How Logging Affects Forest Growth And Survival

Forests aren’t just land areas full of trees. They’re ecosystems that host a lot of living things. Left alone, they can grow, survive, and exist on their own. However, humans can’t do that. After all, they’re essential to humans. And their disappearance can lead to regret and catastrophic consequences.

External factors can quickly destroy forests, especially when heavily exploited and intentionally cleared. Unfortunately, as mentioned before, human civilization is still heavily reliant on wood. They’re also hungry for more land space. And it will take a long time before the demands for these two disappear. 

Hence, to avoid losing these all-important forests, everyone must know how logging affects forest growth and survival and how they can mitigate all the adverse effects. So if you’re interested to learn more about this pressing issue, continue reading to know some of those effects.

Loss of biodiversity

Land clearing and deforestation are a few of the top reasons many wildlife species are rapidly disappearing from the face of the planet. These two often start with logging operations, and their effects have become apparent in the deforestation in Canada.

According to Earth.com, more than 80 percent of plants, insects, and animals live in forests. Yet, from 2010 to 2015, more than 3.3 million hectares of forests have been cleared. If people continue to eradicate forests, around 1 million species can become extinct after a few years or decades.

The more aggressive logging operations are, the higher the risk of biodiversity loss, which can greatly disturb many natural processes in forests.

Compacted soil

Thankfully, even if trees are cut down en masse, a forest can still recover. Fallen seeds, cuttings, and even stumps, given time, can start growing and populate the once cleared forest. But unfortunately, this recovery process doesn’t happen after deforestation or aggressive logging operations because of soil compaction.

Soil compaction happens when loose soil receives constant pressure, forcing soil particles to clump or compact. This pressure may come from continuous foot and vehicle traffic, transported logs, and road construction in a logging operation. 

According to a systematically reviewed analysis from Frontiers—an open science platform and research publisher—soil compaction due to logging operations can quickly reduce the forests’ soil’s porosity by 50–60 percent. When that happens, it can introduce many problems, making it difficult for people to plant and grow trees in cleared forests. Some of those are the following:

• Roots can’t easily penetrate compacted soil: Plants need loose soil to grow their roots. If surrounded by compacted soil, it may force roots to grow in a limited space, which can worsen the other effects of compacted soil.
• Water can’t quickly move through compacted soil: Besides not reaching plant roots, compacted soil can quickly become waterlogged. Waterlogged soil can kill off plants and other living things living underground.
• Air can’t enter or escape compacted soil: Roots need water, fertilizers, and air, particularly oxygen. If unable to acquire oxygen, roots can die and disable it to send water and nutrients to the plants’ upper half.

The bottom line is that logging can cause compacted soil. And with compacted soil, a forest can’t quickly bounce back from devastation.

Erosion

Aside from compacted soil, logging operations create logging roads and kill off tree roots. These two alone can cause soil erosion to happen faster.

According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, soil erosion is the process wherein an area’s topsoil is either by water or wind. Often, the soil is washed away and flooded to another location. It’s a natural process that happens ever too slowly over time. And biological processes in a healthy ecosystem mitigate its effects and slow it down further.

However, logging operations and roads hasten the effects of erosion, preventing those natural processes from stopping the harmful effects. Some of those devastating adverse effects are the following:

• It can remove fertile topsoil, rich with the minerals and elements plants need to grow.
• It can lead to uncontrolled flooding, worsening erosion, and killing small plants and animals.
• It can lead to desertification. Uncontrolled erosion can lead to an area losing rich soil and water. If it’s left unchecked, desertification can happen.
• By extension, it can also kill off aquatic life through sedimentation. The eroded loose soil often finds itself in bodies of water. The more soil particles accumulate in the water, the more that ecosystem will be negatively affected.

To summarize, erosion caused by logging operations will worsen over time, which can start forest degradation. It can lead to devastating effects if ignored or willfully encouraged, ultimately preventing forests from recovering or surviving.

Conclusion

These are just three effects of logging on a forest’s growth and survival. And all can easily spell doom to forests. But unfortunately, other effects do follow when those three mentioned above start, causing a chain reaction leading to a forest’s death. 

References

Government of Canada. “Soil Erosion Indicator.” June 3, 2021. https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/agriculture-and-environment/soil-and-land/soil-erosion-indicator.

Lai, Olivia. “What Are The Biggest Causes Of Biodiversity Loss?” Earth.org, December 3, 2021. https://earth.org/causes-of-biodiversity-loss/.

Nazari Meisam, Mohammad Eteghadipour, Mohsen Zarebanadkouki, Mohammad Ghorbani, Michaela A. Dippold, Nataliya Bilyera, and Kazem Zamania. “Impacts of Logging-Associated Compaction on Forest Soils: A Meta-Analysis,” Frontiers in Forests and Global Change 4,  https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2021.780074/full.