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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Colorado Springs police are warning residents about a large, aggressive bear that chased an officer Thursday morning.
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use.[1] Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use.
The term deforestation is often misused to describe any activity where all trees in an area are removed. However in temperate mesic climates, the removal of all trees in an area—in conformance with sustainable forestry practices—is correctly described as regeneration harvest.[2] In temperate mesic climates, natural regeneration of forest stands often will not occur in the absence of disturbance, whether natural or anthropogenic.[3] Furthermore, biodiversity after regeneration harvest often mimics that found after natural disturbance, including biodiversity loss after naturally occurring rainforest destruction.[4][5]
Desertification is the degradation of land in drylands[1]. Caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities[2], desertification is one of the most significant global environmental problems.[3]
Drylands occupy approximately 40-41% of Earth’s land area[4][5] and are home to more than 2 billion people.[5] It has been estimated that some 10–20% of drylands are already degraded, the total area affected by desertification being between 6 and 12 million square kilometres, that about 1–6% of the inhabitants of drylands live in desertified areas, and that a billion people are under threat from further desertification. Amplifying the issue is the fact that at least 90% of the inhabitants of drylands live in developing nations, where they also suffer from poor economic and social conditions.[6]
A major impact of desertification is reduced biodiversity and diminished productive capacity, for example, by transition from land dominated by shrublands to non-native grasslands.[citation needed]