—We are planning a conference on changes to silviculture because of forest fires and climate change… Do you wanna come?
—But I don’t work in that topic.
—Don’t you?
To be perfectly honest, I have never seen myself as dealing with forest fires in my research. I do work, sometimes obsess, on the within- and between-tree variability of wood properties and its genetic control. BUT and, this is an important but, one of the ideas of working in my topic is to identify, domesticate and generate new varieties with “good” within-tree wood property trends. Trends that could allow for shorter rotation (time to harvest) plantations or that could have better wood with lower stocking (fewer trees per hectare).
And here comes the connection: one silvicultural response to increased fire frequency is to use lower stockings, reducing fire risk. Therefore, I DO work in that topic and, perhaps, should go to the conference. 😎
P.S. In the late 1970s and early 1980s there was a fantastic British TV series called Connections, hosted by James Burke. Burke’s aim was to show the interconnection of ideas in history of science. He is also responsible of doing what has been called “the best-timed piece to camera” or “the greatest shot in television” (starting in second 0:43, if you are impatient). Just another connection.
