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- SAVE AMERICA'S FORESTS
4 Library Court, SE Washington, DC 20003 202-544-9219 FAX:202-544-7462
Information Sheet
CLEARCUTTING: DESTROYING AMERICA'S PUBLIC FORESTS
The forest ecosystems of America are undergoing a crisis of survival. The federal forests, far from being an oasis of pristine wildlife and natural ecology, are in fact the scene of the worst forest mismanagement Over the past two decades, the agencies managing these public lands have so severely overcut these forests that entire forest ecosystems on Federal lands have been permanently destroyed, gone forever.
The main "technique" used by the US Forest Service and other agencies in their attack on the natural forests has been clearcutting (even-age logging) and its associated practices of roadbuilding, slashburning, site preparation and poison chemical use. Since the Forest Service adopted even-age logging as the primary method about 20 years ago, the best federal forest timberlands have been wiped out, mangled by clearcutting. The irony is that the Federal government is paying over 2 billion dollars per year to the Forest Service and other agencies to administer this destruction of our National Forests and other federal forests. Billions of dollars are lost to the taxpayers.
What is clearcutting? Clearcutting (and its variations, seed tree and shelterwood cutting and group selection) is the method of logging a forest so that all or most of the trees are cut down immediately or within a few years. The existing natural forest, with its biodiversity of plant and animal species, and the clean water and clean air it produces, are entirely eliminated. In many logging operations on National Forests which employ clearcutting, as much as 66% of the wood is left as debris or residue, a phenomenal waste of our precious forest resources.
Clearcut areas can be small or large. Shelterwood cutting is a type of clearcutting which leaves a few trees per acre to reseed the area from those remaining trees. However, those trees are cut down a few years later. The euphemistic technique termed "group selection" is really just a patchwork: of clearcuts.
What is site prep? After the devastation of clearcutting, the Forest Service subjects the site to preparation for replanting tree seedlings. Individual living trees which were not wanted for lumber, and were left standing, are killed by various methods. To "clean up" the site, bulldozers scrape the land, pushing the remains, woody debris, broken vegetation, and unfortunate animal victims into piles. In many regions of the country, these large slash piles are burned in huge smoldering fires creating tremendous air pollution, and destroying forever the genetic blueprints the wide variety of plants and animals that lived in the area. Many times one or more applications of herbicides are applied to kill all remaining vegetation. Sometimes individual living trees are injected with poison to kill them.
Aren't these areas replanted with natural forests? NO! The Forest Service and other agencies eliminate the natural forests, and replace them with artificial stands of artificially cloned tree seedlings.
The stands are NOT NATURAL FORESTS.
Natural forests are filled with many types of trees, plants, animals, and healthy abundant soil, all working together. for the most efficient and maximum growth of the trees and all other living biomass in the forest. The natural forest is filled with old, middle age and young trees, and is naturally resistant to damage from fire, floods and drought.
In contrast, these artificial stands of trees are a "biological desert". They are by design meant to be devoid of all of the magnificent, diverse and myriad forms of plant and animal life which have made up the fabric of life in America's forests for thousands of years.
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