System / Process  - A system is a collection of things, items, elements, processes, etc. that may or may not be related but they all serve to accomplish a predetermined goal or objective.  The collection is characterized as a collective entity.  A process is a series or sequence of things, items, elements, etc. that are all related to that which comes before and after them in the sequence, and the sequence or series does have a known result or end point.  Trees and their many associates make up a natural system.  The collective entity is the forest.  A forest is much more than trees.  On a number basis, trees are probably the least numerous organism in a forest.  Yet, the tree, on a volume basis, is the organism that makes up most of the mass of a forest.  (Or a healthy forest, i.e., the ecological stages) The objective of the forest as a giant natural system is to perpetuate itself, by perpetuating all the parts.  The parts have changed over the hundreds of millions of years in the past, but the forest still remains, which attests to the high order of the system.  Processes depend on order to perpetuate systems.  When we take the tree out of the natural system, we must make certain that we provide the essentials for survival.  Use more ecoart-nurse logs in landscapes.


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