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Deforestation is the clearance of naturally occurring forests by the processes of humans' logging and/or burning of trees in a forested area. Deforestation occurs because of many reasons: trees or derived charcoal are used as or sold for fuel or a commodity to be used by humans, while cleared land is used by humans as pasture for livestock, plantations of commodities, and settlements. People's removal of trees without sufficient reforestation has resulted in damage to habitat, biodiversity loss and aridity. It has adverse impacts on biosequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Deforested regions typically incur significant adverse soil erosion and frequently degrade into wasteland. Disregard or ignorance of intrinsic value, lack of ascribed value, lax forest management and deficient environmental law are some of the factors that allow deforestation to occur on a large scale. In many countries, deforestation is an ongoing issue that is causing extinction, changes to climatic conditions, desertification, and displacement of indigenous people. Among countries with a per capita GDP of at least US$4,600, net deforestation rates have ceased to increase.

In the Puget Sound, deforestation causes serious problems. The runoff from the roofs of residential areas would normally be filtered out by the roots of the trees, but with out the trees, the water runs directly in the Puget sound.

Deforestation-sep09

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