How do I cope with watching the land I care for change?

You gave your life to the woods, and now you watch fire, disease, and politics reshape them faster than you can heal them. Out there alone, that grief has nowhere to go. Loving a place this much means feeling every wound it takes. That is the price of caring, and it is a fair one. You are not failing the land. You are tending it through changes far larger than any one person can stop. Some of what is happening is beyond your reach, and treating it as your personal loss will only break you. Your job is not to save every tree. It is to steward well the ground in front of you. The isolation makes all of this heavier than it needs to be. Even people who love solitude need someone who understands the work. Reach out to one other forester or land steward and talk honestly about what you are seeing. You are not the last person who cares. You are one of many, and the land is better for having you on it.