How do you think that the remaining forests should be managed?
Forests
Forest ecosystems have been good to us. They have always given us shelter, fuel, food, medicines and building materials. They also provide us with clean water, and create rain. In recent years we have taken more from the woods - pharmaceuticals, toiletries, and industrial raw materials. We also use forests for tourism and recreation. Trees also slow down soil erosion and filter out pollutants, though they can release some pollutants if they burn. Forests are also home to a wide variety of other plants and animals, many of which have not been catalogued. New medicines and other useful compounds are still being identified.
It is natural for forests to experience fires. Mankind has been managing forests for thousands of years, including setting fires, logging and more recently planting woods with single species. With the increase in human population, more and more forests are cleared for agriculture, or the wood is all chopped down for firewood or logged for profit. If forests are fragmented, then some of the species living in them can be isolated as though they were on islands, which make it harder for them to survive.
Another role that is becoming increasingly important is in the carbon cycle. Burning woods give off carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) and other pollutants, adding to global warming and air pollution. Healthy woods trap carbon and some air pollutants.
If forests are opened up with roads for logging, agriculture, or mining, then that can also lead to increased poaching, fires, introduction of pests and invasive species, and other damage.
Recent news stories involving forests include:
New Rule Opens National Forest to Roads
The Bush administration wants 58.5 million acres, or nearly a third, of all remote national forest lands which were put off limits by former President Clinton, to be opened up to road building and logging.
Environmentalists Sue to Protect Grizzlies
Environmentalists are claiming in a lawsuit that the removal of trees burned in the Flathead National Forest in northwestern Montana could harm grizzly bears.
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