Logging
Logging
Deforestation is the intentional clearing of trees on land; some people think that logging is bad for the environment. Logging does impact the environment, but it is not as bad as most people think when its done the right way. When most people think of logging they think that the land is clear-cut and and left it like that. While some logging companies do this, others dont and are really conservative on what they resources take out.
Some companies like J.M. Browning in Oregon, help with conservation efforts, as seen in season 3, episode 9 on the T.V. series “Ax Men” on History Channel. They placed some of the harvested logs in a dry creek bed to create spawning places for salmon (“Crash”). Another thing that loggers do for the environment is clean up damages from bugs like the Emerald Ash Borer. In season 3, episode 8 of “Ax Men”, Connor Aviation cleared a patch of timber infested by bark beetles in order to save the rest of the forest (“Assault”). Logging also has the properties to save some trees and help promote others by opening up the canopy so more light can come in.
Many of the people who log today are no more than people trying to make ends meet. Local farmers cut the forests to produce more growing land, which is called
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slash and burn agriculture, also known as shifting cultivation. The two key components of slash and burn agriculture are the use of fire to prepare fields for cultivation. Farmers
begin to prepare a field by cutting down many of the trees and woody plants in an area. Trees that provide fruits, nuts, building materials or other useful products may be spared. The downed vegetation or “slash” is allowed to dry until right before the rainiest part of the year, at which time the slash is burned converting biomass into nutrient-rich ash. Burning also temporarily eliminates most pest and weed species. Seeds and cuttings are planted directly into the ash-covered soil. Some people who do this are tree farmers and they rotate their fields that they harvest from, so there will always be trees for them to harvest and they replant them every time they are cut.
Most of the families from the North Country burn wood to heat their house, and others do it to sell for fire wood, and it seems that it is not harming the trees up here much, this is because the trees up here grow at a good rate of speed. But one problem that we are having here is the spread of some invasive species that are killing our forests, like the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB). The destructive power of this insect is amazing, coming over here from china by a pallet. It was fist spotted in Michigan, and has slowly made its way here to New York. EAB kills the tree by hatching and burrowing into the tree and living of the nutrients from the tree and when it tunnels through the tree it goes cross-grain so it cuts off the circulation of nutrients flowing from the leaves to the roots for storage and vice-versa. There are some loggers that are trying to stop the spread of EAB so that they can ensure a paycheck in the future. Another insect that is harming the trees is the Asian Long-horned Beatle which feeds on most of the hard woods, like the
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maples, oaks, beech, and so on.
But there are some places that are “Forever Wild” which are in the Adirondacks along Route 3. “Forever Wild” means that no gas-powered equipment is allowed in there and none of the trees have ever been touched buy humans they are by far the largest trees in NYS. This boosts tourism, another thing that forests are good for. Tourism in forests are very popular to fishermen when the ice goes out (melts away) in the lakes in the mountains, there are many from the city area that come up to the mountains to fish for two weeks straight. Some may not catch a thing but it doesnt matter to them, all they want to do is smell the crisp mountain air as it caresses their noses, paddle on the crystal clear lakes of the mountains, and to live like the natives lived hundreds of years ago. All that land could have been logged but Gifford Pinchot, the father of forestry in America, made the Adirondacks a protected