Reforestation

The purpose of this written report is to inform the reader
about the concerns and facts involved with reforestation.
Reforestation began in Ontario after World War II. What
happened was, professional foresters were assigned to an
area and became responsible for its well being. Under the
Crown Timber Act, long term management was prepared. Then
the many steps needed to rebuild a forest began. Included
in this report will be information on the effects of
cutting and replanting, such as Carbon Dioxide, and Global
Warming. Following this will be methods for planning a
forest, and how they are conveyed before planting in a
forest begins.
 
There are many reasons why forests are cut down. One is to
benefit economically, with furniture and home building. But
there is also another reason. Arguments say "the United States could help slow the atmospheric accumulation of
carbon dioxide by replacing old-growth forests with
faster-growing young trees". A new study of young and old
forests says how this is in fact not true. Loggers have
said that new trees pull the carbon dioxide better than old
trees, and this may seem true, but it is not. There is one
point being overlooked from all of this. The older, larger
trees can store much, much more carbon dioxide than a new
tree could. By cutting and burning these magnificent
seasoned trees, the CO2 is being released back into the
atmosphere. These releases of carbon dioxide add up in our
surroundings, only to intensify Global Warming. Although
this shows what happens when one burns and cuts down old
forests, one must still plant new trees for long term
plans, not letting them grow for a few years, to then cut
them down.
 
There are many methods for planning a forest. The simplest
method of replanting a forest is to leave it to nature. A
suitable seed bed in which trees will readily take root is
integral for successful regeneration. Reducing competition
by eliminating grass, weed or shrubs is another requirement
in securing a new crop of trees. These will sprout to
produce seedlings. Though the weeds were eliminated before,
they still grow back, and because of this poor, quality
trees will grow. Another method though, is to create a
planned forest, where new conifers are grown from seed in a
special nursery. Seeding is a reforestation technique used
mainly in the Boreal forest area where fire or logging
tends to leave no or very little seeds for growth. In
specific cases, Ministry staff seed the area with treated
tree seeds. Following this is the planting. In many cases,
planting is the only means of initiating a new forest. Up
to 80 000 000 trees are planted annually in Ontario on
Crown and private land. Usually immature forests have to be
tended to. Once situated, a new crop needs intermittent
care for the next 60 to 100 years. This means continuing
protection from fires, disease and insects and routine
thinning to focus the growth on selected crop trees.
 
Before a forest can be grown, certain procedures must first
occur. Collecting and processing seeds is one of them. Tree
flowers fertilized by blowing winds or insects generate
seed, in a time of somewhere within 1 to 2 years. Seed
collecting from the woods must be timed with periodically
occurring good seed years. Angus, near Barrie, is where all
forest tree seed collection is co-ordinated. Stock of seeds
can value up to $500 000. Usually this is around 3 billion
seeds from 59 tree classes.
 
In summary of the aforesaid, trees are very valuable to the
human race economically and for health. Without trees the
environment could worsen to the point where we would be
living on one large dessert. We must remember that forest
do not grow as easily as they used to because of fires and
other disasters. This is why many forests are planned, and
cared for. Most of us will never now how they turn out
because for a forest to completely grow, it needs within
anywhere from 60 to 100 years or more.
 
There are many reasons why we should have reforestation.
One being mostly that we need forest to live! Without
forests,
 or any type of plant, the carbon cycle can't result. There
are not many arguments against reforestation, but there can
be 
some opposition for the land being used between a large
business company and the Ministry. I feel replanting of
forests is very crucial to the human race. The earth
depends on many cycles, where one organism depends on the
other because of what it does. We, exhale carbon dioxide
which the trees take in, while they give off vital oxygen.
 
In closing, we live in an age of technology, leaving behind
us the past. With the past we are forgetting forests; we
must make sure this doesn't happen.