Forests play a hugely significant role on planet Earth. They act as "Earth's lungs." (WWF, n.d.) These "lungs" purify the air trapped in the atmosphere and are positively involved in the daily lives of all living things. However, the environment's harmful cigarette, deforestation, permanently removes the forest cover from an area and transforms that previously forested land to other uses. Deforestation is the primary cause of losing these valuable forests and it is occurring at an unimaginably rapid pace. According to the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), "The lungs of the planet are increasingly being likened to those of a heavy smoker." (WWF, n.d.) Specifically relating to deforestation, there is a rare rainforest that is known as the "largest coastal temperate rainforest on the planet." (The Nature Conservancy, 2014) This rainforest is 6.4 million hectares and it stretches along the coast of British Columbia. (Bethel, 2014) It is the Great Bear Rainforest. It has a variety of grizzly bears, salmon, and timber trees. However, deforestation in the ecosystem of the Great Bear Rainforest has resulted in the adverse environmental impact of biodiversity loss to bear, fish, and plant, species.
“The Great Bear Rainforest is home to over 2,500 salmon runs.” (Temple, 2005) At the moment, the Pacific salmon is the evident species inhabiting the forest. Salmon are keystone species. This means that they play a vital part towards the ecosystem together as a “critical food source for many wildlife species and as an upstream vector in the distribution of marine-deprived nutrients through the forest.” (David Suzuki Foundation, 2005) When this forest gets cut down, the entire ecology of the nearby water bodies drastically changes in a negative m...
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...ase-stress-in-grizzly-bears-linked-with-salmon-shortages/)
Spirit bear competition (http://www.isfoundation.com/news/creatures/spirit-bear) http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/canada/placesweprotect/great-bear-rainforest.xml (this is for the intro) http://www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2014/01/great-bear-rainforest-milestone-reached.html (FOR INTRO 6.4 MILLION HECTARES)
VISUALS:
1. Percentage diagram of clear cutting in the Great Bear Rainforest (Beside biodiversity loss of plant species paragraph) (from DSF source)
2. Percentage diagram of fish protection (beside or near the fish paragraph) (From DSF source)
3. From the ground up - cirle diagram of stats/percents of entire forest (goes near intro)
4. Salmon map (Salmon for Parks Chris T. Darimont et al.
Figure 2 )
http://www.raincoast.org/wp-content/uploads/SalmonforParks_Oct2010Darimont_etal.pdf
Zielinski, E. (2012, April 25). The Northwest Forest Plan. Retrieved from U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIORBUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT: http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/history/sidebars/ecosystems/Northwest_Forest_Plan.html
The Amazon Rain Forest Is in Danger of Being Destroyed" by Devadas Vittal. Rain Forests. HaiSong Harvey, Ed. At Issue Series. Greenhaven Press, 2002. Reprinted from Devadas Vittal, Introduction: What Is the Amazon Rainforest? Internet: http://www.homepages.go.com/homepages/d/v/i/dvittal/amazon/intro.html, November 1999, by permission of the author. http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Viewpoints&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=OVIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010021212&mode=view
Forests cover 31% of the land area on our planet. They produce vital oxygen and provide homes for people and wildlife. Many of the world’s most threatened and endangered animals live in forests, and 1.6 billion people rely on benefits forests offer, including food, fresh water, clothing, traditional medicine and shelter (drug war facts, Page 1).
They show the three different habitat zones, forest, transition, and farmland. The graphs are done over a 30 year time period that shows the abundance of wolf, coyote, and foxes in the three habitats. The year to year change was observed between coyotes and foxes while being influenced by the presence of wolves. The time frame was the independent variable while the population of the three populations was the dependent variable. In figure 1B they show that for a while the fox and coyote population was all over the place because wolves were being hunted and then in 1996 wolf hunting started to slow down and the population of foxes and coyotes started to stabilize. In figure 1C they show that in the transition habitat the populations are all increasing over time until about 2004 when the fox population fell below the coyote population. In figure 1D they show what happens in farmlands where wolves are not present. Coyote populations are pretty low compared to the fox population until sometime between 1996 and 2001 where things dramatically changed and the coyote population was way higher than the fox population. In figure three they made a food web that shows that wolves negatively affecting coyotes. Then coyotes negatively affect foxes. This could be due to niche overlap and competition, by the wolves negatively affecting coyotes they are positively affecting
British Columbia is the third largest province in Canada with an area of 95 million hectares, about 64% of it is covered in forest. The majority of this forest is used for timber production, a smaller chunk is protected as park land and the rest is unavailable to log because of remotes. Deforestation is the permanent destruction of forests in order to make the land available for other uses. The majority of the trees are coniferous. With the increase of many ecological problems the preservation of forests play an important role in British Columbia. Forest are one of the most valuable resources for the economy since their wood products are being exported all over the world. It is however crucial that the environmental impacts of deforestation
Perry, D. A. (1998). The Scientific Basis of Forestry, Annual Review of Ecology and System Thematic 29:435-466, Retrieved July 9, 2005 from: http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/policy/policy_and_events/index.cfm
In “The Stream-Flow Controversy: A Conservation Turning Point,” conservationists argued that the United States will be lead down a “irretraceable path of desiccation and destruction” due to its maltreatment of forests (59). Even though the conservationists
WPF/World Preservation Foundation, 2010, Deforestation statistics, sponsored by WPF, viewed 3rd November 2013, Available at: http://www.worldpreservationfoundation.org/blog/news/deforestation-statistics/#.UoFtypQY3TV
Environmental issues affect every life on this planet from the smallest parasite to the human race. There are many resources that humans and animal needs to survive; some of the most obvious resources come from the forests. Forests make up a large percentage of the globe. The forests have global implications not just on life but on the quality of it. Trees improve the quality of the air that species breath, determine rainfall and replenish the atmosphere. The wood from the forests are used everyday form many useful resources. Moreover, thinning the forests increases the amount of available light, nutrients and water for the remaining trees. Deforestation (forest thinning) is one of the most critical issues of environmental problems that are occurring today.
Though deforestation has increased at an alarming rate throughout the past fifty years, deforestation has been performed during the course of history. According to the World Resources Institute, a majority of the world’s enduring naturally occurring forests are found in Alaska, Canada, Russia and the Northwestern Amazon. Research has demonstrated forests are more likely to be destroyed and repurposed where economic revenues tied to agriculture and pasture are prominent, typically attributed to advantageous weather conditions, or lower expenses of demolishing the forest and delivering merchandises to the global
life is essential to life on earth as it produces much of the oxygen that is
Rainforests once covered 14% of the worlds land surface, however now it only covers a mere 6%. It is estimated that all rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years. Trees are becoming more needed and used everyday. We need them cut down for many reasons such as paper and timber, while also needing them ‘untouched’ for other reasons like oxygen, we have to ask ourselves, which is more important? At the current rate, most of the rainforests are being cut down for resources like paper and timber, but less importance is being placed on main resources like oxygen.
The Problem of Deforestation The world’s forests are in grave danger. Over half of the original forest cover has been destroyed, and things are set to deteriorate unless the current alarming rate of deforestation is checked. Every minute an estimated 26 hectares of forest is lost – that’s an area equivalent to 37 football pitches - and it is not difficult to see that if this continues we will be left with a planet devoid of woodland. This would be catastrophic: not only are forests home to some of the most important species on earth, but they also play a vital role in regulating the climate and making the planet habitable. Much of the earth was once covered by trees, but the majority of these were cleared long ago to make way for an ever expanding human population.
since the beginning of time. Man has been destroying trees for the use of wood for
Deforestation is the elimination of existing trees from the earth; attributable factors include urbanization, logging, ranching, and farming and to some extent land speculation. Land speculation can be included as cleared land is more valuable than forested land. Deforestation, done in the name of progress, and the long-term, devastating effects of it, is killing our planet.