How is logging affecting the environment

This then causes dryer soil and the inability to grow crops. Further effects of deforestation include soil erosion and coastal flooding. Trees help the land to retain water and topsoil, which provides the rich nutrients to sustain additional forest life. Without forests, the soil erodes and washes away, causing farmers to move on and perpetuate the cycle.

The barren land which is left behind in the wake of these unsustainable agricultural practices is then more susceptible to flooding, specifically in coastal regions. As large amounts of forests are cleared away, allowing exposed earth to whither and die and the habitats of innumerable species to be destroyed, the indigenous communities who live there and depend on the forest to sustain their way of life are also under threat.

The loss of forests has an immediate and direct effect on their lifestyle that we in the highly industrialized parts of the world, despite our own dependency on what the rainforest provides, will never know. The level of immediacy is exponentially greater for indigenous peoples. The governments of nations with rainforests in their borders often attempt to evict indigenous tribes before the actual clear-cutting begins. This is one of the pre-emptive effects of deforestation.

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Print Email Share. Roads must be built so that machinery can reach the cutting site, and trucks can transport the timber back to the paper mill or other destinations. The soils converted into roads become compacted and rarely allow for new tree growth once logging operations have ended. In addition, forest roads give people easy access to previously remote areas.

The result is increased disruption of forest ecosystems by human activities such as littering, hunting, and the release of exhaust fumes from ATVs, which themselves cause a significant amount of ecological damage. Pulp and paper mills discharge waste water effluent into waterways which may expose aquatic life to harmful chemicals. Research in indicated the Corner Brook mill discharged effluent into the Humber Arm which contained wood fibres that smothered organisms living on the bottom.

In , Kruger admitted that it released harmful toxins into Humber Arm. It also built a secondary treatment plant to reduce solid wastes in its effluent. Paper mills also emit greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Kruger has built air sampling stations near its Corner Brook mill to detect emissions that exceed provincial standards. All users of Newfoundland and Labrador forests — whether they are large multinational corporations, small local companies, or private residents — must adhere to government regulations stipulating how, where, and in what quantities wood may be cut.

Central to the province's forest management is the Forestry Act, which requires that all forest resources must be harvested in a sustainable manner. The provincial government has divided the province into 24 management districts — 18 on the island and six in Labrador. The Forest Resources Branch issues an annual allowable cut AAC for each district, a quota which seeks to establish the maximum number of trees that can be harvested in a given year without depleting the resource.

Officials must take into account a variety of factors when calculating AACs, including the age, abundance, and species of existing trees; their expected rates of growth; and the volume of trees that will likely be destroyed by fires, insect infestations, and other natural occurrences. Forest workers survey each district every five years to determine the existing wood supply and revise the AACs.

Newfoundland and Labrador's forests are an abundant and valuable natural resource.