In this news piece, the unintended consequences of depopulation reminds me of Lynn Jungwirth’s powerful statement at the National Roundtable about the impacts of the illegal use of the forest by commercial enterprises on the national forests in northern California.
“You might think that as people leave the forest there would be a conservation gain – that the abandoned land and rivers would be left to nature. However, we found that wasn’t the case. Although plants and animals were no longer being farmed and harvested by subsistence resource users, other more commercial activities moved in,” said Parry in a statement.