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Hi Leanne,
I understand - I love the wilderness and have spent a lot of time hiking, camping, and fishing in some very wild areas.
However, the way I have been able to access many of these areas was on logging roads. Without those roads, many areas that people are able to enjoy would be inaccessible.
Improper logging practices have done a tremendous amount of damage in many areas, and are unfortunately still being carried out in many parts of the world by multi national companies who do not care about the environment, the local ecology, or even the people they employ. Can you imagine, for example, that in some places in the world, where the laws are not even close to as strict as they are here in Canada and the US, people are sent to work in bare feet, wearing only shorts, carrying big, powerful, brand new chainsaws!
Logging done properly is very good for the environment. Prior to logging, large areas of forest were removed naturally by fires, a perfectly natural and important event that we now fight hard to prevent, as the damage to air quality, property and wildlife is not something our modern civilization cannot live with. However, if the fires are put out and the old trees left standing, the animals that live in the forest and the humans living outside the forest all suffer.
New, vigorous growth is a very important source of food for many animals - if you want to see deer, for example, the best place to find them is on the edge of an area that has been cleared either by fire or logging, and is growing back. You will find bears just inside the big timber on the edge of these clearings, where the berries grow in the light that shines through to the forest floor from the clearing.
New, vigorous growth also is one of nature's most amazing air cleaners. Canada is known to be a carbon sink; that is, we absorb more carbon by far than we produce. When this phenomenon was studied, it was thought that it was because there is so much forest covering such a vast area in this country. However, when the studies were done, a surprising fact came to light: it wasn't the vast boreal forests or old growth that was absorbing most of the carbon, but the younger, faster growing trees and bushes in areas that had been cleared by fire or logging that were absorbing the most carbon.
Logging has certainly done its share of damage. Badly built roads in steep terrain have caused massive mudslides, damaging creeks and other watersheds, and heavily eroding sensitive ecosystems.
Massive clearcuts have allowed extensive wind damage, and have also contributed to soil erosion by the removal of too many trees in one area that would have absorbed a lot of the water that instead runs off.
Huge areas of land that were clearcut many years ago were never replanted, leaving no seed trees to naturally regenerate the area, and creating "moonscapes" that are still practically barren, although the forest is gradually creeping back in. It is a travesty that these areas are STILL not being replanted, as it will take many, many more years for natural regeneration to take place.
However, laws are in place today that do not allow massive clearcuts, do not allow work near streams or lakes, require proper, stable roadbuilding practices or no roads at all (helilogging), erosion prevention, selective logging at higher elevations, and replanting as soon as possible after logging. Furthermore, each area now has to go through a wildlife impact study before logging can commence, and some areas will never be logged. The days of simply going in, cutting everything down, taking out only the very best and burning the rest, are gone.
Machinery that used to be common in logging is no longer used; modern requirements do not allow the old old-and-grease throwing monsters into the forest any more.
So, while it is a shame to see a pristine area of wilderness come down, it's nice to know that in a few years it will be home and new food source to a lot of wildlife, and will be a window through which we can see the rest of the forest until the trees become too tall once more to see past.
Keep being "green," Leanne! It helps us all when people stand up for our environment! We have a whole planet to protect.
God bless,
Dave
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