Whether it's conifers or hardwoods, I've never seen any scientific proof that any system is better than
clearcutting for regenerating the forest.
Clearcutting has been practiced in California since the 1950s.
That energy can then be channeled into transforming SPI'S behavior on private lands -- and end its
clearcutting rampage.
It does what few others have attempted: it combines a critique of
clearcutting with an analysis of labour practices.
A permit was required for
clearcutting and could be granted to harvest a plantation, for a variety of silvicultural purposes or to improve or create wildlife habitat with a plan by a certified wildlife professional.
One need not be opposed to all cutting of trees (or even to fairly large-scale cutting of trees) to be alarmed at what
clearcutting does.
Species diversity, resulting from successional change at Site 1, peaked the third year following
clearcutting and then subsided for the remainder of the nine-year period (Fig.
The recently approved Forest Plan points out that
clearcutting is NOT the predominant harvest method.
Rather than
clearcutting an area once or twice per century, eco-tourism, trapping, wild-rice harvesting, fishing and selective logging could be carried out simultaneously in a region over the long term.
Because the layer of litter on the forest floor intercepts rainfall in much the same manner as the canopy (Rowe 1955; Singer and Blackard 1978; Helvey and Patric 1965; Johnson 1940; Lowermilk 1930), litter removal, as a result of
clearcutting, can greatly modify the raindrop impact and the quantity of water infiltrating the soil or moving downslope.
Clearcutting is being replaced by other methods of timber harvest and regeneration, and an increasing area of the national forests is being excluded from timber harvest by any method.
Though grazing land indeed releases large amounts of trace gases after
clearcutting, these emissions dwindle to levels below those of forest soil about 10 years later, says Michael Keller.
