Trail Of Tears Pros And Cons

As we were on the way to trail of tears, I realized that I had no idea about how fire actually effects the forest. It was a great experience where I learned both the pros and cons of fire in the forest. I also was able to see the difference between burn only, a harvest and thinning due to the experimental cites at trail of tears. I also learned about the experimental watersheds and how certain aspects play into erosion. It was a very interesting learning experience. We first learned how trail of tears was part of the Ozark hills, primary composed of limestone. SIU began managing the forest for the IDNR in the 1970s, after the CCC had previously managed it. We first looked at two experimental watersheds, one where there was no burn, and the other with burn. The watershed what was burnt looked very clear, with little woody debris and a large amount of oak and hickory saplings, and the unburnt cite had a few small maples and other undesirable species growing in the understory. The next cite we looked at was a watershed from 2009 where a wear was put into place to measure the effects of erosion due to prescribed burning. From this study it was discovered that burning causes erosion, but it is OK due to the benefits it provides such us opening the over story to provide sunlight for seed bank plants to grow such as giant cane. …show more content…
It is important to clear out large amounts of debris near the base of large trees otherwise they may be damaged or killed. Herbicide can be used in conjunction with burning in order to kill trees they may be two large to be burnt, and need to be cut and then sprayed to be killed. The most important lesson I learned was making sure you maintain the forest after a harvest to make sure it grows back properly, and that invasive species or erosion do not take over the