Does illegal logging hurt the river and the animals that live in it?
Illegal logging certainly does impact the river systems. When trees are cut down close to a river, it can change the environment around the area it was cut down. What once may have had excellent shade and good cover during the day may now be wide open under bright sun. Areas that were calm may be very windy and turbid without the trees around to break the wind. Even trees cut down miles away from the river can impact it. The root systems of trees help to keep soil in place on the ground, if the trees are cut down the soil will now run off in rain showers and may end up in the river. This can cause siltation, a process by which tiny silt particles enter a water system and start to clog up the substrate and make the water much more turbid. What kind of plants grow under the water? There are a lot of different kinds of plants that live under water. Plants in the genus Echinodorus are quite common in the Amazon River (sword plants for those in the aquarium hobby), which have large broad le
