Chapter 10: Land & Forests (Public and Private)

1. Chapter 10: Land & Forests (Public and Private)

2. Julia Butterfly • Answer the following questions (in your notebooks) • by reading the article about Julia Butterfly Hill on page 329: • 1. What is the difference between clear-cutting and selective-cutting? • 2. What happened when Maxxam clearcut redwood forests? • 3. How can a “tree sit” prevent widespread deforestation? • 4. What did Maxxam ultimately resolve to do? • 5. Do citizens of the United States have the right to influence what activities occur on private lands? What if the land is public?  • 6. Was Julia Butterfly Hill a hero or a villain? 

3. Intro to Chapter 10 Values we place on land:food, shelter, and natural resources. Human land use affects the environment in many ways: Agriculture, housing, recreation, industry, mining, and waste disposal  • Every human use of land alters it in some way.  • People do not always agree on land use and management priorities. Resulting in: Deforestation, erosion, soil degradation, water contamination, habitat loss, species extinctions, climate change To understand land use and management issues, environmental scientists use 3 concepts: • tragedy of the commons • externalities (p.264) • maximum sustainable yield

4. Tragedy of the Commons The tragedy of the commons: If the use of common land is not regulated in some way—by the users or by a government agency—the land can easily be degraded to the point at which it can no longer support that use.

5. Externalities: The cost (side-effect) or benefit of a good or service that is not included in the purchase price. (other definitions – not needed in notes): • Unintentional side effects (good or bad) of an activity affecting people other than those directly involved in the activity. • A negative externality is one that creates side effects that could be harmful to humans or the environment. • Environmental scientists are concerned about negative externalities because of the environmental damage for which no one bears the cost. examples

6. Maximum Sustainable Yield • Maximum sustainable yield (MSY) The maximum amount of a renewable resource that can be harvested without compromising the future availability of that resource. • (Not needed in notes): • Maximum sustainable yield varies case by case. • In theory, harvesting the MSY should be sustainable. In reality, it is very difficult to calculate MSY. • Even when we do calculate MSY, it can take months or years to determine whether a yield is truly sustainable. Every population has a point at which a maximum number of individuals can be harvested sustainably. That point is often reached when the population size is about one-half the carrying capacity.

7. Protected land and marine areas of the world Protected areas are distributed around the globe.

8. International Categories of Public Lands The 2003 United Nations List of Protected Areas classifies protected public lands into six categories according to how they are used:  • National Parks • National Monuments • Managed Resource Protected Areas- managed for the sustained use of biological, mineral, and recreational resources. • Habitat/Species Management Areas- actively managed to maintain biological communities. • Strict Nature Reserves and Wilderness Areas- established to protect species and ecosystems. • Protected Landscapes and Seascapes- nondestructive use of natural resources while allowing for tourism and recreation. On next 2 slides Don’t need to write in notebooks

9. Public Lands • National Parks - managed for scientific, educational, and recreational use, and sometimes for their beauty or unique landforms. • Yellowstonewas the first national park – established by the U.S. Congress, signed by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. • Yosemitewas designated a national park on October 1, 1890 after John Muir got President Theodore Roosevelt to visit California.

10. National Monuments In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act into law, thus establishing the first general legal protection of cultural and natural resources in the United States. National Monuments- set aside to protect unique sites of special natural or cultural interests.(CLICK HERE for list) National Monuments on Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1hy77rUo21VHMsir-2f5KwKyFMgs&hl=en_US&ll=30.624480551455544%2C-95.2277272939682&z=4

11. Other Federal Protections for Public Lands • National wildlife refuge A federal public land managed for the primary purpose of protecting wildlife. • National wilderness area An area set aside with the intent of preserving a large tract of intact ecosystem or a landscape. • Endangered Species Act A 1973 U.S. act designed to protect species from extinction

12. Public Lands Over 50% of public land is used for agriculture (farming & ranching) Approximately 42% of the land in the United States is publicly owned, with 25% of the nation’s land owned by the federal government.

13. Public Lands in the United States More than 95% of all federal lands are managed by four federal agencies: Bureau of Land Management (BLM): grazing, mining, timber harvesting and recreation U.S. Forest Service (USFS): timber harvesting, grazing, and recreation National Park Service (NPS): recreation and conservation. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS): conservation, hunting, and recreation

14. Rangelands Grazing too many animals can quickly denude a region of vegetation. Loss of vegetation can lead to land exposed to wind and water erosion. The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 was created to halt overgrazing (like this): • Dry, open grasslands that are primarily used for cattle grazing, which is the most common use of land in the United States. http://abcn.ws/1qrCdoY

15. Public Lands in the United States Resource conservation ethic: Natural areas should be managed so that resources could be extracted and the land can be used in a way that will allow "the greatest good for the greatest number of people for the longest time.” Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946) First Chief of the U.S. Forest Service Multiple-use lands: A U.S. classification used to designate lands that may be used for recreation, grazing, timber harvesting, and mineral extraction.

16. Forests • Areas dominated by trees and other woody vegetation. • Many national forests were originally established to ensure a steady and reliable source of timber.  Then Now Approximately 73% of the forests used for commercial timber operations in the U.S. are privately owned.

17. Timber Harvest Practices • Clear-cutting: removing all, or almost all the trees in an area. • Selective cutting: removing single trees or a relatively small numbers of trees from a forest. Is there a 3rd option? • Ecologically sustainable forestry:An approach to removing trees from forests in ways that do not unduly affect the viability of other trees - maintaining both plants and animals in as close to a natural state as possible. (Most logging companies would need to go back and plant new trees to stay in business, but what type of trees do you think they would plant?) Tree plantation: A large area typically planted with a single species of rapidly growing trees.

18. Fire Management • Prescribed burns - a fire is deliberately set under controlled conditions. In many ecosystems fire is a natural process for recycling nutrients and clearing underbrush so new vegetation has a chance to grow. However, after years of putting out fires, humans have actually stunted plant growth and increased the “fuel” (dead biomass) for more intense wildfires…  Yellowstone fire of 1988 burned 36% of the national park: 783,880 acres!

19. Federal Regulations • National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)- mandates an environmental assessment of all projects involving federal money or permits. • Signed in1969: requires all agencies responsible for a major federal project to file an environmental impact statement-The best way the protect endangered and threatened species is by protecting the habitat. • Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)- outlines the scope and purpose of the project. • Environmental mitigation plan- outlines how the developer will address concerns raised by the projects impact on the environment.