Christopherson's Article Summary: Forest Thinning And Forest Fires

Superior Essays
Forest Thinning and Forest Fires Forest Thinning exists in most forests in the United States, and many overseas. The act of forest thinning is cutting down trees and removing foliage from forests in order to make them uncluttered. This action is commonly referred to as “logging.” Some people believe that uncluttering forests helps in the prevention of forest fires, along with other benefits such as making the forests appear cleaner. Other people argue that forest thinning is the primary initiator of forest fires due to the absence of protection from sunlight and the increase in small plants on forest floors. There are many debates on whether to continue logging, discontinue logging, or find an alternative to logging.
Natural Resource Management
…show more content…
In his article, he addresses the common belief that logging can be destructive. “Although cutting forests is viewed by some as a harmful act, if done with care for the surrounding environment, it can improve the condition of the forest” (Christopherson 2). In other words, forest thinning is often misconstrued as damaging when it is actually quite productive. The article, Fire Ecology, agrees with Christopherson that we must continue logging, but acknowledges that we are destroying our forests by doing so. The author of this article explicates that we have caused so much damage within our forests that they can no longer thin themselves and if we discontinue forest thinning, any wildfires would be disastrous. The article, Thinning Forests Won’t Prevent Fires, completely opposes this idea. It says that it is “mainstream” to go along with the belief that forest fires are bad, but in reality, forest fires are a natural way for forests to rejuvenate themselves and control their own eco-systems. This article suggests that there is no need for an alternative to forest thinning, it should just be stopped. It says that suppressing all fires in forests is one of the worst forest management decisions ever, and that forests can recover on their own without human intervention. The author believes that humanity should discontinue the logging process everywhere, and trust that the forests will return too a healthy state. The author also suggests that fire prevention can be conducted much more efficiently by doing things at the local level. Some examples of this include cleaning your gutters regularly, landscaping the areas around your home with hardwood trees, cleaning your chimney often, and owning a garden hose that can stretch to any part of your property just in case an incident strikes. By doing simple things like this, each household will be better protected from uncontrolled

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Great Bear Rainforest is a temperate rainforest of 6.4 million hectares, home to many rare and endangered species, as well as watersheds that provide the best salmon runs left in Canada. Unfortunately, the Great Bear Rainforest is under threat due to clearcutting and its effects on the environment. According to the David Suzuki Foundation, “30% of logging in the Great Bear Rainforest has been in watersheds since 2001”, meaning the water quality of that area has been affected. As for wildlife, deforestation is one of the leading causes of animal extinction in the world today. Due to the negative effects deforestation has on wildlife and watersheds, the acts of clearcutting in the Great Bear Rainforest must subside.…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Fire whether intentional to increase and maintain grazing areas, or accidental, usually caused by uncontrolled burning during land preparation for agriculture, are the main threats to the forest…

    • 1249 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    With carbon dioxide production so high and on the rise, it is obvious that more trees are needed than ever before to counter global warming, and yet we continue to remove them faster than we can repair. The effects of deforestation are only just beginning to be seen, and without forest management on a global scale it will soon be felt by the future generations to…

    • 1268 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cutting down forests or also known as deforestation is one of the biggest aspects to climate change. Forests are essential for life as it is home to numerous species, make oxygen,…

    • 448 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Earth only contains about four percent of its original redwoods, so the logging of these trees is very detrimental to the forests and humans because animal’s homes…

    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are some legendary forest fires that have been documented all the way back to the late 1800s. The most notable fire in that century was the Peshtigo Fire of 1871. After these fires, there were two main conservationists, Franklin Hough and Bernard Fernow, which pushed for protecting timber supplies and watersheds. The federal government then established the US Forest Service in 1905. The Forest Service was given control over the national forests.…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Over the course of the last five days, four significant wildland fires have swept through the region destroying over three thousand homes north of Columbia County. The clarity and purpose of the information provided during this press conference, is to ensure that the best quality of information is getting to the community. The initial fire began at an Aiken, South Carolina RV and Campsite due to various piles of debris left unattended and burning. The debris exploded, and quickly spread growing to about 250 acres from eight acres in 45 minutes. In relation to the Columbia County community, the wildfire is approximately 27.2 miles or 30 minutes away in North Augusta, South Carolina.…

    • 211 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Yellowstone Let It Burn

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The reading sates that '' let it burn'' policy caused some damages and provides three kinds of damage to support of it. However, the professor says that fires are natural part of ecological cycle and their role is not just destructive but also creative and refutes each of the author's critics. First, the article claims that Yellowstone fires cause tremendous damage to the park trees and other vegetation.…

    • 256 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Summary Of Our Only World

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Our Only World, written by Wendell Berry, addresses environmental issue, as well as homosexuality, abortion, and violence. Wendell Berry wrote Our Only World not only to make these issues known, but to also provide possible solutions to these issues and to show that we, as human begins, are the ones truly responsible for fixing these issues. Berry shows this by constantly focusing on how we view the world (and how that directly impacts the environment) and by teaching us that the first steps of saving the environment is by keeping things local, rather than attempting to fix things on a global scale. With this book, Berry hopes that people will take what he says in to heart and will being to take the steps necessary to slow the process of the destruction…

    • 684 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Researchers and scientists have come together to gather information and make predictions about how the intensity and occurrence of wildfires have increased and how our governments can become better prepared for the future. Climate change is becoming an increasingly dangerous factor as scientists attribute these stronger fires with the effects of climate change. Also, with the high danger that comes along with wildfires, it is pertinent that we examine and analyze all the information we have so we can not only become more prepared for wildfires but also abate the factors and conditions that are causing them. One of the most analyzed questions scientists are trying to answer today is why wildfires are not only more frequent, but also stronger.…

    • 864 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Millions of acres of timber land are destroyed each year throughout the United States from wildfires. Throughout history wildfires, in the form of crown, surface, and ground, have played a significant role in shaping our lands today. The wildfires are a destructive force that not only tears through the forests, but also burns down residential homes and businesses that displace the local communities for an extended amount of time. Wildfires can have an extremely high cost that impacts the local population, other taxpayers across the United States, and force the government to divert funds towards the wildfire cost than to other programs.…

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The pros of slash-and-burn are an increase in food production without intensive labor, a lot of the work can be done by hand, the ashen remains of the burnt trees leave nutrients in the soil to help plants grow and if done properly it enriched soil and can be regenerative and productive in tropical rainforests (152). But the cons remain and include the burning of forests to accommodate for farmland, then after a few years the fields are abandoned and planting shifts to a new location. If done incorrectly and the fields are over used then weeds can take over the land preventing the natural plant life from regrowing or the land is left barren after being overexploited stopping anything from growing (152). intensive agriculture is the creation…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    (National Geographic) Wildfires also have a negative impact on the rainforests. “From the mid-1980s through 2015 the average number of acres burned has grown from about 2 million acres a year to around 8 million.” (Gabbert, 2016). Forest can rapidly be destroyed by wildfires, which occur by either lightning or human activity.…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Trees naturally sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and thus decrease global warming and its repercussions. Carbon dioxide is an essential component of the Calvin Cycle for the production of glucose, which is the primary energy source for plants as well as many herbivorous and carnivorous consumers. With the rapid increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from anthropogenic activity since the Industrial Revolution, scientist suspect that carbon dioxide fertilization will amplify photosynthesis and, therefore, sequester more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to the terrestrial carbon sink in the form of trees (Bonan 2008).2 Forests are a major terrestrial carbon sink and contain approximately 45% of terrestrial…

    • 1415 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Our Effect on Earth and Effects of Global Warming Due to Deforestation Deforestation is one of the main causes of CO2 emissions in the world. The tearing down of trees and forests are leaving a lasting effect on our earth and the atmosphere. Deforestation is tearing down trees and lumber from the forest, whether this is done legally or illegally, this practice is a very controversial one. The process of logging begins with cutting down the trees needed to cut into logs. These trees are then loaded onto a truck and transported to a location to be cut into logs.…

    • 1102 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays