The Earth is plagued with pollution, and if it continues without arrest for a long time, human and plant life will suffer drastically. Nations across the world are fighting pollution in the best ways they can. This is where reforestation or the act of planting trees helps. It ensures trees soak up the pollution and dust from the atmosphere to protect human and plant life.
Efforts to boost reforestation in the US
Reforestation in the US has now been beefed upto improve and protect natural forests. It plays a major role in overcoming the negative effects of deforestation and restore plant life on Earth. Reforestation helps in restoring ecosystems and natural habitats of wild animals as well. It mitigates the ill effects of global warming to facilitate the bio-sequestration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It involves both natural and artificial processes of planting trees on Earth.
Types of reforestation processes
Reforestation refers to the continuous process of planting or regenerating the desired forest-like environment on a specific site. Choosing the proper and appropriate forest species is an integral part of reforestation to be maintained and managed easily.
As mentioned above, there are two major types of reforestation –
- Natural regeneration process –This involves the process of natural seeding, stump sprouting and root suckering.
- Artificial regeneration processes – They include hand planting, machine planting, ground, and aerial seeding.
Guidelines for reforestation for the successful planting of trees in any specific region in the US
There are specific guidelines for reforestation projects that should be followed as the State authorities have laid them down. This is primarily because the specificregion might be near a historic building or an archaeological site. If the reforestation efforts are not done properly, damage might be caused to these sites. The potential damage that can be caused to these sites is erosion, rutting, and compaction that have the ability to destabilize these sites and structures.
Reforestation also has advantages for forest soils
Reforestation can improve the quality of forest soils as it enhances the nutrients in the soil. It has the ability to curb rutting and removes surface soil. It checks erosion and ensures that the exposure to mineral soil is limited.
When it comes to planting tree species for reforestation, some factors need to be taken into account. They are indispensable to consider for the success of the project. They have been listed below-
- The capabilities of the site for reforestation
- The natural regeneration that exists
- The historical vegetation of the site
- The variations in the rates of growth when it comes to the production of seeds
- Whether coniferous and deciduous species of trees can be mixed
- The requirements for sunlight
Experts in projects dealing with reforestation in the US say that the seeds or seeds should be selected from an adapted source locally. Generally, both pre, as well as post-harvest techniques are embraced when it comes to the regeneration of oak wherever needed on the specific sites. These techniques might involve scarification, the thinning of stump sprouts, and burning as and when needed.