Deforestation is a big problem for our environment and over 50,000 species of animals are affected each year. If we don’t act now, 10% of the world’s species will die out within the next 25 years. Deforestation is a really big problem itself, but many other problems go along with it such as climate change, desertification, soil erosion, decreasing of crops, and flooding. Many different things caused deforestation but the main ones are agricultural expansion, wood extraction, and wood harvesting for domestic fuel or charcoal. Infrastructure expansion and urbanization also plays a big part in it.

Deforestation is mainly a problem in South America and in the tropical rainforest biome. This is because there are a lot of trees there.  Animals that are being affected are the Orangutans, Sumatran tigers, and many species of birds. Other species include the Giant Brazillian otter and the White-bellied spider monkey. Plants are also being harmed and some of the species include orchids, rafflesia flowers, mangrove trees, kapok trees, and bromeliads.

Deforestation can also negatively impact food webs, ecosystems, and habitats. For example, a monkey eats bananas off of a banana tree. That tree goes down leaving the monkey starving. Eventually, the monkey will die and whatever eats the monkey loses its food as well. So that leaves the monkey’s predator dying too and so on. Another way the food web is affected is lets say you have a bird living in a tree. That tree gets chopped down leaving the bird with no home. That bird can’t find a home anywhere so it tries to move around leaving it dying. After that, similar to the monkey, the birds predator doesn’t have food because the bird is dead so eventually the predator will die too.

Deforestation was always a problem although, it became a serious problem in the 1950s. Even though deforestation was happening for a long time, the 1950s was when we realized it was bad. Deforestation started thousands of years ago when humans learned how to make fire. Humans would make fires and wouldn’t know how to put them out causing mass wildfires. Deforestation is only getting worse and some areas have already received irreversible damage.

Although deforestation is a very big problem, it can be fixed. Remember, we are fixing deforestation and all of the small problems that go along with it. So my solution is pretty simple, my solution involves a government based recovery. What I mean by that is keeping specific government laws and regulations. The reason why I think it will work is If people are assigned very serious consequences I would think that they would think twice about harming another tree. We will give people a $250 fee for each tree they take down or harm.  People will be scared and take it more seriously.

Although, we can’t accomplish this goal without funding. We will need fencing and wiring all around the major forests that need help. This will make it so no one can get in without authority. We will also need 24-hour guards every 200 yards of the perimeter. Along with the guards we will need around 5 K-9 units at every main forest as well. For the forest itself, we will need tree seeds, and more land to plant the trees.

Obviously, I cant do all of this myself so, I will bring along Jimmy Donaldson. Jimmy is a firm believer in saving the trees and he wants a change like the rest of us. Team Trees is Jimmy’s main organization and more than 800,000 people are involved. Jimmy has also raised 22 million dollars in just over a year. If we can get the funding from Jimmy, we can take this all the way. Jimmy will provide for all the necessities, we will keep the trees in good shape and protect them. Everybody needs to be on board, and it takes everybody to make a change. So I encourage you to tell people to keep helping the trees and keep helping them yourself. Thank you all for your time, #TeamTrees

Works Cited

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Lindsey, Rebecca. “Tropical Deforestation.” Nasa.Gov, NASA Earth Observatory, 30 Mar. 2007, earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Deforestation.

“The History of Deforestation.” The Classroom | Empowering Students in Their College Journey, 2009, www.theclassroom.com/the-history-of-deforestation-13636286.html.

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“File: Madagascar Deforestation.Jpg.” Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Madagascar_Deforestation.jpg. Accessed 2 Dec. 2020.

“How Many Trees Are Enough? Tree Death and the Urban Canopy.” Scenario Journal, 3 Apr. 2014, scenariojournal.com/article/how-many-trees-are-enough/. Accessed 2 Dec. 2020.

Wikimedia.org, 2020, upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Amazon_over_time.png. Accessed 2 Dec. 2020.

“Air Force, USFWS Partner to Protect Natural, Cultural Resources.” Team McChord, www.mcchord.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2028940/air-force. Accessed 3 Dec. 2020.