Get Active

Forestry

1. Through newspapers, the Internet, and by asking others, learn about the international and local importance of maintaining and sustaining our woodlands and forests.
   
   
2. Write letters and attend local meetings. Encourage state leaders and legislators to provide incentives to private woodland landowners to manage forests sustainably and prevent unnecessary clear cutting. Tax incentives should be provided to owners who wish to conserve diverse older forests as they are to those who harvest them.
   
3. Start a clear-cutting notebook. When you go on a drive in the country with your family or friends, bring along a Forest Conservation Notebook. Use this to record the date that you were on a particular road and the amount of tree removal that you observed.  If you are noticing a lot of tree removal, you may want to ask questions of the area Planning Department: How will the land be used?  Where are the logged trees going?  What is the position of that county on woodlands and forest conservation?
   
   
4. Using a small experimental area, either on flat ground or on a hill, pour a gallon of water every day on the same spot for five days in a row. Record the changes in the ground for each day of this period (such as quantities of dirt at the bottom of the slope and less grass on a flat surface). Next, remove ¾ of the grasses in that same area and wait for three dry days. Then, pour a gallon of water a day on this spot of ground for five days in a row. Record the changes on the ground for each day of this period.  At the end of the five days, compare the effects when there were good quantities of grass to those changes when there is little ground cover.  Which of the two activities produced the most changes to the soil and plants?