Land clearing
Land clearing a process of partially and completely removing of trees, stumps, brush, stones and other obstacles from an area by means of using heavy equipment as required to increase the size of the crop producing land base of an existing farm or to provide land for a new farm operation. The newly cleared land must be ready for cultivation, including liming and leveling to meet acceptable crop rotation and soil conservation goals.
It can also means the removal of vegetation from any site, parcel or lot; provided, however, it does not include mowing, trimming or pruning, so as to maintain vegetation in a healthy, viable condition.
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[edit] Functions
Land clearing is used to clear often untouched lands that were originally a habitat for native flora and fauna. To clear land for agricultural purposes one must not only remove native plants, trees and boulders, but also must break up the soil. Breaking the soil includes the removal of rocks, roots and stumps left behind by the initial clearing. Once the soil is broken, the land is cleared and ready for agricultural use.
[edit] Effects
Land clearing is a major environmental issue that could potentially cause problems worldwide. While the effects of land clearing may not be felt directly, that makes them no less severe, and like it or not, those effects will reach everywhere if allowed to continue at their current rate.
[edit] Loss and fragmentation of species habitat
Land clearing is a big threat to wildlife. Every day, forestry land clearing causes more and more habitats to be destroyed. The effects of mass land clearing can severely affect a natural habitat not only for the plants and animals that live in the area, but for nearby human populations as well.
When native plants and trees are removed this makes room for invasive species to take over, which pushes out the area's indigenous animals causing a rise in rates of extinction. This decreases the biodiversity of an area can upset the delicate balance of an ecosystem that relies on its native flora and fauna to maintain a biological system of checks and balances.
[edit] Rising Water and Salinity Effects
As trees are cut down, water previously soaked up by their roots rises and can potentially damage city infrastructures, beginning with roads and highways. Additionally, the water may carry old, buried salt deposits.
This runs the risk of poisoning crops, reducing crop production, and seeping into rivers, ground water, and water supplies.
[edit] Greenhouse gas emissions
When trees are burned or left to rot after being cleared, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. The amount of land clearing was so extensive that the greenhouse gases produced rivaled the amount produced by cars and trucks. Stopping further land clearing would be a step forward to reducing world's greenhouse gas emissions.
[edit] Financial pressure
Due to falling commodity prices, rising farm costs and other factors, many landholders are financially pressured to put more land under production or manage partially cleared land more intensively.
[edit] Mitigating Environmental Impact
- Land Clearing should be regulated by the government and environmental agencies.
- Preventing soil erosion, by replanting areas that had been cleared.
- Clearing wetlands. Building another wetland to balance out the loss of the wetland that has been cleared.
[edit] Land Clearing Equipment
- Crawler Tractors
- Piling Blades
- Piling Rakes with excavators
- Brush Tractors
- Wheel Rakes
- Breaking Plows
