Have you ever wondered what it takes to build fine furniture? You know, the kind that develops its own unique personality as it is handed down from one generation to the next? Like your grandma's old bureau.

Some of our finest examples may have started out many years ago as an acorn or hickory nut hidden by an ambitious squirrel. Or perhaps they started as a seed pod, carried on the wind to a fertile patch of soil. Or maybe even as a tiny seedling planted by human hands. By whatever means it began, each young sapling entered the same age-old cycle.

Growing slowly at first, and absorbing what little light was available on the forest floor, it survived the cold of winter, the droughts of summer, and a host of creatures who like to browse on tender new growth. As the years went by, less competition from surrounding trees allowed it to reach the top of the forest canopy. After many decades of growth, the tree finally reached maturity, providing both food and shelter to the inhabitants of the forest.

But trees, like all living things, don't last forever. Even the finest specimens will eventually succumb to the relentless forces of nature, such as storms, insects and decay. Fortunately there are hundreds of little trees waiting in the understory for their own turn to grow.

That's why thousands of private landowners, lumber companies, and even large corporations believe in something called "sustainable forestry." Sustainable forestry is the practice of carefully evaluating the ecology of the forest to determine how the available resources can be managed for optimum benefit in the future as well as the present.

Forestry professionals who have devoted their careers to the study of the forest ecosystem can provide a wide variety of treatment strategies to meet the objectives of the landowner, ranging from selective harvests and thinnings that spur rapid growth of high-quality sawtimber, to areawide clear cuts that help promote certain varieties of plants and animals. They can determine whether a tree should be cut or left standing for wildlife habitat, whether it is needed to protect the quality of our rivers and streams, or should simply be left standing for aesthetic reasons.

When sound forestry practices are used, tree harvesting has many positive effects on the environment. In a process known as photosynthesis, carbon dioxide molecules are broken down, releasing oxygen and storing carbon as wood fiber. When trees are harvested, the carbon remains stored within wood products, instead of being released back into the atmosphere through natural decay.

This essentially captures greenhouse gases produced by the use of fossil fuels. Branches left behind from logging enrich the soil by adding organic matter. Another benefit of removing older trees is the increase of lush, new, forest growth that provides food and cover for animals.

Our next installment will discuss what happens after the trees are harvested.