sure why he forces that annoying voice for narration.
Bro you’re way too talented at content creation. You had one post 3 years ago and now this documentary stuff. Both are amazing quality with a decent number of views. I just love your content so I’m hoping you’re able/wanting to create more
