Myths about Forestry and Forestry Products

There seems to be a lot of misinformation about forestry practices and sometimes misinformation can be even more damaging than ignorance. The fact is, newer forestry products are more environmentally friendly than they have been in decades. Clear-cutting, controlled fires, and deforestation are all points of contention between the foresting industries and the general public.

Myth 1: Fires are detrimental to the forest.

Although modern forestry products allow stump removal and tree mulching to be done sans fire, there is still a lot to be said for the power of regenerative fires. When done by professionals, in a controlled environment, prescribed fires are actually beneficial for wildlife habitats. A lot of the food that animals live off of can grow too high for them to graze on and they wind up hungry. Fires burn away the taller plants and make way for shorter growth that is at a comfortable height.

Myth 2: Clear-cutting is the same as deforestation.

Deforestation is an unfortunate reality of traditional methods of harvesting timber. Newer forestry products, combined with reforestation efforts, are working to combat the effects of all of that unsustainable harvesting. Many people see patches of cleared forest and relate that automatically to deforestation; however this is not the full picture. Deforestation implies that there are no efforts at regeneration, but clear-cutting actually helps promote regeneration. The sunny, open areas become home to many diverse species of vegetation, and as a result, they also become home to a diverse amount of fauna that come to feed on the shrubbery. Clear-cutting can be looked at simply as another version of regenerative burning. In environments where burning could be particularly hazardous, clear-cutting using modern forestry products offers a viable alternative.

Myth 3: Harvesting timber is bad for the environment.

Harvesting timber is obviously economically beneficial. Some people fail to see anything other than economic stimulation behind harvesting though, which is unfortunate. While money may be the main goal, it is not all that is considered in modern forestry. Use of modern forestry products, along with adhering to government regulations on forestry, has made a harvesting industry that is much more sustainable than it used to be. When done responsibly, harvesting practices do not have a damaging effect on the forests.

Myth 4: Modern forestry practices are destroying the world’s forests faster than they can regenerate themselves.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s easy to see patches of clear cut forest and imagine that modern forestry products are being used only to chop down all of the trees and use them for financial gain. Many regulations have been set forth now to prevent companies from raping the land in this way. Forests are amazing, living things and they are capable of grand feats of regeneration. While it may take many decades to return a clear cut area to its former glory, the stages along the way provide diversity for the forest. For millions of years the Earth has had forests and there have been tree diseases, insects, wildfires, and all manner of inconveniences for them. Their resilience is evident, and so we have reason to believe that with sustainable forestry practices, using modern forestry products, the forests will continue to bounce back.

To learn more about Torrent Mulchers and tree stump grinder, please contact us.