What is the advantage of selective cutting over clear cutting?

Selective Cutting as a Tool of Sustainable Forestry When practiced correctly, selective cutting has the following benefits. Removes trees that are low quality while they are young. Removes some of the profitable mature growth. Allows more light to penetrate the upper story of growth.

Why is selective cutting considered to be a more sustainable alternative to clear cutting?

Selective Cutting Harvest Method This process allows for better yield and productivity over several decades. Each year provides trees for harvest, rather than having to wait a minimum of sixty years after a clear cut.

What is the benefit of choosing to cut selected trees instead of clear cutting forests?

Removing selected trees reduces the competition for sunlight, water and nutrients, helping the remaining trees stay healthy and grow faster. But when it comes to harvesting mature trees for timber west of the Cascades, clearcutting is more common than thinning.

What is the difference between clear cutting and selective harvesting?

Selective logging—the practice of removing one or two trees and leaving the rest intact—is often considered a sustainable alternative to clear-cutting, in which a large swath of forest is cut down, leaving little behind except wood debris and a denuded landscape.

Is selective cutting good?

(Pros) Advantages of selective-cutting: • Supports more wildlife by keeping their ecosystems intact • They build up tolerance and resistance to disease and pests • Carbon dioxide that is stored by the trees will regenerate (regrow) faster • Helps the forest grow back faster • Reduces fire hazards and minimizes soil …

What are the disadvantages of selective cutting?

Harmful to Trees Selective logging is harmful not only to the trees that are cut down, but to the ones near them. It is estimated that for each tree that is logged, 30 others are harmed on average. One reason is that when a tree is cut down, the machinery that is used to log it can seriously damage the nearby trees.

What does selective cutting do?

Selective cutting is the cutting down of selected trees in a forest so that growth of other trees is not affected. This is done according to criteria regarding minimum tree size for harvesting, specifications of the number, spacing and size classes of residual trees per area, and allowable cut.

Is selective cutting bad?

What are the advantages of selective logging?

Logging and replanting – selective logging of mature trees ensures that the rainforest canopy is preserved. This method allows the forest to recover because the younger trees gain more space and sunlight to grow. Planned and controlled logging ensures that for every tree logged another is planted.

What is selective cutting and clear cutting?

Selective logging is the removal of selected trees within a forest based on criteria such as diameter, height or species. Remaining trees are left in the stand, as opposed to clearcutting where all trees are felled. This intervention is similar to several others that involve harvesting some, but not all, trees.

Is clear cutting good or bad?

Clearcutting can destroy an area’s ecological integrity in a number of ways, including: the destruction of buffer zones which reduce the severity of flooding by absorbing and holding water; the immediate removal of forest canopy, which destroys the habitat for many rainforest-dependent insects and bacteria; the removal …

What are the disadvantages of clear cutting?

The disadvantages of clear cutting are numerous and include a poor aesthetic, habitat disturbance, and increased stream flow and soil erosion, particularly on slopes.

However, there are still disadvantages to selective cutting. There are some species of tree, in particular pines, firs and redwoods, that do not regenerate well after selective cutting. This means that the composition of a forest overall may change after selective cutting.

What are negative effects of clear cutting?

Negative Effects of Clear-Cutting. From small farmers slashing and burning a few acres for subsistence to large agribusiness corporations clearing thousands of acres, clear-cutting is part of the worldwide phenomenon of deforestation. According to National Geographic, 30 percent of the Earth’s land is covered by forests.

What is clear cutting of trees?

Definition of clear-cutting. : the removal of all the trees in an area of forest Long considered a “trash_tree” by the timber industry, the number of Pacific yews has been drastically reduced—perhaps halved—by clear-cutting, the logging practice that totally strips…