Walking on a small trail through a canopy of white oak and other mixed hardwoods I soon came to an overlook, a small rock overhang from which I could see the gently rolling canvas of green for miles. The Mark Twain National Forest. As I turned my head however, the canvas of green became more like a patchwork quilt. One square mile of forest, another square mile of nothing except stumps and slash, the waste products of a logging clear-cut. The loggers had taken what they needed and left, allowing nature to take over where they left off, to start again from nothing.
As I walked down the hill from my perch I noticed the roads which were made of dirt and were marked with deep ruts from the heavy machinery that was necessary to harvest the forest of it's lumber. Quickly put together with little or no regard to the problems of erosion or ground water runoff, these roads would be a permanent addition to the forest. Many of the trails I used to travel through the forest were once logging roads, over one hundred years ago. I arrived at the sight of the clear-cut. What awaited me I will never forget. A desert of stumps and waste wood, the ugliest sight I have ever seen.
This was one of my experiences with the use of clear cutting as a tool to extract the wood of the forests of southern Missouri. This region is not alone in its plight. The United States National Forest system is made up of more than 191 million acres, or more than one quarter of forest land in the U.S. (Internet 5.1.95). An extremely large portion of this land is deemed as public, which means it belongs to United States taxpayers. In the period before World War II most of the demands for lumber were fulfilled through the use of private land, which ...
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...s intact ecosystems that is indefinitely greater than their value as timber producers." (Drabelle) I think perhaps he is right. It is up to us to realize, and then act upon the problem in our own, forested, backyard.
Works Cited
"Below-Cost Timber Sales Fact Sheet." Wilderness Society. 5.1.95 (retrieved) Internet. URL:http://town.hall.org/environment/wild_soc/ wilderness.html
Booth, Douglas E. Valuing Nature. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1994.
Drabelle, Dennis. "Obey the Law and Tell the Truth." Wilderness. Fall 1994: pp. 29-32.
Horwitz, Eleanor C.J. Clearcutting. Washington D.C.:Acropolis Books, 1974.
Repetto, Robert. The Forest for the Trees? Washington D.C.:World Resources Institute, 1988.
"Sierra Club Policy:Public Lands Forest Management." Sierra Club. 5.1.95 (retrieved) Internet. URL:http://www.sierraclub.org/
All over the country Native Americans would use this practice to prepare their fields for planting or create areas for the local wildlife. Taylor succeeds in his message of reorienting his readers view. Contrary to common belief Native Americans suffered more from European diseases and affected their local environments with fires.
These two sides of the issue bring about a major controversy in America today. Should the Pacific Northwest’s old growth forests and the welfare of the Northern Spotted Owl be sacrificed for America’s economy, and the jobs of the people in the logging industry? Which should be placed at a higher value, the forests in the Pacific Northwest and the northern spotted owl, or the American economy and the jobs and welfare of thousands and thousands of people?
The plots, blackberry rambles, pine barrens, and spacious groves of great eastern forest was an ecological kaleidoscope of garden chestnut, hickory, and oak…Early European explorers marveled at the trees that were spaced so that the forest “could be penetrated even by a large army”… English squatters encountered forested
When people see new construction or a recently paved road, they often do not realize the sacrifice that was made to create these luxuries. Most people pass some form of construction on the way to their jobs or school every day. This simple fact sparks questions regarding what this area looked like before it was inhabited by humans. Illinois forests have undergone drastic changes in the decades since European settlement. Only 31 % of the forest area present in 1820 exists today. (Iverson Pdf) Tearing down trees to build new structures isn’t bad if done in moderation, in some ways with time and good planning its wonderful. However, anyone that hunts or claims to be an outdoorsman will relate to the incomparable feeling experienced when alone in the woods and far from the hustle of the urbanized world.
on: April 10th 1864. He was born in 1809 and died at the age of 83 in
Once forests began to be viewed as beneficial, it opened up a whole new lifestyle. The forests and nature might have been an evil and scary place, but it was a place filled with resources and opportunity. Settlers began using trees and wood in a plethora of ways. Not only was it used for families own use, many began logging forests as a business; a very profitable business at that. Once wood started being used for beneficial purposes, a snowball effect occurred by the settlers to cut down every tree in sight and turn it into a profit.
I prepared myself for the upcoming adventurous day. I set out along a less-traveled path through the woods leading to the shore. I could hear every rustle of the newly fallen leaves covering the ground. The brown ground signaled the changing of seasons and nature's way of preparing for the long winter ahead. Soon these leaves would be covered with a thick layer of snow. The leaves still clinging to the trees above displayed a brilliant array of color, simultaneously showing the differences of each and the beauty of the entire forest.
In August 2002, President Bush launched his revolutionary campaign against wildfires known as the Healthy Forest Initiative (HFI). The President’s dynamic plan centers on preventing massive forest fires by thinning the dense undergrowth and brush commonly seen in our national forests. The thinning will occur in priority areas that are in close proximity to homes and watersheds. The Healthy Forest Initiative also aims at developing a more efficient response method to disease and insect infestations that sabotage our forests. Finally, if fully enacted, the Healthy Forest Initiative would provide the loggers with what is known as “goods for services”. This will compensate the loggers for the financial burden that will surface as a result of this aggressive thinning (http://www.sierraclub. org/forests /fires/healthyforests initiative.asp). In order to promote the progress of his Healthy Forest Initiative, in 2003 President Bush announced the Healthy Forest Restoration Act. This act took the main issues discussed in the Healthy Forest Initiative a step further. Bush plans to make a collaborative effort with federal, state, tribal, and local officials to protect our woodlands against future infernos. The act also calls for more public participation in reviewing any actions taken in lieu of the Healthy Forest Initiative. Furthermore, Bush wants to restore the land that has already been destroyed by wildfires and help to recover the threatened and endangered species that were affected by the fires (http://www.
The Western forests are drastically different from what they were like before the European settlement. In pre-European time, the forests were open and park-like with only 25-35 trees per acre surrounded by areas of open grasslands. One could easily ride a horse through the spacious forest. This, however, is not possible in today's forests. Today, for example the Ponderosa pine forests, have over 500 trees per acre, creating thick dense areas of trees, brush, and bushes (President Bush, 4). The pre-European forests were subject to frequent low inte...
In the piece Some Industrial Refugees Form Communal Settlements in Logged Valley in B.C. by Eleanor Bond, the landscape displays an exploited and deserted settlement. It is perched on the high cliffs, mirroring misfortune as logging settlements leave refugees with instability and unemployment. This settlement is making use of the barren land that was destroyed by humans, as the cut down forest in the background lingers. The bleached splinters that linger in the background are the only evidence of what is left of the forest. The barren land has become a place of refuge for these displaced groups. It makes us rethink societies view on land today, which primarily revolves around human occupation. Deforestation has many negative effects on the environment including loss of habitat for species, decrease in the absorption of greenhouse gases and loss of biodiversity. Don Maynard uses recycled conditioner parts in his sculptor Smoked Signal #1 to draw attention to air quality control. The sculptor is strategically hung high on the wall to feel a sense of warning and have it hanging above you like an industrial cloud of
“The Lorax reflects the era in 1971 in which the book was written. During that time, the United States was entangled in environmental issues left over from the 1960s. The deforestation of the Pacific Northwest was chief among them; logging companies were cutting down trees at alarming rates. The logging industry were not happy about The Lorax and as a result the book was banned from many schools and libraries near thriving timber communities. Timber industry groups even sponsored a rebuttal book, called The Truax, which helped kids understand the necessity of harvesting timber (Ayers)”.
Her spry, Timberland-clad foot planted itself upon a jagged boulder, motionless, until her calf muscles tightened and catapulted her small frame into the next stride. Then Sara's dance continued, her feet playing effortlessly with the difficult terrain. As her foot lifted from the ground, compressed mint-colored lichen would spring back into position, only to be crushed by my immense boot, struggling to step where hers had been. My eyes fixated on the forest floor, as fallen trees, swollen roots, and unsteady rocks posed constant threats for my exhausted body. Without glancing up I knew what was ahead: the same dense, impenetrable green that had surrounded us for hours. My throat prickled with unfathomable thirst, as my long-empty Nalgene bottle slapped mockingly at my side. Gnarled branches snared at my clothes and tore at my hair, and I blindly hurled myself after Sara. The portage had become a battle, and the ominously darkening sky raised the potential for casualties. Gritting my teeth with gumption, I refused to stop; I would march on until I could no longer stand.
Legislators have defined "salvage logging" as the act of logging unhealthy forest stands, considered to have a probability of experiencing extreme insect and disease infestation of catastrophic fire. However, no scientific consensus exists for describing an unhealthy forest, predicting or classifying catastrophic fire event, or classifying the resultant damage of an insect and disease. Salvage logging was an alternative way of meeting timber demands and generating revenues by timber industries and legislators without much opposition from the public. This is because the laws permitting such logging practices are so vague and confusing. Legislators espouse that the sales from such practice brings in money to the Treasury while rendering the forests more "health." Proponents claimed that harvesting timber would reduce fuel-loading to reduce the intensity of fires and thin-out forests stands to relieve inter-tree competition. Though this sounds plausible, the criteria for determining what sort of trees would be removed, and who would make the decision still remains unanswered.
Thomson, Steve. "Saving B.C's Forests through the Trees." The Filipino Post 12-18 July 2012: 12. Print.
There’s an insane amount of medicinal purposes as to why we need the forests. Not even just from plants, there are animals we need in there as well. For example, there’s a snake inside the Amazon whose venom makes you lose blood pressure. Scientists found out which exact chemical makes your blood pressure drop. Once they found it, they knew how to help people that have high blood pressure. The funny thing is that everything that has to do with forest conservation always turns into something with monetary value. In an article read online from “Rainforest.org”, it’s said that, “billions upon billions of dollars have flowed into the world’s economy due to the prescription medication arising from the world’s largess biological ecosystem.” So, if we continue to ruin the world’s forests, the world’s going to run out of medicine to find, and eventually humans will stop getting treated. There’s only one way to face this, and that is through forest conservation.