Reading passage:
Every year, forest fires and severe storms cause a great deal of damage to forests in the northwestern United States. One way of dealing with the aftermath of these disasters is called salvage logging, which is the practice of removing dead trees from affected areas and using the wood for lumber, plywood, and other wood products. There are several reasons why salvage logging is beneficial both to a damaged forest and to the economy.
First, after a devastating fire, forests are choked with dead trees. If the trees are not removed, they will take years to decompose; in the meantime, no new trees can grow in the cramped spaces. Salvage logging, however, removes the remains of dead trees and makes room for fresh growth immediately, which is likely to help forest areas recover from the disaster.
Also, dead trees do more than just take up space. Decaying wood is a highly suitable habitat for insects such as the spruce bark beetle, which in large numbers can damage live, healthy spruce trees. So by removing rotting wood, salvage logging helps minimize the dangers of insect infestation, thus contributing to the health of the forest.
Third and last, salvage logging has economic benefits. Many industries depend upon the forests for their production, and because of this a fire can have a very harmful effect on the economy. Often, however, the trees that have been damaged by natural disasters still can provide much wood that is usable by industries. Furthermore, salvage logging requires more workers than traditional logging operations do, and so it helps create additional jobs for local residents.
Integrated essay:
The passage and the lecture are about whether salvage logging, removal of dead trees from the forest, is beneficial or not. The passage states that ht salvage logging is beneficial for to forest by removing the dead tree. The lecture, however, opposes by saying that the salvage logging is liitle beneficial as it does not recover the serious environmental damage.
First of all, the passage states that the natural decomposition of the trees take a longer period to decompose and also blocks an opportunity for new trees to grow. The salvage logging helps the forest area to get cleaned up. And also it increase the chances to recover. On the other hand, the lecturer explains about the natural decomposition is acutally beneficial for soil as it is good source to replenish the destroyed soil due to fire or any natural disaster. Cleaning up all those tree will not aid in developing the rich soil for new trees. Thus, this point contradicts the point made in the passage.
The passage describes the condition that if the forest is left unclean then woods of trees will be a house for a insects. This insects are harmful for health of the forest as it can spread disease in to the trees. On contrary, the lecture says that these habitants will not be harmful to the forest, because they feed the birds of the forest and will also contribute to develop the forest again. In this way, he refutes the point made in the passage.
Lastly, the passage mentions about economic benefits of the salvage logging. The passage also concentrates on an opportunity for local public as changes of getting job increases. However, the lecture disputes this argument by saying that the vehicles used for salvage logging themselves increase the cost of the treatment. Morever, the people, who has more experience and who are trained in to,get more chances to get job comparatively local public. Therefore, this point also opposes the benefits of the technique.
TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between two students in a chemistry class