Ecology/Environmentalist Question

[yonderTheGreat]

I did a basic search and didn't find anything, so I apologize if this has been covered already. I've put in many, many Civ4 hours and love the game, but I've been AWOL from the game for about a year or so... so I'm really rusty. Started up an island campaign as Japan and I'm in a situation where *NOT* chopping down the forests is looking like a potentially legit strategy. That's pretty rare for me, so when the opportunity arises, I usually pursue it. But... I've forgotten a few things about pursuing the ecology/environmental route. I know trees/preserves make your citizens happy, but I don't recall the specifics on it.

So, my question is: If you're trying for the Environmental/Ecology outcome... where you save as many forests as possible... does that also include forests in your nation that AREN'T being directly used by cities? If I have a forest that's, say, 3 squares away from a city, but still inside my cultural boundaries... can I go ahead and chop it down for the production hammers without losing future ecological benefits?

Thanks!!!

 

[Fluxx]

You can chop forests outside your borders.

However the question is, how viable is Ecology over Free Markets/State Property.

 

[yonderTheGreat]

Oh I know, I usually (well over 95% of the time) end up w/ FM or SP, but I like to have this option just in case. I've got plenty of time to decide. I should rephrase my question tho, because I'm not sure if you mean cultural borders or city borders.

Is there any benefit to be had, at all, by leaving up forests that are within your national (cultural) borders, but not within the 2-square city border (and you have no plans of plopping down a new city there)?

And, again, thanks!

 

[Iranon]

There is no reason to leave them all, but there is a trade-off between clearcutting and leaving a checkerboard patterns standing: The former gives you more early hammers, the latter maximises your chance of regrowing; I tend to use the latter extensively in OCC games.

*

As an aside: Leaving forests standing works extremely well with heavy Slavery use; a food-neutral tile that produces 1 hammer is very unexciting and hardly worth growing to work but quite useful when regrowing from the whip (and since you'll probably stifle growth with specialists at the end of the cycle, it doesn't matter too much how good the marginal tiles are as long as they feed themselves).

 

[LuiGGi]

you mean forests within your cultural borders but outside your BFC...

don't know the answer though, let's wait for the specialists...

 

[Fluxx]

You can chop forests outside your CITY borders.

Ok fixed it to make it more clear

 

[yonderTheGreat]

Awesome, thanks! That's what I figured you meant. So basically, CHOP AWAY!

I'll hit those first, and then delay deciding on the others for now. I'll probably do a mix of improvements and forests. Just enough to get my cities big enough to use every space, and maybe a few specialists.