Forests, Parks and Landscapes Environmental Science AP Ben Smith

Ecological and

Economic services of

forests

Big Ideas

• Major Forestry Issues: • Public Lands: Types, Uses, & Management:• N.P.S. Mission Statement:• “Wilderness”• Grassbanks: (are they legal ?)

• Forest management/Forestry/Tree-harvestingmethods:

• Sagebrush rebellion & MW-UM• Forests, Sustainability, & People: • Biodiversity Hotspots:

Major Forestry issues: Table 13.1

• How to achieve sustainable forestry?

• Certified Forestry Practices?

• Fire as an agent of change: +/-/?

• National Forests: purpose of …

• Riparian Zone protection

• Tree Farming

• “Old-Growth”:

Restricted-Use:

Moderately-Restricted Use:

Multiple-Use:

Federal Public Lands

and Use Classifications:

US Public Lands

Fig. 11-6 p. 198

Restricted-Use Public Lands:National Parks: 58 major NPs + well over 300 additional

NPS-managed areas -and-

______ __________ ___________ Areas: over 700; they sit w/in NPs(42%), NFs(33%), (NWR) (20%), and BLM

Lands(5%)

NPS Mission Statement:

-To conserve the scenery and the

natural and historic objects and the

wildlife therein and to provide for the

enjoyment of the same in such a

manner and by such means as will

leave them unimpaired for the

enjoyment of future generations.

-The 1916 Organic Act to

establish the National Park Service

Can you see a potential management

conflict or challenge within the NPS

mission statement here?

Managing and Sustaining National Parks

• “Natural Regulation? -Capacity for this…

• Inadequate protection• Island Biogeography; Habitat Islands: Often too small to

sustain biodiversity

• Invasions by nonnative species• Park Visitation: The “best idea”: we have met the

enemy and ..

• Bear jams, Elk jams, Pearl Jam jams, …

• Air Quality• NP Staff per Visitor ratio• $$$

The Wilderness Act: Protection of large areas of undeveloped land

- Wilderness Society: min. size = ____ acres “Land description”:

Primary author 1964: –H. Zahniser, w/ Aldo Leopold writing the

proposal for the designation of the first of its kind wilderness area, the

Gila Wilderness in southern New Mexico. Neither individual would live

to see the Wilderness Act be signed into law (A.L. died 15 years prior;

H.Z. died 4 months prior)

Aldo Leopold Howard Zahniser

Wilderness

Wildness

Natural

Naturalistic

An Idea

An Ideal

Untrammeled

Primeval Character

Solitude

Unconfined Recreation

Aesthetic-Spiritual-

Emotional Needs

TWA: “Land”

• Land which “retains its ___ ___ and ___, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions; the imprint of human work is unnoticeable, opportunities for solitude & primitive and unconfined recreation.

A Sand County Almanac

Aldo Leopold

Multiple-Use Lands: National Forests, National Grasslands, National Resource Lands

National Forests: 155 nat. forests, 22 National Grasslands(USFS)-

-logging, mining, grazing, oil-gas extraction, recreation,

sport hunting-fishing, commercial fishing,

Conservation (watersheds, soil, wildlife resources)

National ? Lands: Western States/Alaska (BLM)-

-emphasis is on providing a

Secure domestic supply of

energy and preserving range-

lands for livestock grazing

Under a permit system

Trade-Offs

Advantages

Helps meet country’s timber

needs

Cut areas grow back

Keeps lumber and paper prices down

Provides jobs in nearby communities

Promotes economic growth in nearby communities

Disadvantages

Provides only 4% of timber needs

Ample private forest land to meet timber needs

Has little effect on timber and paper prices

Damages nearby rivers and fisheries

Recreation in national forests provides more local jobs and income for local communities than logging

Decreases recreational opportunities

Logging in U.S. National Forestsand other publicly owned lands

*

Approaches to Forest Management

-Pros & Cons of each:

• -Short vs. Long Rotation Cycles:

• -Clear-cutting:

• -Strip-cutting:

• -“Selective-cutting”: a somewhat vague

label; classic e.g., might be ___ ? (from B/K)

• -Shelterwood-cutting: “2 or 3 in ~10”

• -Seed-tree cutting:

• -“High-grading”:

• -Forestry, Ecosystem Management and the significance of snags and fallen trees

Clear cutting:

Advantages and Disadvantages

Trade-Offs

Clear-Cutting Forests

Advantages

Higher timber yields

Maximum economic return in shortest time

Can reforest with genetically improved fast-growing trees

Short time to establish new stand of trees

Needs less skill and planning

Best way to harvest tree plantations

Good for tree species needing full or moderate sunlight for growth

Disadvantages

Reduces biodiversity

Disrupts ecosystem processes

Destroys and fragments some wildlife habitats

Leaves moderate to large openings

Increases soil erosion

Increases sediment water pollution and flooding when done on steep slopes

Eliminates most recreational value for several decades

Longer rotations will provide a more

stable ecosystem and greater biodiversity

Selective logging leaves habitat,

minimizing disturbance and

fragmentation

Snags and downed

logs? Value?

Logging roads typically involve construction of

ditches, culverts and other conduits.

Efforts by the forest industry, tribes and government agency scientists

have worked to lessen impacts of logging roads.

5% of our virgin forests remain uncut

15% of our redwood forests are old growth

Include ecological

services in estimating

economic value

Rainforests harbor the greatest gene pool in the world. The

rainforest has nurtured this "pool" to become home for 170,000

of the world's 250,000 known plant species.

Tropical Deforestation: Causes

• Population growth

• Poverty

• Environmentally harmful government

subsidies (encourage poor to colonize

tropical forests)

• Debts owed to developed countries

• Low value of ecological services

Tropical Deforestation: Consequences

• Rapid and increasing

• Loss of biodiversity

• Loss of resources (e.g.,

medicines)

• Contributes to global

warming

Grassbanks

• Given the long-standing use of NFs for grazing,

several approaches are now used to decrease

overgrazing. Grassbanks: In short, a rancher can

utilize public lands (such as a NF) for grazing, w/out

paying leasing/grazing fees, given that the rancher

has agreed to participate in a legally binding

conservation easement on equivalent land that bars

the land from being subdivided or otherwise used

for development

Moderately-Restricted Use Lands:

National Wildlife Refuges- most protect habitats & breeding areas for waterfowl, & game species to provide a harvestable supply for hunters

(sport hunting-fishing); some protect listed species (E/T);

oil/gas development, mining, logging, grazing; all with permit through Dept. of the Interior

e.g.,National Bison Refuge

N.W. Refuges

• Over 75% of these areas are Wetlands

• 1 out of every 5 Listed Species (E/T) under the E.S.A. use NWR areas as habitat for all or part of the year

Sagebrush Rebellion, the “Modern Wise-Use Movement” & the County Movement

• Sagebrush Rebellion: public to private ownership.

• MW-UM seeks to promote a legal technique known as the “___ and ____ ___ movement” to paralyze

government regulation of public lands

• The County Movement: is one approach used under the MW-UM and involves lobbying state legislatures to pass

laws that allow county zoning, land-use plans and environmental ordinances to take precedence over

federal laws that affect private property rights on public land within county borders.

Eminent Domain & “Takings”

-Who has it? What is it?

-The gov’t. has it; gov’t. has the power to force a citizen to sell property needed for a public good. e.g., if your land is needed for a road expansion project, gov’t. can take your land w/$

comp.@ fair mkt. value

-Controversy: Physical Taking v. Regulatory T.

Fire: Ecology & Management• Fire and the USFS & NPS• The Fires of 1910:• Ed Pulaski• Fire Suppression• Fire Lookouts: History/

change• The 10am Rule• Benefits of Fire• Prescribed Burns• Managing Fuel Loads• Lessons from the 1988

Yellowstone NP Fires

Bitterroot National Forest: Montana-Idaho, 2003

Hallie Daggett: first female USFS fire lookout,-working for

15 seasons on Klamath Peak, elevation 6,444 feet, Siskiyou Mountains,

Northern California

Wangari Maathai

Founder of the GreenBelt Movement

in 1977 in Kenya (tree planting- Bio-cultural Restoration-

strengthening of social-cultural networks and

relationships as well as ecological integrity)

first Kenyan woman

to earn a Ph.D. and

to chair an academic

department

(veterinary medicine)

at the University of

Nairobi

Chico Mendes: 1944-1988

-Brazilian rubber tapper,

community environmental

activist, conservationist

and proponent of

extractive reserves:

sustainable harvesting of

forest resources

vs. Conversion to large-scale

agriculture/livestock

grazing-production

Cultural Extinction: e.g., Yanomami People of Brazil

• Yanomami Child: Brazil

Other examples of

(possible) Cultural

Extinction:

-Kuana People(Panama)

-Yanesha’ People(Peru)

Biodiversity Hotspots

• Global: -California Floristic Province,

-____-American Forests,

-Brazil’s ____ _____,

-Caribbean, -______, -________

• United States: -Hawaii, -San Francisco Bay area,

-_____ _____, -Southern California,

-Southern ______, -_____ Panhandle

Gap Analysis:• scientific approach

used to determine how adequately

native plant & animal species and

natural ecosystems & communities

are protected by existing networks of

nature preserves.

-involves collection/exam. of multiple

data sets: veg., hydrology, topo.,

landowner, existing/proposed nature

preserves (NPs, NFs, WRs, etc.)

Costa Rica: case study in Ecological Restoration

• Has set aside approximately 12% of nation’s land area

• Mega-Reserves: focus on conserving the majority (~80%) of Costa Rican Biodiversity;

maintaining intact, linked ecosystems & wildlife corridors

• _____ Restoration: e.g., Guanacaste

Region

Madagascar: --Escape (back) to Africa? (after 40 million years of evolution…?)

• Linked to African continent up until ~40 MYA

• Fairly lengthy period to evolve on this large island,

• ___ species (approx 85% of species on the island)

• Pressures: __ ___ __ →Deforestation and resulting challenges e.g., Soil erosion

-Madagascar as “the world’s most ___ country”

Debt-For-Nature Swaps:

Participating nations act as custodians for protected forest reserves (or other natural area type) in return for debt relief.

Do you see any challenges with D-F-N-Swaps?

Biosphere Reserves:

• In 1971, the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) created the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Program to improve the relationship between people and the environment. At present, there are ~560 BRs, w/ 109 countries involved, each (according to MAB requirements) containing a core area, a buffer zone, and a second buffer or transition zone.

Establishing, Designing, and Managing Nature Reserves

• Include moderate to large tracts of land• Involve government, private sector and

citizens• Biosphere reserves• Adaptive ecosystem management• Protect most important areas (“hot spots”)• Wilderness areas

Ecological Restoration: Basic Principles

--Mimic nature

--Recreate lost niches

--Rely on pioneer species

--Control nonnative species

--Wildlife Corridors

--Reconnect small patches