Does clearing out forests and cutting down trees cause a disturbance in the woods as a whole?
In the place I'm staying at (until I find the perfect home), I heard a loud thunderous boom! It was the neighbors who sold a strip of their forest to someone wanting to build a home. As they clear cut the area and began to fell ancient trees, I got to wondering what it would do to the forest around us....
LINK: "The latest scientific studies, conducted at well-respected universities in Germany and around the world, confirm what he has long suspected from close observation in this forest: Trees are far more alert, social, sophisticated—and even intelligent—than we thought."
"There is now a substantial body of scientific evidence that refutes that idea. It shows instead that trees of the same species are communal, and will often form alliances with trees of other species. Forest trees have evolved to live in cooperative, interdependent relationships, maintained by communication and a collective intelligence similar to an insect colony. These soaring columns of living wood draw the eye upward to their outspreading crowns, but the real action is taking place underground, just a few inches below our feet."
So, we can assume, when you begin to chop down trees, you are affecting the neighboring underground network that communicates changing conditions and distress.
We know that, if you chop down part of the forest, you are affecting nesting birds, squirrels, raccoons, deer, and other wildlife that nw has disrupted paths and waning plants that prey like deer would feast upon. Now we understand that it isn't just the fauna, but the flora is affected too.
Remember the M. Knight Shamalan movie, "The Happening?" The basis of the film was that the plant life has had enough and communicates to lead to the destruction of man instead.
LINK: "We don't know how they communicate within their own bodies. They don't have nervous systems, but they can still feel what's going on, and experience something analogous to pain. When a tree is cut, it sends electrical signals like wounded human tissue.”
In an experiment, a leaf was cut and then photographed with kirlian photography (a photograph technique that allows us to see coronal aura of a living thing). Under this photography, the cut part of the leaf still glowed.
(above) an aura photograph of me a couple weeks after my brother died. I explained that I felt him over my right shoulder. Pink is love. The light over my right shoulder, spirit energy.
Even though trees in the forest communicate to warn of changing conditions and threats, they are all competing for the same resources. There is no intelligence as we know it, so no egos or idiots, simply pure communication with a magnificent design that helps these critical elements to our oxygen levels to be aware. It doesn't mean self-awareness, such as "I know I'm a tree" thoughts, but more like awareness for systems to run right, to grow, to have photosynthesis, to know when to stop chlorophyll production and lose leaves, etc. Basically, the machine is running on autopilot.
Let's put this concept into a perspective, is there communication between human and plant? I know as a kid, when my dad and I had competing gardens, he told me his secret for big tomatoes was to talk to the plants kindly.
In fact, experiments with houseplants found that playing Beethoven's Fifth was the most responsive music for plants. They thrived when it is played often. They also died off and stunted growth with things like hard rock music. So, we can assume that frequency and vibration are picked up by trees, as are other factors like humidity, barometric change, and wind movement.
The key to the forest's social network is fungus filaments called mycorrhizae. Through this network, they are able to not only warn each other, but mother trees can also send nutrients to their offspring. Now, don't go thinking they have brains and are self aware, but they have a design that encourages the forest's growth and protection. It may not truly be "intelligence," but it is a working system designed for survival. It's as if the Creator (however you see It/Him/Her/Them) considered the lack of intelligence, but the importance of the plant world, and found a way it could nurture itself as a collective without the need for ego, intellect, or competition.
Now, to a darker subject, the infamous "Suicide Forest," called "Aokigahara Forest" on Mt. Fuji in Japan. At least 30 people a year choose to go to this dense forest and commit their own murders.
What does this do to the forest? It is well known for being so dense and confusing that when people enter, they usually get lost. The missing link to all of this is whether part of what the trees sense might include emotional distress and death among humans and animals within the forest.
I don't suppose trees have original thought or awareness, simply an organic device that runs on water, carbon dioxide, temperature, and soil conditions. It's a perpetual machine designed to be sure it and others continue to live and grow.
If there is a forest fire or a lumbering interest in the forest, what would it do to the surviving trees around that area? During distress, the injured or dying trees might be programmed to send out their nutrients to others that aren't under threat. That would mean the trees around the area would benefit. Or, conversely, it could be that the distress signals from the dying trees causes other trees to shut down production under stress.
And, what happens to cut trees' stumps? The tree root system doesn't die right away. Sometimes, a new tree sprouts from the stump, but the needs of that tree to survive are intense, so does it affect trees around it that now have to feed it much of their nutrients?
I suppose the answer to the question, "Do forests feel?" is NO. They don't feel, but they do react as an inborn system strives to make them live through drought, hurricanes, and backyard treefort building.
They are also important sentinels put upon the earth as if they were the greatest tool. Animals and plants for eating and medicine, but trees are here for oxygen, shelter, wood, and a home for critters.