Dear President,

I’m a 15 year old High School student and I want to speak up about a problem that nobody else pays attention to. I'm sure you are aware of this problem but I want to provide you with some of my personal thoughts and experiences. Deforestation is affecting many wild animals that live on forests. Each year we cut down an extreme amount of forests that are in fact homes to many animals. Many animals have become extinct or are in danger of doing so. I believe the best thing to do is to stop deforestation or do it less. The Earth doesn’t belong to us alone it also belong to the animals, plants and other living organisms so I find it wrong that we are cutting down the amount of space animals have for themselves. In 2015 forests only covered 30% of land mass and I extremely believe that is too little for the hundreds of animals out there.

I grew up in a city called Alexandria in Virginia, there used to be a park really close to my house that I would visit everyday. The park had all sorts of animals but there was mostly deer above all else.  There was a nearby lake that we would walk around constantly. Every month there was an increase in people. I moved to Los Angeles when I was 4 so at this point I'm not sure if the forest is still there or if it was cut down. All I know is that if that beautiful place that's home to many amazing animals and a great part of my childhood then I would be devastated. I try to put myself in the place of animals whose homes were burned because the human population grew and I know that I wouldn't like it because the place I grew my entire life was just taken away from my grasp so that someone else can use it.

There are many causes to deforestation but the biggest one is to make more land for housing, produce paper and get oil from palm trees. We take away homes from animals so we can make homes for ourselves I see that really wrong and selfish. Populations grow every year so I see why we need more land to house people but I think we can do that to a certain extent without cutting down forests. As forests decline, Cardon dioxide in the atmosphere increases causing Global Warning which is another problem to us.

Currently forests only cover 30% or else of the land mass. Since there had been a decline of plants then that means that less plants are performing photosynthesis and our oxygen decreases as well.

We should try to conserve nature and try to not harm it or the living organisms that depend on it. It breaks my heart to see how many unique and valuable animals that depend on forests become extinct because they can't survive deforestation. There are even many animals that get killed in cities because that used to be their homes and they think that it's still fine to be running free but they suddenly find their tragic end. 

I hope you can try to help to stop deforestation since it has more negative effects than positive. All life form is valuable and animals are as important than humans are and we should all help each other.