We hear about it a lot - deforestation, save the rain-forests, stop clear-cut logging - there's always someone trying to tell you how important a resource our forests, of whatever type, really are.

I'm not going to explain to you how bad it is. I'm not going to explain to you how important it is. What I am going to do is tell you the story that reinforced everything I heard about de-forestation.

I get to explore a lot of places - but those places sometimes lay way off of the beaten paths of the regular tourist.

Recently I visited a unique area in the state of SInaloa in Mexico and was able to recognize the real effects of deforestation that just one small family created.

Maybe it wasn't the area that was so unique or the elevation - maybe it was the combination of the two. But at this special spot near the Chihauhua and Sinaloa border in Mexico, there was a strikingly obvious transition between pine and oak forest and semi-arid mesquite type trees and various cactus.

The change in plant life was so obvious that you could walk 200 meters (650 feet) and have totally different plant life with no signs of the other plant life you'd just walked from.

It was in this area on the pine and oak forest side that an indigenous family chose to live. They had set up a small house, cleared a field for planting maize or other crops and fenced off pasture for various types of livestock. The family of five had access to a small but decent source of water all year round and were able to make a living enough off the land to at least survive.

My guide for the trip was from the surrounding area and knew the family quite well. We parked the vehicle near their house and he was going to take me on a little hike that would eventually bring me to the highest spot in the surrounding region.

Walking away from the families house through a very barren field about an acre in size I noticed that there were stumps throughout the field. Some of the tree stumps had obvious signs of age and had been there for quite some time. The stumps were dried and bleached from the sun.

I asked my guide what was up with the stumps and surprisingly he was very informed.

My guide replied:

The stumps are from the family over there cutting down the trees for firewood to use when they cook. They move farther and farther away from their house cutting more and more trees down as time goes on. The trees will never grow back - the ground gets too hot and the topsoil is now all washed away by the rains. The smaller plants that were protected from the hot sun by the shade of the trees and held the topsoil in place are not able to grow without the shade of the trees that were cut down.

Stop cutting down the trees - right?

The solution to the prevention of things like this is not as simple as "stop cutting down the trees". The indigenous family lived in an area that had only 3 years before, in 2005, received a road to connect them to a smaller town and an electrical line for them to access.

Even with electricity and a road how are they to pay for a car, or a ride or the electricity that was now accessible to them when there is no way to employ themselves for money in their area? How do you educate them that the subsidy they may receive to buy propane to cook with shouldn't be used to buy a TV because they can save the money and cook with wood?

Industrialization has changed our world in ways and in places that many have never seen. Real thought, real programs and real education starting right now is our only chance to control the problems that are associated with the industrialization of man.