Website and poster for Alberta Forest Care

 Information and Excerpts about the plight of Alberta’s forests:

 Numerous economic, social, and environmental advantages come from forests. The Canadian economy continues to be significantly influenced by the timber industry. The industry sustains more than 300 towns that depend on the forest, generates revenue for local employees in 2,400 villages, adds $25.2 billion to the nominal GDP, and directly employs more than 184,000 Canadians.

 The economic and daily lives of Canadians, notably those in rural and Indigenous communities, are greatly influenced by the country's woods. By supplying necessary habitat, food, renewable energy, and materials, forests support life. Additionally, they offer possibilities for spiritual and cultural development as well as crucial environmental services. roughly 300 forest-dependent communities are supported by the industry, which also directly employs 205,365 Canadians, including roughly 12,000 members of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit groups. Additionally, forests offer vital habitat for wildlife, produce commodities and services that may spur sustainable development, and are crucial to combating climate change. In order to control carbon and lessen the effects of climate change, sustainably managed forests and the wood products made from them are crucial.

 But there is evidence that our Canadian forests are vanishing due to fires and the lumber industry. We need to be extremely careful.  

 

Trees are mostly removed by using the logging technique known as clear-cutting. Clear-cutting involves using large machinery to remove enormous tracts of forest. This exposes the earth, which is therefore easily erodible.  - Clear-cutting a forest alters the kinds of flora and animals that live there.  - In the cleared regions, grasses and plants start to emerge.  - Many of the forest's species must locate new habitats and food sources. The forestry firm occasionally replaces the trees it has removed but they never succeed in restoring the original ecology, despite their best attempts.

 Should the size of cities be capped to prevent the exploitation of forest land?  Every year, more individuals relocate to cities. These folks require housing. The city planners have the option of annexing more property near their borders or of constructing inside those lines. Forest land is frequently present in an urban area. Today, many cities prefer to build inside rather than outward. They may preserve precious forest area outside of the city in this way.

I propose a different way. I recently scoped out the middle east side of the province. I drove from Lloydminster to Vermillion Alberta. While on the road I saw so much land prepared for cows to graze on. Someone told me that the farmers had cut a lot of the forests that use to be there to make room for these free roaming cows. I love that they have room to walk around in and eat but these hilly lands were bigger than most of the small cities in this Alberta region. I think the big and successful farming businesses should give 1/3 or ¼ of their land to build cities. The trees have already been cut and are nowhere to be seen. We need to utilize these vast hills and give the customers and consumers of these cow products that the farmers make money on by building them a town, or a small city so they can live and buy even more stuff. The cows don’t need 3 hills worth of grazing pastures. I feel like that is a little excessive.

 

I made this poster and website pictured below to promote better treatment of our forests and wildlife.