How does logging effect the environment?

Answer 1

nothing to absorb heavy rainfall - floods

Nothing to stabilise (hold) soil - landslides

Loss of habitat and eco-systems - loss of feedback systems

Loss of transpiration effect - less cooling and less rain locally

Increase in heavy vehicles and machinery - increase climate change

increase in global transportation - loss of local sustainable woodland management

pollution/de-oxegenation of water courses by floating logs - loss of marine life & fishing

Opening of native terittory to outsiders who useually bring unsuitable agricultural or mining businesses and disease, and the bushmeat (monkeys etc) trade

Answer 2

Logging effects the environment by producing disturbance which has impact on living organisms. The "edge effect" occurs when the landscape has a mosaic pattern. Actual changes in temperature, humidity and wind velocity take place which can threaten some species that need old growth and biodiversity to thrive. Logging by means of thinning applied in a silviculture treatment can have an effect in the growth of remaining trees in the stand.

Answer 3

Logging serves to remove dead, dying or over mature trees from forests that would other wise be fire risks and make way for new trees to be planted in there place. This effectively increase the amount of carbon dioxide a forest can absorb as dead trees do not do as such.

Answer 4

Logging is the practice of felling (cutting down) trees, and removing them from the forest. It can be part of on-going forest management or to convert forests to other uses.
Logging can impact the environment both by cutting down trees and by the disturbance caused by moving it to the landing. Removal of trees alters species composition and the structure of forest and can cause nutrient depletion. Harvesting in high value ecologically sensitive lands can lead to habitat loss. Machines used in logging often disturbs the soil. The use of heavy machinery in the forest can cause soil compaction. Harvesting on steep slopes can lead to erosion and mudslides. Logging on saturated soils can cause ruts, and change drainage patterns. Harvest activity near wetlands or vernal pools can degarde habitat. Loss of trees adjacent to streams can increase water temperatures. Harvesting adjacent to streams can increase sedimentation in streams lowering water quality.

Colonization of the forest area by invasive exotics is a problem with poorly operated forestry practices, especially in the eastern North American hardwood forests. Some of the most marked effects of large-scale clearcutting, including the stream corridors, has been seen in the American Pacific Northwest, where salmon spawning and rearing habitat has been damaged.
These problems can be mitigated by using best management practices, which set standards for reducing erosion from roads. Damage to streams and lakes can be reduced by not harvesting riparian strips. Ecologically important lands are often set aside as reserves.

The logging industry is often portrayed in the media and popular culture as one of the most ecologically destructive corporate practices on earth. However, logging companies contend that despite some notable cases of severe environmental degradation, agriculture, livestock grazing, mineral mining, the petroleum industry and urban sprawl are even greater contributors to deforestation and ecological degradation. As an example, they cite that a house built out of steel, plastic and concrete have higher life-cycle cost and requires more energy and non-renewable resources to produce than a house built with wood products.

Answer 5

Read John Irving's 'The Cider House Rules'

Answer 6

Logging can impact the environment both by cutting down trees and by the disturbance caused by moving it to the landing. Removal of trees alters species composition and the structure of forest and can cause nutrient depletion. Harvesting in high value ecologically sensitive lands can lead to habitat loss. Machines used in logging often disturbs the soil. The use of heavy machinery in the forest can cause soil compaction. Harvesting on steep slopes can lead to erosion and mudslides. Logging on saturated soils can cause ruts, and change drainage patterns. Harvest activity near wetlands or vernal pools can degarde habitat. Loss of trees adjacent to streams can increase water temperatures. Harvesting adjacent to streams can increase sedimentation in streams lowering water quality.

Colonization of the forest area by invasive exotics is a problem with poorly operated forestry practices, especially in the eastern North American hardwood forests. Some of the most marked effects of large-scale clearcutting, including the stream corridors, has been seen in the American Pacific Northwest, where salmon spawning and rearing habitat has been damaged.


Regeneration on a 15 year old clearcutThese problems can be mitigated by using best management practices, which set standards for reducing erosion from roads. Damage to streams and lakes can be reduced by not harvesting riparian strips. Ecologically important lands are often set aside as reserves.

The logging industry is often portrayed in the media and popular culture as one of the most ecologically destructive corporate practices on earth. However, logging companies contend that despite some notable cases of severe environmental degradation, agriculture, livestock grazing, mineral mining, the petroleum industry and urban sprawl are even greater contributors to deforestation and ecological degradation. As an example, they cite that a house built out of steel, plastic and concrete have higher life-cycle cost and requires more energy and non-renewable resources to produce than a house built with wood products

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logging#Logging_and_the_environment
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Deforestation alters the hydrologic cycle, potentially increasing or decreasing the amount of water in the soil and groundwater and the moisture in the atmosphere. Forests support considerable biodiversity. Forests are valuable habitat for wild mushrooms and medicinal conservation and the recharge of aquifers. With forest bioptopes a major, irreplacable source of new drugs (like taxol) and genetic variations (such as crop resistance) is lost irretrievably.

Shrinking forest cover lessens the landscape's capacity to intercept, retain and transport precipitation. Instead of trapping precipitation, which then percolates to groundwater systems, deforested areas become sources of surface water runoff, which moves much faster than subsurface flows. That quicker transport of surface water can translate into flash flooding and more localized floods than would occur with the forest cover. Deforestation also contributes to decreased evapotranspiration, which lessens atmospheric moisture which in some cases affects precipitation levels downwind from the deforested area, as water is not recycled to downwind forests, but is lost in runoff and returns directly to the oceans; in deforested north and northwest China, the average annual precipitation decreased by one third between the 1950s and the 1980s [1].

Long-term gains can be obtained by managing forest lands sustainably to maintain both forest cover and provide a biodegrable renewable resource. Forests are also important stores of organic carbon, and forests can extract carbon dioxide and pollutants from the air, thus contributing to biosphere stability and probably relevant to the greenhouse effect. Forests are also valued for their aesthetic beauty and as a cultural resource and tourist attraction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation

Answer 7

It depletes the earth of its natural cover exposing soil to erosion. It further reduces vegetation available to absorb carbons endangering the ozone layer.

Answer 8

less trees