Regenerating tropical forest - natural vs planted

[Montero]

Regrowing a tropical forest – is it better to plant trees or leave it to nature?

Scientists in Malaysia monitored a forest for 20 years after deforestation.

theconversation.com

 

[.matthew.]

It's an interesting subject, but may I suggest the best of both worlds... genetically engineered squirrels?

 

[Montero]

Nope.
They just ain't big enough.
And the natural seed spreaders, all the way up to toucans and tapirs, have done a great job down the years all by themselves. All we have to do is stop killing them.

 

[Wayne Mack]

It's an interesting subject, but may I suggest the best of both worlds... genetically engineered squirrels?

You say that like it's a good thing. We are constantly having our garden ravaged by squirrels. Last year, our persimmon tree had an abundant crop of fruit and despite wrapping each fruit in plastic mesh, the squirrels chewed through the mesh and devoured 100% of the fruit. We did not have a single persimmon from our crop. Grow trees, not squirrels.