Can't See Them for the Trees

There's still lots of forests around, but not like the old days.  I think the ones Uncle Ken pines for are called "old growth" forests.  They used to be called "virgin" forests, but it became impossible to talk about them in school because of all the giggling.  There are not a lot of old growth forests left in Michigan, the only one I can think of is in Hartwick Pines State Park, about 80 miles south of Cheboygan, but there's lots of what they call "second growth".   That's the forests that were planted or grew back naturally after the old growth was harvested.  These trees don't make as good lumber as the old growth, but they are useful for other things.   You know that funny looking plywood that they use in construction nowadays, the stuff that looks all speckely and splotchy?   That's called "oriented strand board", OSB for short, and it's made by grinding up logs and mixing the chips and chunks with glue, and forming them into sheets.   They can use all kinds of logs for that, they don't need to be straight or pretty either.  It's cheaper than traditional plywood, and is suitable for sheathing as long as it's going to be covered with siding later, as it doesn't hold up very well with prolonged exposure to the weather.

It used to be believed that forest lands made the best farmland, once the trees had been cleared, but prairie actually converts better to agricultural purposes, and native prairie land is much more scarce than forest land in North America today.  Michigan is one of the few places on the world where the trees are growing back faster than they are being cut down.  Forests regenerate naturally if you leave them alone for awhile, but restoring natural prairie usually requires some remedial action like killing off the invasive species that have taken over the scene.   Trees will also invade grasslands if given the chance but, if you mow it or graze it, the trees don't have a chance to get started.  Generally, grass only invades a forest after it's been clear cut or burned, and then it's not a forest anymore anyway.