Forests Essay, Research Paper

REFORESTATION The purpose of this written report is to inform the reader about the concerns and facts involved withreforestation. Reforestation began in Ontario after World War II. What happened was, professional foresterswere assigned to an area and became responsible for its well being. Under the Crown Timber Act, long termmanagement was prepared. Then the many steps needed to rebuild a forest began. Included in this report will be information on the effects of cutting and replanting, such as Carbon Dioxide,and Global Warming. Following this will be methods for planning a forest, and how they are conveyed beforeplanting in a forest begins.There are many reasons why forests are cut down. One is to benefit economically, with furniture and homebuilding. But there is also another reason. Arguments say “the United States could help slow the atmosphericaccumulation of carbon dioxide by replacing old-growth forests with faster-growing young trees”. A new studyof young and old forests says how this is in fact not true. Loggers have said that new trees pull the carbondioxide better than old trees, and this may seem true, but it is not. There is one point being overlooked fromall of this. The older, larger trees can store much, much more carbon dioxide than a new tree could. By cuttingand burning these magnificent seasoned trees, the CO2 is being released back into the atmosphere. These releasesof carbon dioxide add up in our surroundings, only to intensify Global Warming. Although this shows what happenswhen one burns and cuts down old forests, one must still plant new trees for long term plans, not letting themgrow for a few years, to then cut them down. There are many methods for planning a forest. The simplest method of replanting a forest is to leave it tonature. A suitable seed bed in which trees will readily take root is integral for successful regeneration. Reducing competition by eliminating grass, weed or shrubs is another requirement in securing a new crop of trees. These will sprout to produce seedlings. Though the weeds were eliminated before, they still grow back, andbecause of this poor, quality trees will grow. Another method though, is to create a planned forest, where newconifers are grown from seed in a special nursery. Seeding is a reforestation technique used mainly in the Boreal

forest area where fire or logging tends to leave no or very little seeds for growth. In specific cases, Ministrystaff seed the area with treated tree seeds. Following this is the planting. In many cases, planting is theonly means of initiating a new forest. Up to 80 000 000 trees are planted annually in Ontario on Crown andprivate land. Usually immature forests have to be tended to. Once situated, a new crop needs intermittent carefor the next 60 to 100 years. This means continuing protection from fires, disease and insects and routinethinning to focus the growth on selected crop trees. Before a forest can be grown, certain procedures must first occur. Collecting and processing seeds is one ofthem. Tree flowers fertilized by blowing winds or insects generate seed, in a time of somewhere within 1 to 2years. Seed collecting from the woods must be timed with periodically occurring good seed years. Angus, nearBarrie, is where all forest tree seed collection is co-ordinated. Stock of seeds can value up to $500 000.Usually this is around 3 billion seeds from 59 tree classes. In summary of the aforesaid, trees are very valuable to the human race economically and for health. Without treesthe environment could worsen to the point where we would be living on one large dessert. We must remember thatforest do not grow as easily as they used to because of fires and other disasters. This is why many forests areplanned, and cared for. Most of us will never now how they turn out because for a forest to completely grow,it needs within anywhere from 60 to 100 years or more.There are many reasons why we should have reforestation. One being mostly that we need forest to live! Withoutforests, or any type of plant, the carbon cycle can’t result. There are not many arguments against reforestation,but there can be some opposition for the land being used between a large business company and the Ministry. I feel replanting of forests is very crucial to the human race. The earth depends on many cycles, where oneorganism depends on the other because of what it does. We, exhale carbon dioxide which the trees take in, whilethey give off vital oxygen.In closing, we live in an age of technology, leaving behind us the past. With the past we are forgetting forests;we must make sure this doesn’t happen.