AUTOPOIESIS comes from two roots AUTO "self" and the Greek POIESIS "creating". BTW, POETRY comes from the word poiesis and means "creating or making". It was two Chilean Biologists that first used "autopoiesis" to describe the process of living systems, to describe life. A living organism is an autopoietic system because it is self- making (the internal DNA blueprint) and self-regulating through homeorrhesis (dynamic stability). After thinking about forests I realized that we need a fresh term to describe what many of us think of when we think of a NATURAL FOREST. The problem is that NATURAL has many conotations and associations so I decided to introduce the term AUTOPOIETIC FOREST. After discussing the term at length with Lynn Margulis, author of "What is Life?" and often described as a "biologist's biologist" and "one of the greatest scientific thinkers of the late 20th century" I was convinced that I should flesh out the term and begin writing about our undisturbed forests in a fresh way, with new language, leaving all the loaded words behind.
I also suggest using the term ECOLOGICS as a new word for thinking ECOLOGICALLY about our forests and seeing them for what they are intrinsically without the lens of economy or utility. This is not to say that forests won't be cut down for lumber and processed for biomass plants under the guise of renewable energy; there needs to be new thinking about a resource that historically has been exploited as a commodity rather than as a service, an ecological service. I remember reading that a llving tree may be worth as much as $300,000 in ecosystem services compared to a a fraction of that as lumber. I can only hope that forestry begins to refocus their efforts on trees as members of a forest ecosystem and that the value of this resource is not simply economic or utilitarian. Trees are more than cubic feet of lumber with bark. Gary On Oct 17, 2009, at 7:07 AM, Joseph Zorzin wrote: > That's one of Gary Beluzo's favorite terms and he's one of the few > people who understands it and uses it (he may have coined the term) > so I'm sure he'll elaborate. I have a sense of the meaning and I > kinda like it- I believe for Gary, it's what happens in old growth > forests- to what extent it may be a useful principle in any sort of > managed forest is the 60 million dollar question. > > In particular, the question is interesting regarding forests managed > for old growth structures, as described in that brochure. > Joe > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Andrew Joslin > To: [email protected] > Sent: Friday, October 16, 2009 1:56 PM > Subject: [ENTS] Re: "Restoring Late-Successional Forest Structure"??? > > > Joe, can you get me (us) up-to-speed on the term "autopoietic" as > applied to forest ecology? It sounds like you mean self-regenerating > or > self-maintaining, not sure though. > -AJ > > Joseph Zorzin wrote: > > check out > > http://www.masswoods.net/images/stories/pdf/forest_mgr_guide_ls_structure_web.pdf > > > > comments? > > > > Gary Beluzo? What say ye about this? Those restored pseudo semi old > > growth forests won't be autopoietic? > > > > Joe > > > > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org Send email to [email protected] Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
