Clearcutting
Introduced| English |
|---|
| clearcutting/ˈklɪəkʌtɪŋ/ |
| erosion/ɪˈrəʊʒn/ |
Taking every tree
- Sometimes loggers remove not just some trees, but all of them.
- A whole hillside of forest becomes bare ground in days.
- This method is fast and cheap for the timber industry.
- But it leaves the land badly damaged. This is clearcutting.
What clearcutting is
- Clearcutting 皆伐 removes every tree in an area at once.
- It is the cheapest, fastest way to harvest timber.
- The short-term benefit is a quick, large profit from the wood.
- But the long-term costs to the land are severe.
Clearcutting is…
Clearcutting removes every tree in an area — fast and cheap, but very damaging.
Bare soil erodes
- With every tree gone, nothing holds the soil in place.
- Rain washes the exposed topsoil away — severe erosion 侵蚀.
- The eroded soil silts up rivers and can cause flooding.
- Without its fertile topsoil, the land struggles to recover.
A major harm of clearcutting is that the bare soil…
With no tree roots to hold it, the soil erodes fast, silting rivers and causing floods.
Clearcutting destroys habitat, causing a loss of ____.
Removing a whole forest destroys the homes of countless species, lowering biodiversity.
Habitat and biodiversity lost
- A forest is home to countless species of plants and animals.
- Clearcutting destroys that whole habitat at once.
- Many species lose their food and shelter, lowering biodiversity.
- Gentler methods, like selective cutting, harm the forest far less.
Benefit or harm of clearcutting?
Sort each effect of clearcutting into a short-term benefit or a long-term harm.
Selective cutting, which removes only some trees, is gentler on the forest than clearcutting.
Selective cutting leaves most trees standing, protecting soil, habitat, and the forest's recovery.
Select all true statements about clearcutting.
Clearcutting has serious long-term downsides. The other three are correct.
Clearcutting trades a short-term gain for long-term damage. The quick timber profit is real, but so are the lasting costs: eroded soil, silted rivers, floods, and lost biodiversity. Weigh both sides — the benefit is fast and visible, while the harm builds slowly.
A cleared hillside after the rains:
- Loggers clearcut a steep, forested slope for its timber.
- The next heavy rains hit bare soil with no roots to hold it.
- The topsoil washes down into the river, muddying the water and flooding the valley below — the true cost of the quick harvest.
Clearcutting removes every tree in an area, giving a fast, cheap timber harvest. But it causes severe soil erosion, silts rivers, worsens flooding, and destroys habitat, lowering biodiversity. It trades a short-term profit for long-term damage; selective cutting is a gentler alternative.