Deforestation has devastating impacts on the environment, both on a small scale and on a global scale. In the immediate vicinity, logging destroys and fragments habitats, endangers animals, increases soil erosion, contributes to pollution, increases the risk of floods and even aggravates the effects of climate change. Clearing represents a fundamental pressure on the earth's environment, causing the loss and fragmentation of native vegetation. Depending on subsequent management, land clearing can also cause a variety of impacts to soils, including erosion and nutrient loss.
In addition to the negative impact on native vegetation and soil quality, historical land clearing and other colonial activities disrupted or destroyed traditional indigenous land management practices. Land clearing has many adverse effects on the environment, plants and animals, and if done to the extreme, it can destroy an entire ecosystem. Land clearing is a service that helps homeowners overcome problems that may arise when leaving land unmanaged and neglected. Cleaning the ground allows you to remove dead plants, making the earth more useful and maintaining its beauty.
However, changes in land clearance laws in Queensland and Victoria show a disregard for the large amount of work and research that has been done on logging native vegetation and the impacts this has on land and ecosystems. Felling land can help cultivate healthy levels of nutrients in the soil so that they are fertile enough for planting. Removing dead or overgrown vegetation can also give other plants a chance to thrive and receive direct sunlight. The Queensland government has taken a short-term vision of how to increase productivity rather than considering the long-term impacts this will have on the land that farmers depend on.
These are smaller parcels of between 5 and 100 acres that farmers are clearing for livestock management, planting pastures or subdividing and selling for profit and development. After the cleaning of the earth, the roots are no longer there to support the earth and there are no animals that increase nutrient levels, resulting in land degradation. Due to growing concerns about the extent of logging and its impacts on biodiversity, the Queensland government initiated the Vegetation Management Act of 1999 to assess logging on freehold land. By clearing land and eliminating “carbon stocks”, farmers will also lose income opportunities under the Carbon Farming initiative.
Despite the election promise of the current Queensland government, farmers can now clean up remaining (virgin) vegetation for both dry-land agriculture and high-value irrigation. The Australian Government's Department of Environment and Energy uses detailed satellite data to track and report, nationally and by state and territory, greenhouse gas emissions from clearing and regrowth of vegetation as part of national greenhouse gas accounting obligations of Australia.
