In these high-elevation forests, a lot of cash was spent to grow seedlings in open spaces where they didn’t naturally exist. True enough that 20 percent more seedlings survived where the non-cash-crop shrubs were weeded than where they were left untouched—but only for the short term. In the same subalpine environments, spraying ferns into pincushions did not improve the long-term survival rate of spruce, but the short-term height growth of the prickly seedlings was a quarter more than where the ferns were left alive. These minimal, temporary yields were enough to satisfy the policymakers.
