Deforestation In America

Deforestation is simply the means of removing trees and forests, generally through burning or cutting. In this paper I will cover South America where deforestation mainly takes place as needs in agriculture rise requiring more land. In the tropical regions there are mainly three types of deforestation that take place. Firstly, in poor economy countries such as South America, poor citizens turn to agriculture for feeding their families. Farmers use agricultural settlements and then cut down acres of land to use for agricultural farming. Once they have cut down the trees the farmers burn the stumps which releases certain nutrients that sustain the life of the crops which is called “Slash and Burn” agriculture. The problem with this type of
agriculture is that without the trees, the nutrients are washed away by the rain. This can happen sometimes in as little as 3 years. Once the nutrients are washed from the soil farmers are forced to move to new land and continue to clear new land for growing crops. The land is then left to grow back, but the soil being barren it can take up to 50 years for the forest to grow back. Agriculture can sometimes take place on a much larger scale, when companies come in and clear vast amounts of land that is often used for cattle pasture. These companies also utilize the land for large plantations, and then follow pesticides and irrigation systems that damage the land around them. The rain then washes the chemicals used in the growing process and flushes it into the water systems killing fish in surrounding areas. The utilization of irrigation systems in the banana plantations affect the natural balance of water in the land which can also have damaging effects on the area. Finally, loggers who cut the forests to sell the wood as timber or pulp lead to deforestation of areas. In some areas this is done selectively, taking only specific types of trees, or through a process called clear cutting where all of the trees in a specified area are removed. The act of selective felling is considered more damaging than a typical person would expect, with certain studies showing that removing a small amount of trees can affect a greater portion of the trees in the surrounding area. On the positive side, areas of selective felling when left to re grow recover quickly. Clear cutting, on the other hand, makes it very difficult for the area to re grow. With clear cutting all of the nutrients in the area have been removed as the trees are taken away and not burnt, so the nutrients that would have been gained are not released into the soil. It is important to say that tropical rainforests hold almost 50% of the earth’s species of animals. When areas of this habitat are destroyed, the species in those areas are killed as a result. One of the most worrying thoughts about this result is that some of these species could still be undiscovered.