CAFNR Week speaker addresses natural resource issues
by Amanda Davis, posted Oct. 7, 2008
MU students and faculty filled Monsanto Auditorium at 6 p.m., Sept. 24, to hear Bruce Vincent, manager of Vincent Logging, deliver a message about preserving natural resources. Vincent has a master’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash. He speaks in the U.S. and internationally about resource issues.
“I thought it would be pretty interesting to hear what he had to say,” said Christian Heredia, a sophomore from Montgomery City, Mo.
Vincent, who is a third-generation logger, stressed the importance of preserving our natural resources through proper management. He grew up in Libby, Mont., a timber and mining town in the northwest corner of the state.
“It’s an ocean of trees,” Vincent said.
Dense forests of lodgepole pines surround the area. This species of tree has a 100-year cycle. It lives for 100 years, and then bugs eat the center. Forest fires catch the pines on fire and cause the pine cones on the tree to release seeds for the next generation of trees. The fire invigorates topsoil, kills the weeds and provides food for small mammals. According to Vincent, it is the responsibility of the loggers and miners to manage the forest correctly to allow healthy growth and healthy burn. When loggers are not allowed to clear out the excess trees in a forest, the amount of carbon dioxide in the forest causes the fires to sterilize topsoil and turn the trees to ashes. In this case, instead of causing the cones to release seeds, they disintegrate.
“I believe that if we do a good job taking care of the trees, the trees will take care of us,” Vincent said.
According to Vincent, many people who live in cities, especially actors and actresses, care about the environment because they have experienced its beauty while on vacation. They then go back to their homes and try to preserve that natural beauty by preventing logging and mining.
“They perceive it to be the last best place on earth, but there’s no prevision for the last best people,” Vincent said. “They’re trying to recreate a Disney-esk Utopia. In the real world, the wolf eats the rabbit.”
Lawsuits and environmental laws have caused many logging and mining companies to go out of business. Vincent Logging went from employing more than 60 people to three people, including Vincent and his wife. Vincent and his family, like many logging companies, no longer use their equipment to cut down trees. The equipment has been modified to fight fires.
Vincent said he has hope for this new generation of young people because they keep asking questions until they get the answers they need in order to take action and make a difference.
