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Tree Farming
Tree Farming Ecology
Image of a car driving down a road next to what used to be a forest.Photo: Courtesy of Forest History Society, Inc., Durham, North Carolina.

Logging in old-growth forests may mean destroying a non-renewable resource - at the least, non-renewable in the lifetimes of present inhabitants of the earth. But plantations are not exempt from ecological concerns either. They are not forests; they are agricultural crops, seeded entirely for commercial purposes. They are not habitats for wild flora and fauna, and they often displace such habitats. They displace other vegetation, often including trees but also many plants that are or may be vital to total ecosystems. Plantations are monocultures, and the lack of biodiversity is of concern. They typically have sparse canopies and so do not protect the land; they cause air temperatures to rise, and they deplete, rather than increase, the watertable. They are generally exotic to regions. While the initial planting may be free of natural pests and diseases, that situation will not last, and plantation regions may not be in the position to combat scourges yet to arrive. Marchak, M. P. (1995). Logging the globe. Montreal & Kingston, Jamaica: McGill-Queen's University Press, p.10.

Image of a truck driving through a forest.Further information on the importance of tree fungi can be found under Diversity: Fungus and Diversity: Trees (Epidemics in the Forest).

Photo: Courtesy of Forest History Society, Inc., Durham, North Carolina.

 

 

 

 

 

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