How to Prevent the Cutting of Trees

A large tree can take a century to grow, and five minutes to cut down.

Tree cutting can range from pruning a single tree in a city neighborhood to clear cutting vast swaths of old-growth forest the wilderness. Those who oppose tree cutting have developed sophisticated methods to oppose the practice, ranging from mild mannered educational campaigns to confrontational guerrilla tactics. Do your research before undertaking a campaign to stop tree cutting. Comprehensive knowledge about the context of the activity will help you to appear legitimate in the public eye, something that is critical to the success of most campaigns.

Instructions

Cut Your Consumption

1. Research the source of all the resources that you use, and stop using the ones that are dependent on tree cutting.

2. Don't buy foods that use palm oil, because large areas of tropical forests are cut down to plant palm plantations.

3. Become a vegetarian, and stop supporting the meat industry, which destroys forests and replaces them with grazing land for meat cows.

4. Use scrap paper for all your paper needs to distance yourself from the paper industry, which cuts millions of trees every year.

5. Buy as much as you can used, to decrease the possibility that you are buying things that are made out of virgin forest.

Educate People

1. Join an environmental group that is working on forest issues and learn how to educate yourself and others about the main threats to trees.

2. Talk to friends and family about your opposition to tree cutting, and ask them to join you in making efforts to keep trees alive.

3. Develop a public presentation about trees and the threats to them, then contact local schools about presenting it for their students.

4. Write letters to the editor of your local paper and national publications encouraging people to take actions against the cutting of trees.

5. Buy books about the dangers of deforestation and send them to all of your governmental representatives, with a note encouraging them read them.

Take Direct Action

1. Put your body in between the trees and the people who want to cut them.

2. Lock yourself to road gates or machinery in an attempt to slow down the progress of logging operations. Be sure to do this in the company of a group of trusted and competent friends. It is an extremely serious and dangerous undertaking.

3. Locate the corporate headquarters of the companies that are cutting the trees you want to save. Demonstrate in front of their offices and refuse to leave.

4. Climb into the canopies of the threatened trees, equipped with a platform and supplies so that you don't have to come back down. Stay there while your associates go to court to gain a court injunction against the tree cutting.

References

• Effects of Deforestation: How To Stop Deforestation
• Nature News: Save the Trees