Forests of Arizona |
||
About a hundred years ago, humans decided that forest fires were a bad thing, so they prevented the natural events from occurring. At first, this may look like a good thing, because fires are seen as destructive forces. The reality is that when a natural forest fire occurs, it clears the forest floor of debris, small trees and shrubs. It is natures way of clearing the forest floor and recycling nutrients back into the soil. When humans interfered with this natural process, they allowed the saplings and small shrubs to grow in an uncontrolled way. This explosion of new growth has drained the soil of its nutrients and is causing the trees in the forest to become unhealthy. Initially, the forestry department was able to earn money because loggers would pay them to come and cut down the small saplings in the forests. Now though, the loggers are charging the forestry department about $500 an acre to clear cut the forests. So, what we are seeing is that Arizona has the opposite problem to Colorado. They need to cut down the saplings to make sure that the quality of the soil and forest floor is preserved. |
||
