Name: ______Date: ______Period:_____
Unit 1: Earth’s Land Resources
Section 1: Forestry and Resource Management
Essential Questions: What are some environmental effects of deforestation? Why do we need park and wilderness areas?
A. Resource Management
Most of the resources we take from the natural world are limited such as fossil fuels and minerals. Other resources such as fresh water, soil, timber, and wild animals are considered to be renewable resources. Renewable resources are resources that are replenished, or renewed, over a short period of time. (Usually considered to be within a human’s lifetime.) People need to manage the harvesting of renewable resources in order to ensure their availability. Resource management is the managing of resource harvesting so that resources are not depleted.
1. Renewable Resource Management
In addition to fulfilling important human needs, all natural resources also serve functions in their ecosystems. So to preserve the health of those ecosystems, renewable resources must be harvested sustainably. (Harvested only as rapidly as they can be replaced.) Ideally, industries that harvest these resources recognize and take a role in replenishing them in order to stay in business and reduce their ecological impact.
2. Management Approaches
a. Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) – The aim of MSY is to harvest the maximum amount of a resource without reducing the amount of future harvests. The advantage is that if it is done right, the remainder of the resource will grow back more quickly. The disadvantage is that if you miscalculate the MSY amount, you risk overharvesting and destroying any future chances of a rebound.
b. Ecosystem-Based Management – The goal if this management approach is to harvest resources in ways that minimize impact on ecosystems and ecological processes that provide the resource. Advantages include preserving the most important parts of the local ecosystem such as a river valley or wetlands. Unfortunately, ecosystems are extremely complex so deciding which areas are vital to the health of the environment can be up for debate.
c. Adaptive Management – This approach involves scientifically testing different management approaches in an area, one after the other, and then customizing an approach based on the results. An advantage to this system is that it is accurate. A disadvantage is that it is time-consuming and complicated.
B. Forests and Their Resources
Most of the world’s remaining forests are either boreal (evergreen) or tropical rain forests because the majority of temperate forests have been harvested. Forests cover about 30% of the land mass on Earth. Forests provide habitat for countless organisms; help maintain soil, air, and water quality; and play key roles in our planet’s biochemical cycles. Forest management is called forestry and its aim is to balance the ecological importance of forests with the economic importance of forests as resources for wood products.
1. Forest Resources – Forest resources have great ecological and economic value.
· Ecological: Because forests are structurally complex, they provide many different habitats for plants and animals. In general, old-growth forests have more biodiversity than younger forests. Forest plants help prevent soil erosion. They also help regulate the water cycle by slowing runoff, reducing flooding, and purifying water. Forests free up oxygen to breath and absorb carbon dioxide (CO2). Biodiversity is the amount of different organisms in an area.
· Economic: The use of forest resources is essential to our lifestyle. Forests have a variety of foods and medicines to offer. Forests provide timber, which can be made into thousands of economically valuable products. And for thousands of years, wood from forests has fueled the fires that have kept people warm and well fed. Wood has also built the houses that have kept people sheltered. It has built the ships that have carried people and their cultures from one region to another. And wood has enabled us to make paper, which has helped people to share knowledge. (Like we’re doing right now!)
2. Timber Harvesting – There are costs and benefits to every method of timber harvesting.
The need for wood and wood products is huge. From a villager using firewood to keep warm and cook to the student using tons of paper while in school. Forests are also cleared for farming and housing developments. For such reasons, people have been cutting timber for thousands of years.
Today, most commercial timber harvesting, or logging, takes place in Canada, Russia, and other nations with large boreal forests, and in nations with large tropical rain forests, such as Brazil. When timber companies harvest trees, one or more of the following methods are used:
a. Clear-cutting – Where all the trees in an area are cut at once. This is obviously the least desirable because it is the most destructive to the ecosystem.
b. Seed-tree or shelterwood approach – In this method, small numbers of mature and healthy seed-producing trees are left standing so they can reseed the logged area. Results in even-aged trees.
c. Selection system – Only some of the trees in a forest are cut. Results in uneven-aged stands as trees are cut at different times. It is the most expensive and dangerous of the options, and therefore, the most unpopular with logging companies.
Although all of these methods result in the disturbance of the forest ecosystem, uneven-aged stands resulting from a selection system are healthier because they offer a greater variety of habitats and cut down on soil erosion.
3. Deforestation
Deforestation is the clearing of a forest and the replacement of it by another land use. Deforestation has provided warmth, shelter, and trade for many human communities, even it has caused soil degradation and species population declines for others.
The negative effects of deforestation are greatest in tropical regions because of the potential massive loss of biodiversity, and in desert/arid regions because of the risk of desertification. In addition, deforestation has a global impact by increasing the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere in two ways: CO2 is released when plant matter is burned or decomposed and less CO2 is removed from the atmosphere from living plants.
By the early 1900’s, very little old-growth forest remained in the United States due to the huge demand for wood during the industrial revolution. Old-growth forests are forests that have never been logged.
C. Forest Management
1. U.S. National Forests and Public Land
In the early 1870s, a group of explorers approached Congress with news of a magnificent expanse of land that they had seen in parts of Wyoming and Montana territories. They recognized that this land would be devastated by logging, mining, or development. Congress agreed to save it from that fate and the first national park was born. That park was Yellowstone National Park. Today, about 50 national parks exist in the United States.
Public land is land owned by the federal government and it covers about 40% of the United States. Because land resources are so valuable, the federal government allows most public land to be used in several ways including recreation, logging, or mining. The problem with multi-use management is that different people have different ideas about what constitutes proper use of the land. This causes battles between developers and conservationists.
According to the Wilderness Act of 1964, wilderness is an area in which the land the ecosystems it supports are protected from all development. So far, about 32 million acres have been designated as wilderness. These areas are open to hiking, fishing, boating (without motors), and camping. You cannot build roads or structures on this land.
2. Private Land
Most logging in the United States today takes place on tree plantations owned by timber companies. Timber companies usually plants stands of a fast-growing tree species and then harvest after a certain number of years which referred to as rotation time. Since the trees are of even-age and all the same species, it is called a monoculture. Tree plantations such as these are usually viewed as cropland rather than forests because they cannot support a wide range of species like natural forests can.
3. Fire Policies
We are all raised to think that fire is a terrible thing that can destroy man-made structures as well as natural habitats. And for the most part, you would be right! For more than one hundred years, the United States Forest Service suppressed all forest fires, both natural and man-made. However, suppression of all wildfires can actually endanger ecosystems, property, and people.
Current scientific research shows that many ecosystems depend on fire. Without it, certain plants cannot germinate (grow from seed) and that can affect the abundance of animal life which depend on those plants. Example: Kirkland’s Warbler and the jack pines where they nest.
In order to prevent large fires that can harm people and property and still maintain healthy forests, a balance must be met. In response, land management agencies sometimes set prescribed burns, or controlled burns, which is when an area is purposely burned under carefully controlled conditions. This reduces the large amount of dry underbrush that can cause more dangerous and uncontrolled fires in the future while still protecting people and their property.
4. Sustainable Forestry Products
Several organizations in the United States and elsewhere, such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), now examine the practices of timber companies. These organizations offer a sustainable forestry certification to products produced using sustainable methods. The FSC has the strictest of standards and the most widely accepted certification process.
The response of timber companies to consumer demand is helping to promote sustainable forestry by using the basic concept of supply and demand. Even though it costs more to produce sustainable timber, companies will do it when the consumer is either willing to pay a higher price or chooses only to buy certified timber.
Review Questions
1. Name 4 renewable resources: ______
2. In order for a resource to be considered renewable, it has to be able to be replenished within a short period of time, which is usually: ______
3. Even if a company didn’t care about harming the environment, why should they harvest natural resources responsibly? ______
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4. List one advantage and one disadvantage for each of the management approaches below.
Maximum Sustainable Yield – ______
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Ecosystem-Based Management – ______
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Adaptive Management –______
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5. Forests around the world serve many purposes; name three.
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6. What is the goal of forestry? ______
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7. Forests have several economically valuable products to offer, list at least 4 things forest resources can provide to us.
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8. Most commercial logging takes place in nations with large ______and ______forests. Most temperate forests have already disappeared.
9. What are the three methods of logging? Circle the one that is the least damaging to the environment.
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10. What are the two ways in which deforestation increases the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere?
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11. What is the name of the first national park ever established in the United States?
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12. In your opinion, why do you believe national parks and other public land should be protected?
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13. What is the period of time called between when you plant a tree and when you can harvest it?
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14. How can a forest fire be a good thing? ______
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15. The goal of a prescribed burn is to reduce the amount of ______.
16. Describe what the Forest Stewardship Council’s eco-label looks like.
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17. Why are some timber companies seeking FSC certification if it costs more to produce?
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Section 1 Vocabulary
biodiversity – the amount of different organisms in an area.
clear-cutting – logging method when all the trees in an area are cut at once.
deforestation – the clearing of a forest and the replacement of it by another land use.
germinate – grow from seed.
old-growth forest – forests that have never been logged.
prescribed burns – when an area is purposely burned under carefully controlled conditions. Also called a controlled burn.
renewable resource – resources that are replenished, or renewed, over a short period of time.
resource management – the managing of resource harvesting so that resources are not depleted.
shelterwood – logging method when small numbers of mature and healthy seed-producing trees are left standing so they can reseed the logged area.
sustainably – a resource that is harvested only as rapidly as they can be replaced.
wilderness – an area in which the land the ecosystems it supports are protected from all development.
Unit 2, Section 1, Page 2