Tag Archives: forests

Soil Erosion, Deforestation, Farming

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“The Orinoco Basin extends across Veneuela and Colombia. The river’s delta is covered with tropical rain forest. For many years now, colossal palm oil plantations have been encroaching on this forest.

“But the forest floor is relatively poor in nutrients and rich in oxygen, making it unsuitable for monocultures. Once the soil is depleted, the planters use artificial fertilizers to keep production going as long as they can, and then they move on. But there’s another way. Planting many diverse crops in the same ground can help balance out soil use.” Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.dw.com

GR:  Forest soils are conditioned to support forests.  In dense forests, large proportions of the nutrients are contained in the trees.  Remove the trees and much of the natural wealth of the ecosystem is lost. Moreover, without their protective tree cover, soils wash away leaving behind little opportunity for forest recovery.  The suggestion that planting diverse crops is a good option is not a good one. Remove the trees and much of the local biodiversity is lost.  Even if crops can be planted that will protect the soils and maintain the amount of local biomass production, the loss of biodiversity and the loss of regional climate effects of the forest are not acceptable.

Forests are removed to produce food and desired products for human use.  The process is not sustainable.  We have to have the forests to maintain healthy Earth ecosystems. Thus, we have to reduce human need for food and products.  We have to reduce the human population.  Letting it continue to grow will bring about a terrible disaster for the Earth and all its life, including us.

See on Scoop.it – GarryRogers NatCon News

Misconceptions about disruption of fire cycles

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“I would like to point out a typical bias that I see and hear all the time. The Forest Service often promotes the idea that lodgepole pine stands are “overstocked”. Actually lodgepole and many other species always grow that way after a disturbance. There is frequently a significant amount of natural regeneration that is gradually whittled down by natural thinning agents like beetles or fire.

“It baffles me that the FS tries to prevent beetles from “thinning” the forest when indeed, they believe they are “overstocked”. Beetles, disease and fire will thin them naturally, and these agents are much better at selecting which trees should live and die than any forester.” —George Wuerthner  Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.thewildlifenews.com

GR:  Many excuses for logging are offered as scientific justifications just as hunting is said to be good wildlife management. This article offers several solid counterpoints to the Forest Service’s effort to justify logging as forest management.  Recommended.

Drought, beetles preying on weakened California forests | The Sacramento Bee

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Frank Cody wasn’t surprised to learn that at least 12 million trees across California recently have died from a lethal mix of bugs and long-term drought. Business is booming for the South Lake Tahoe tree service business owner.  Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.sacbee.com

GR:  Instead of addressing the source of the problem, the USDA Forest Service and the timber companies that control its decisions will see this as an opportunity to gain access to protected forest areas.  They need to thin the forest and clear areas to create barriers to insect spread, right? Wrong. The USDA needs to focus on stopping livestock grazing and timber harvest in the forests, and it needs to do what it can to reduce CO2 emissions. The agency has various means to block fossil fuel mining and encourage renewable energy,

Groundtruthing the Westside Timber Sale

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While the Klamath National Forest finalizes its Environmental Impact Statement, and prepares to auction off our public forestlands to the highest bidder, citizens are beginning to organize and get out on the ground to explore the land that is targeted for what could be the largest timber sale in Klamath National Forest history. The Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion is rich with biodiversity, hosting more conifer species than any other temperate forest in the world. The region is considered an area of Global Botanical Significance, and is proposed as an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site.

Most of the timber units proposed in the Westside project include Late Successional Reserves that are set aside for the development of old growth forests, and many of the units are within riparian reserves, and Wild and Scenic river corridors which are intended to protect water quality. The Klamath National Forest admits that the Westside project would negatively affect water quality and cause more sedimentation in the Klamath River, and with recent data foreshadowing that a major fish kill in the Klamath River is likely, this is no time to inflict additional impacts to these watersheds.

Source: www.wildcalifornia.org

GR:  Private citizens must oppose this proposal.  Like all significant U.S. Forest Service management actions, the plan benefits corporations and politicians, not the forest.

See on Scoop.it – GarryRogers NatCon News

Dear Future Generation: Sorry! A Message That Will Travel Through Time (VIDEO)

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Dear Future Generation: Sorry! A Message That Will Travel Through Time (VIDEO) that is trying to raise awareness throughout the entire world!  Source: gipsy.ninja

GR:  The nature-conservation message in this video is clear.  See it and pass it on.  Thank you.

Forestry and U. S. Forest Service

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“Perhaps Ken Burns had the right idea when he named his public-television series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Even though I worked for the Forest Service for 34 years, I’m inclined to agree with him about the importance of our nation’s parks. But the national forests are surely our second-best idea, a priceless asset despite the call from some Westerners to sell off our forests and privatize them.”  Source: www.hcn.org.

Forest Clearcut Bugaboo_CreekGR:  As I read its history, the U. S. Forest Service has always been, and remains today, a tool of corporate greed.  There are exceptions to the exploitative emphasis of this tool of the business world, but the exceptions are rare.  Where are the roots of the problem?  Could it be in the nation’s university Forestry Departments where new foresters are indoctrinated into the forestry for profit system?  Do we correct the problem by closing our forestry schools and sidelining all our professional foresters while we find replacements from Ecology Departments untouched by commercial concerns?

Subsidies to industries that cause deforestation worth 100 times more than aid to prevent it

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Brazil and Indonesia paid over $40bn in subsidies to industries that drive rainforest destruction between 2009 and 2012 – compared to $346m in conservation aid they received to protect forests, according to new research Brazil and Indonesia spent…

Source: www.theguardian.com

GR:  Forest health is a global land-use problem.  For example, the U. S. Forest Service within the U. S. Department of Agriculture subsidizes livestock grazing and timber companies.  Though the land is not shifted from forest to another use, the health and productivity of the land and the forest is seriously diminished through the efforts of the Forest Service.  The losses are greatest in soil quality and biodiversity.  Learn more about forest health and deforestation here.

The Fate of Trees: How Climate Change May Alter Forests Worldwide

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By the end of the century, the woodlands of the Southwest will likely be reduced to weeds and shrubs. And scientists worry that the rest of the planet may see similar effects

Source: www.rollingstone.com

GR:  Continued harvest (logging and livestock grazing)  will work with wildfires to remove long-lived species.  This is already visible in arid regions.

Conservationists v chainsaws: the RSPB’s battle to save an Indonesian rainforest

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Colm O’Molloy, Guardian:  “In 2007 an RSPB-led group bought up a series of logged-out Indonesian forests to bring them back from the brink.

“Over time, Harapan aims to become the leading centre of knowledge on how to bring damaged forest ecosystems back to health. Tropical rainforests develop over thousands of years. It is not yet known how long it takes to fully restore a damaged rainforest to health, or if it is possible at all.

“There is little doubt that the forests that make up Harapan would have been completely destroyed by now was it not for the efforts of the RSPB and its partners to protect and restore them.

“Despite ongoing losses to encroachment, Harapan still has a relatively large percentage of forest cover within its boundaries. Much of the surrounding forests have been completely decimated and replaced by palm plantations.”

Source: www.theguardian.com