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Chapter 14. Land. Land Use in the U.S. Rural Land: land with relatively few people and open area Forests Parks and preserves Cropland Rangeland and pastures other Urban land: area that contains 2,500 people and has a governing body. Types of Rural Land . Rangeland
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Chapter 14 Land
Land Use in the U.S. • Rural Land: land with relatively few people and open area • Forests • Parks and preserves • Cropland • Rangeland and pastures • other • Urban land: area that contains 2,500 people and has a governing body.
Types of Rural Land • Rangeland • Graze livestock and wildlife • Forest land • Harvesting wood • Fish • Wildlife • Cropland • Grow food • Parks and Preserves • Recreation • Aesthetic purposes • Preserve native plants and animals • Wetlands, mountains, deserts, etc • Land that is difficult to use for human purposes
Why are people dependent on rural land, no matter where they live? • Ecosystem services: services that are provided from natural environments that can have a monetary value associated with them • Wood • Food • Water filtration • Shelter • Climate • Flood control
If we rely on rural services then why do we live in urban areas? • Green revolution • Higher yields for same area. • Less man power needed • Industrialization • Movement into cities
Positives to Moving to urban areas • Better jobs • Resources in smaller area • Transportation • More jobs
Negative impacts • Urbanization: Rapid movement into cities which puts stress on infrastructure • Infrastructure: all buildings, bridges, roads, schools, medical care, electricity, water etc. that a urban are uses. • Urban sprawl- rapid expansion from urban area into the surrounding suburban area • Heat island- increased temperature due to infrastructure • Suburban sprawl- further movement into suburban areas.
Land Use Management: • Land use planning- the advanced determination of how land will be used for homes, business, factories, and recreation.
Farmland aka Cropland • 20% of US land that is used to grow crops and fruit. • 250 million acres • 1996 National Farmland Protection Program • Strives to prevent Urban sprawl from taking over farmland
Rangeland • 28% of U.S. land which is used to support vegetation found in grasslands, forests, deserts, but is not used for farming or timber. • Soils tend to be infertile • Mostly used for grazing animals such as cattle, sheep, goats. • Important for the world’s meat supply.
Problems on the Range • Overgrazing- allowing more animals to graze on an area than that area is capable of supporting. • Tragedy of commons idea • Leads to degradation and soil erosion
PUBLIC RANGELANDS IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 1978 • Limits heard size • Create recovery periods when no herds allowed • Kill invasive plants and plant native • Increase grazing locations via water-hole creation.
Forest Land • 28% of land ~1,800cm3 of wood used per person per day in world • US uses 3.5 x as much as dvping countries • Dvping countries use wood as main source of fuel. • 3 types of forest • Virgin forest - forest that has never been cut 2. Native forest - forest that is planted and managed • Tree Farms - trees that are planted in rows and harvested like crops
Parks and Preserves • 391 Federal Parks and Preserves in the United States • Protect natural or historic areas • Increase biodiversity • Research • Wilderness • Wilderness Act of 1964- land that is protected from all types of development and exploitation.