The roots of the trees help anchor the soil and slow water runoff. Vanishing Rain Forests Clearing forestlands for farming, ranching, logging, and mining is rapidly decreasing the remaining rain forests. Some scientists estimate that an area of tropical rain forest the size of the U.S. state of Delaware is cleared every month. Although the land is often used for agriculture, the nutrient-poor tropical soils can support crops or cattle for only a few years. Then the land is abandoned, and people move elsewhere in the forest.
Erosion accelerates as the cleared land is exposed to torrential rains and blistering sunlight.
The destruction is no longer going unnoticed. Governments, scientific organizations, conservationists, and other citizens are deeply concerned about the loss of rain forests. They also recognize that people need the food and fuel that forests provide. The future of the earth's rain forests may depend on management plans that preserve some areas of rain forest while allowing people to cut trees selectively in other areas. Better land-use practices, education, and wiser planning may slow deforestation, but experts worry that the rain forest will be virtually gone by the time these changes can be widely implemented.