What is clear cutting logging?
A clearcut is an area of forestland where most of the standing trees are logged at the same time and a few trees remain post-harvest. For example, clearcutting is often used in Douglas-fir forests because new seedlings need direct sunlight to grow quickly.
What does the practice of clear cutting involve?
Clearcutting is a method of timber harvest. It involves cutting all the trees in an area at one time. 2. Clearcutting is used as a method of regenerating or rejuvenating certain kinds of trees that cannot tolerate shade.
What is an alternative to clear cutting?
Partial cutting, group selection, and selective harvesting methods were tried and found to be effective in many locations, especially where forest sites were hot and dry.
What is selective cutting?
Selective cutting is the cutting down of selected trees in a forest so that growth of other trees is not affected. This is done according to criteria regarding minimum tree size for harvesting, specifications of the number, spacing and size classes of residual trees per area, and allowable cut.
Is clear cutting or selective cutting better?
Selective logging is often considered a better alternative to clear cutting in which a large area of a forest is cut down, leaving little behind except wood debris and a deforested landscape.
What are the benefits of selective harvest over clear cutting a forest?
Selective cutting allows ecosystems to support more wildlife than clear cutting and allows forests to retain some of their resistance to disease and pests. In addition, studies show that carbon uptake levels will quickly recuperate if selective cutting is done properly.
Why is clear cutting cheaper than selective cutting?
Why is selective cutting less damaging to the environment than clear cutting? selective cutting removes single trees or a relatively small number if trees from the larger forest thus making it less damaging to the environment by taking out less trees. Clear-cutting is usually quicker and cheaper than selective cutting.