Forests, Parks and Landscapes Environmental Science AP Ben Smith

1. Forests, Parks and Landscapes Environmental Science AP Ben Smith

2. Ecological and Economic services of forests

3. Big Ideas • Major Forestry Issues: • Public Lands: Types, Uses, & Management: • N.P.S. Mission Statement: • “Wilderness” • Grassbanks: • Forest management/Forestry/Tree-harvesting methods: • Sagebrush rebellion & MW-UM • Forests, Sustainability, & People: • Biodiversity Hotspots:

4. 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:

5. Federal Public Lands and Use Classifications: Restricted-Use: Moderately-Restricted Use: Multiple-Use:

6. US Public Lands Fig. 11-6 p. 198

7. 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%)

8. 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?

9. 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, (Traffic jams) • Air Quality • NP Staff per Visitor ratio • $$$

10. The Wilderness Act: Protection of large areas of undeveloped land - Wilderness Society: min. size = 5000 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) Wilderness Wildness Natural Naturalistic An Idea An Ideal Untrammeled Primeval Character Solitude Unconfined Recreation Aesthetic-Spiritual-Emotional Needs Aldo Leopold Howard Zahniser

11. TWA: “Land” • Land which “retains its primeval character and influence, 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.

12. A Sand County Almanac Aldo Leopold

13. 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

14. 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 Trade-Offs Logging in U.S. National Forestsand other publicly owned lands *

15. 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

16. Clear cutting: Advantages and Disadvantages

17. 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 Trade-Offs Clear-Cutting Forests

18. Longer rotations will provide a more stable ecosystem and greater biodiversity

19. Selective logging leaves habitat, minimizing disturbance and fragmentation

20. Snags and downed logs? Value?

21. Logging roads typically involve construction of ditches, culverts and other conduits.

22. Efforts by the forest industry, tribes and government agency scientists have worked to lessen impacts of logging roads.

23. 5% of our virgin forests remain uncut

24. 15% of our redwood forests are old growth

25. Include ecological services in estimating economic value

26. 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.

27. 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

28. Tropical Deforestation: Consequences • Rapid and increasing • Loss of biodiversity • Loss of resources (e.g., medicines) • Contributes to global warming

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. 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.

33. 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.

34. Fire: Ecology & Management • Fire and the USFS & NPS • The Fires of 1910: • Ed Pulaski • Fire Suppression • Fire Lookouts: • The 10 AM 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

35. Wangari Maathai Founder of the Green Belt Movement in 1977 in Kenya (tree planting- BioCultural Restoration- strengthening of social-cultural networks and relationships as well as ecological integrity) W.M. was the first Kenyan woman to earn a Ph.D. and to chair an academic department (veterinary medicine) at the University of Nairobi

36. Chico Mendes: 1944-1988 -Brazilian rubber tapper, community environmental activist, conservationist and proponent of Extractive Reserves E.R. : sustainable harvesting of forest resources vs. Conversion to large-scale agriculture/livestock grazing-production

37. Cultural Extinction: e.g., Yanomami People of Brazil • Yanomami Child: Brazil Other examples of (possible) Cultural Extinction: -Kuana People(Panama) -Yanesha’ People(Peru)

38. Biodiversity Hotspots • Global: -California Floristic Province, -Meso-American Forests, -Brazil’s Atlantic Forests, -Caribbean, -Caucasus, -________ • United States: -Hawaii, -San Francisco Bay area, -_____ _____, -Southern California, -Southern ______, -_____ Panhandle

39. 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.)

40. Costa Rica: • Has set aside approximately 12% of nation’s land area • MEGA-Reserves: focus on conserving the majority (~80%) of Costa Rican Biodiversty; maintaining intact, linked ecosystems & wildlife corridors • BioCultural Restoration: e.g., Guanacaste Region; Dan Jansen (Rob Pringle’s academic advisor at U. of Penn)

41. 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,  • Endemic species (approx 85% of species on the island) • Pressures: Human Population Growth →Deforestation and resulting challenges e.g., Soil erosion -Madagascar as “the world’s most eroded country”

42. Debt-for-Nature Swaps: Participating nations act as custodians for protected forest reserves (or other natural area type) in return for debt relief.

43. 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.

44. 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

45. Ecological Restoration: Basic Principles --Mimic nature --Recreate lost niches --Rely on pioneer species --Control nonnative species --Wildlife Corridors --Reconnect small patches