Ecoforestry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Environmental science
Environmental technology
Air pollution control Alternative energy Biofuel Composting Conservation biology Conservation ethic Ecoforestry Energy conservation Energy development Environmental design Environmental preservation Future energy development Green building Hydrogen technologies Recycling Renewable energy Remediation Solid waste treatment Sustainable energy Sustainable development Waste water treatment Water purification Waste management

Ecoforestry is forestry that emphasizes holistic practices which strive to protect and restore ecosystems¹ instead of traditional forestry that maximizes economic productivity. Destructive practices like clearcutting, high grading, and pesticides are not permitted.²

Ecoforestry is traditional in many self regenerating native forest areas where people assist the forest to grow sustainably for decades to centuries of diverse species & natural habitats for wildlife to grow in whole food chains of interconnected bioregions with many small ecozones. Permaculture of homebased sustainable agriculture does Ecoforestry in the '5th zone' furthest out from family homestead, garden or farm. Sustainable forests are self-creating & self-regulating with natural elemetns in harmony with landscape, weather, soil, waterflows & animals living cooperatively there. Forest fires & total logging "clear-cutting" & dam building are the most destructive of whole forest habitats often ruining the soil, from drying out with no green ground cover & then erroding away during heavy rains. Even logging roads, errode the natural turrains in 1000s of miles of remote forests. Ecoforestry was reborn in 20ths century by family homesteads selectively cutting down trees for home uses & leaving a variety of trees to grow. It;s called "thinning" a tradition among conscious foresters around the world in native bioregions aware of long growing cycles & needs for soil fertility maintaining wild animal habitats & pure water supplies. Now with 'global warming' growing fast from many sources, Ecoforestry is even more needed to maintain natural 'carbon sink' of living forests absorbing carbon from air & cooling the ground with shade that trees & bushes & grasses provide. The complex bioregions of rain forests around earth are very stressed & killed by slash & burn, total logging for lumber & building roads, sturctures, pipelines, etc. Even cattle over grazing kills some forests, that take decades to centurys to restore habitats. So Ecoforetsty compliments reforestation where many trees of diverse native varieties are planted as needed by local landscape to for restoring, regreening & balancing the damaged habitats organic integrity. by micheal sunanda, Oness press See - ECOFORESTY - The Art and Science of Sustainable Forest Use (Paperback) by Alan Drengson (Editor), Duncan Taylor (Editor), Duncan M. Taylor book by New Society press '97.