The Value of Trees, Beyond Silly Memes

A popular meme on social media declares:

Under capitalism, a tree holds no value until it is cut down.

That’s a bit silly since natural capital has all sorts of value in all economic systems. The potential value of a tree includes, but is not limited to:

• Bearing fruits and nuts;
• Providing essential shade and shelter;
• Giving pleasure as landscaping;
• Producing seeds for… more trees; and, as the meme suggests,
• Converting to lumber for building.

Trees that produce fruits and nuts are valuable. You tend to care for them using all the best expertise available. Check the soil, test the water, develop strategies to protect and defend those trees.

Gardens have long been a symbol of success. Certainly, the ornamental trees have value to their owners. In fact, real estate agents frequently speak of “curb appeal” improving the value of any property. Planting the right trees? That’s an investment. I know this because we have now made such investments in landscaping twice. Trees are expensive.

I know dozens of farmers, several nursery owners, and three or four landscape architects. These capitalists want more trees, not fewer trees.

Now, let us consider when cutting down a tree creates value. The meme is not a good understanding of capitalism (or socialism, or mercantilism, or anything else). If you’re a lumber tree farmer, paper mill, etc, you replant on a schedule. We’ve seen this work well in Europe and in parts of the Pacific Northwest. Without a steady, predictable supply of timber, the timber company ceases to exist.

Life is not an episode of Dinosaurs (which I love). We have learned the value of sustainable farming, including lumber farming.

Pillaging, of any sort, is a human problem. We deforested long before any modern economic system. “Hey, we need room for crops. These trees are in the way. Hey, we need room for livestock. Those trees are in the way…”

I wish, as a teacher of economic rhetoric, that people would not try to attribute human failings to systems. See China and the Three Gorges Dam. Venezuela and its rapid deforestation to remove militants. Humans stink. It’s not an economic issue that we don’t care about the environment until it is too late.

Wolves were hunted to extinction in the UK during the 1600s. Why? It was an effort o remove symbols of paganism from Ireland. Wolf hunts continued in Northern Europe until the 1980s! (Hey, those endangered animals are killing our deer!)

Thankfully, we’re slightly more aware of our destructive natures. Slightly…

Natural capital isn’t a capitalist notion. People use resources. We often don’t think ahead until we’re at a brink of self-destruction.
The Maya likely over-consumed, right into oblivion. See Jared Diamond’s works for insights into this. At least five indigenous peoples destroyed their environments enough to cease existing.

Capitalists, in theory, want to maximize profit. Why chase after trees when you can farm some, plant some, and care for those between stages of growth? Christmas tree farms do this exceedingly well. If the meme were true, we’d eventually have no “real” Christmas trees. We used to drive by several Christmas tree farms in Western Pennsylvania. You could see the “waves” of different heights, indicating the ages of various trees. There were other types of trees planted around the farm, to shield the valuable pines from the wind. Imagine that: since the Dust Bowl, farmers have learned to plant trees to protect their other crops… including trees.

Value is created by need and desire. That was true long before capitalism. I’m sure the first human to craft a sharp spear was valued highly by a community. The first person to craft clothing had a special value.

Trees have value because we need them and we want them. They have essential capital and experiential capital.

If I am hungry, I value the fruit of a tree. If I am cold, I might value the wood. If I need shelter, I might value the lumber. Value exists because there’s a context creating that value.

It’s not as if only capitalist value wooden homes, warmth in winter, fruits, or nuts. Socialist, communists, and other -ists like to have homes, warmth, and food, too.

If I’m stuck in the snow, I’m cutting down a tree. I’ll plant another one later.

Simplistic anti-capitalism memes abound. What they really represent is a general dissatisfaction, a vague sense that markets are “wrong” and there’s something else better. Something utopian is out there, if only we’d all embrace it.