Image courtesy of Ian+Anne

Most people think of logging as a destructive industry. But, the truth is that loggers play an integral part in the health of a forest. Without logging, forest health would decline.

Minimizing Competition Among Trees

Just like a big city, a forest can get overcrowded, and when it does. Bad things start to happen.

To begin with, more trees means more competition for a finite amount of nutrition. Unlike people in cities, trees in the forest can’t ship in food from the expansive midwest. The only thing they have to eat is what’s right underneath them. Older trees that are nearing the end of their life cycle are doing little more than just taking up nutrients that could be used by the younger trees to grow stronger and taller.

Crowding in the forest is also a big invitation to disease. If loggers don’t thin out the trees in a forest, at some point, Mother Nature does it herself. Disease sweeps through an area killing off hundreds of healthy trees as well as older and dying trees. (more…)