My understanding is though that in Western Canada settlement had the result
of increasing not decreasing forested areas in many areas. Many wooded areas
were burned in periodic grassfires on the plainsm and before settlement only
natural barries such as streams stopped the fires. With settlement there
were section roads that acted as firebreaks and this meant that many
woodlots grew up in areas that previously did not support forests. Actually
around here marginal grain land is being returned to pasture and woodlot.
Louis will be glad to know that even the buffalo is making a comeback. Just
five miles down the road the buffalo roam on a couple of sections. Of course
an electric fence confines their movements and they are destined to be
buffaloburgers. Maybe not what Louis had in mind. Treed areas coexist with
the pasture in the buffalo compound.
Also, deforestation may eventually result in reforestation. Forest fires
clear very large areas just as much as clear cutting. The forests eventually
regenerate through a progressive series of plant and tree species. Traveling
through a newly burned out area is just as much or more a scene of
devastation as seeing a clear cut area but over time shrubs appear certain
species such as birch and as in time the original type of cover..
Cheers, Ken Hanly
Mark Jones wrote:
. A similar process of
the pioneer hacking out a life for himself and family in the forest occurred
in Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. In Aus-tralia, for
example, nearly 400,000 sq km of the southeastern forests and sparse
woodland were cleared by the early twentieth century.
