1. Sustaining Terrestrial Biodiversity: The Ecosystem Approach
CHAPTER 23

2. Key Concepts Human land use Types and uses of US public lands
Forests and forest management
Implications of deforestation
Management of parks
Establishment and management of nature preserves
Importance of ecological restoration

3. Land Use in the World
Fig. 23-2
p. 595

4. I. Land Use In The United States
A. PUBLIC LANDS(42%)
- 35% of land in the United States is designated as public and is managed by the Federal Government.
- Classified as…
1. Multiple-Use Lands
2. Moderately Restricted-use Lands
3. Restricted-use Lands

5. State and local 7%
Federal
35%
Native American 3%
Private
55%
U.S. Land Ownership

6. National wildlife refuges National parks and preserves
National forests

7. 1. Multiple-Use Lands
Include…
- 155 Forests and 20 Grasslands of the NATIONAL FOREST SYSTEM
Managed by the U.S. FOREST SERVICE
and
- NATIONAL RESOURCE LANDS - Managed by the Bureau of Land Management

8. 2. Moderately Restricted-Use Lands
Include…
- 522 NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGES
- Managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

9. 3. Restricted-Use Lands
Includes…the NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM
- 379 units of which include 55 major parks and 324 national recreation areas.
- Managed by the National Park Service
and
- 630 roadless areas of the NATIONAL WILDERNESS PRESERVATION SYSTEM
Majority in Alaska

10. National parks and preserves National wildlife refuges
National forests
National wildlife refuges

11. How should the lands be managed?
Federal public lands contain valuable resources:
20% of oil reserves
30 % of natural gas
40 % forest
large amounts of minerals

12. 2 opposing
viewpoints
Conservation biologists point of view:
Protect biodiversity: habitats should be primary goal
No subsidies or tax breaks for using resources
Compensation for use of property
Take responsibility for any environmental damage
Developers point of view:
Sell public lands or their resources
Unregulate public lands
Replace old growth forests with tree plantations
Drill, mine, and commercially develop national parks

13. 23-2 Managing and Sustaining Forests(32% of earth land surface)
Ecological Services
-Support food webs
-Act as sponge to absorb pollution
-Influence local climate
-Habitat
Economic Services
-Fuelwood, 50%
-Timber and Roundwood
-Pulp
-Medicines

14. TROPICAL(47%) , subtropical(9%) temperate(11%) , BOREAL/POLAR(33%)
A. MAJOR TYPES OF FORESTS
TROPICAL(47%) , subtropical(9%) temperate(11%) , BOREAL/POLAR(33%)
B. CATEGORIES OF FORESTS…
1. OLD-GROWTH FOREST
2. SECOND-GROWTH FOREST
3. TREE PLANTATION

15. 1. OLD-GROWTH FOREST
-FRONTIER FOREST
-Undisturbed by humans and/or natural disasters
-Very BIODIVERSE due to increased recycling of nutrients and good habitat

16. Layers of biodiversity Understory/Intermediate
Emergent/Dominant
Canopy/Codominant
Understory/Intermediate
Floor/Suppressed
Subsoil

17. SECOND GROWTH FORESTS
Result from SECONDARY SUCCESSION as a result of human activities or natural disaster(s)

18. 3. TREE PLANTATION or TREE FARMS
*An attempt to produce products more efficiently by setting back secondary succession.
*Often referred to as MONOCULTURE
*GROWS ONLY ONE SPECIES
*Harvested as soon as they become VALUABLE and then replanted.

19. Wood volume or wood biomass
C. TYPES OF FOREST MANAGEMENT
- The total volume of wood produced by a strand of forest VARIES as it goes through different STAGES of growth and succession B
Long rotations C
Wood volume or wood biomass
Old-growth harvest
(such as hardwoods
for furniture) A
Short rotation(pulp)
Time

20. Years of growth Weak trees removed Seedlings planted Clear cut 25 1510 30 5
Years of growth

21. Even-Aged Management:
- Two basic forest management techniques…
Even-Aged Management:
- Also called INDUSTRIAL FORESTRY
- Trees are kept as same size and age
Ex: TREE FARM OR PLANTATION
*Extensive research has shown that soil become depleted

22. 2. UnEven-Aged Management:
Trees are kept at a variety of ages and sizes.
-Goals are; biological diversity, long-term sustainable production of timber, moderate economical return, and multiple use of forests.
*The rate of economic return plays a major role in the technique used.

23. D. HARVESTING TECHNIQUES
1. Selective Cutting:
- Intermediate-aged or mature trees in an uneven-aged forest are cut singly or in small groups
-reduces crowding
-encourages growth
-protects against soil erosion
-maintains uneven growth

24. Selective Cutting

25. Selective Cutting: (continued)
-a special type of selective cut is used called…
high grading
-High Grading is when only the largest and best species are used.

26. 2. Shelterwood Cutting:
-Removes all mature trees in two/three cuttings over a period of 10 years.
-allows natural regeneration
-reduces soil erosion
-provides good habitat for wildlife

27. Cut 2
Cut 1
Shelterwood Cutting

28. 3. Seedtree Cutting:
-Harvests nearly all a stand’s trees in one cutting, leaving a few seed-producing trees behind to regenerate the area.
-Leads to genetic improvement in new stands

29. Seed-Tree Cutting

30. 4. Clear Cutting:
-Removal of all trees from an area in a single cutting; either the whole stand, a strip, or a series of patches.

31. Clear-Cutting

33. PROS
- INCREASE YIELD
- IMPROVES STOCK
- LESS SKILL NEEDED
- INCREASED $
- BEST WAY TO HARVEST TREE FARMS
CONS
- LEAVES LARGE OPENINGS IN FOREST
- REDUCES BIO- DIVERSITY
- INCREASES SOIL EROSION
- DECREASES RECREATION

34. 5. Strip Cutting:
-Type of clear-cut that removes a strip of trees along the contour of the land, narrow enough to allow for natural regeneration
-Strips are harvested every years

35. Strip Cutting Uncut Cut Cut Cut Uncut 1 year ago 3–5 years ago

36. F. FOREST SUSTAINABILITY
HOW??
-Longer rotation of timber growth
-Emphasize selective cutting and strip
-Minimize fragmentation
-Leave snags and down timber
-Use proper anti-erosion techniques

37. F. FOREST PESTS/DISEASE
1.Parasitic Fungi: accidental
chestnut blight (China)
dutch elm (Asia)
white pine blister (Europe)

38. 2. Parasitic Insects:
Bark beetle
Gypsy moth
Hemlock woolly adelgid

40. G. FOREST AND FOREST FIRES
- important part of ecological cycle of some forests and grasslands
Types of Forest Fires:
1. Surface Fires- burn leaf litter and ground clutter

41. Surface fire
Fig a, p. 599

42. 2. Crown fire- Burn in the treetops
-most dangerous of all fires

43. Crown fire

45. 3. Ground Fires- Underground and burn partially decayed or peat
-Common in pet bogs

46. H. Forest Fire Prevention:
-Fire prevention Techniques are a controversial subject
-Since 1972, the policy on forest fires has been to let them burn themselves out as long as not a danger to humans.
-After fires of 1994 and 2000, many calls for change.

47. Techniques Used-
*prevention
*prescribed burning
*pre-suppression
*supression

49. 23-3 Forest Resources/Management in the US
Today’s Status:
Forest covers about 1/3 of the lower 48 United States.
Forest are generally bigger and healthier than in 1920.
Among most diverse in the world

50. National Forest Resources in US
30% of US land, provides 80% of wildlife habitats, supply 2/3 of all surface water runoff
Economic benefits
-grazing lands, mineral resources, 3% of softwood timber
Ecological benefits
-habitat for threatened/endangered species, clean drinking water
Recreational benefits
- camping, hunting, fishing

51. Since 1960, vast increase in the number of tree plantations – reduces biodiversity
Between , most of existing old-growth forests in lower 48 states were cut

52. Virgin forests, 1620

53. Virgin forests, 1998

54. MANAGEMENT CONTROVERSY
Timber Companies
-Want to increase logging to satisfy demand…
-Improvement of forest health…
-Provides jobs…
-Provide cheap timber
Environmentalists
-Timber from national forest is small % of wood used
-Timber from national forests do little to drop prices
-Recreation use of forest should be most important use of forest

55. 3. How To Reduce Tree Needs
Increase the efficiency of wood use
Increase paper recycling
Use fibers that do not come from trees for paper (Kenaf)

56. 23-4 Tropical Rainforest Deforestation and the Fuelwood Crisis
They cover 6% of Earth’s land area
Brazil, Indonesia, Zaire, and Peru have more than half of the world’s tropical forests
Over half of the world’s tropical forests have already been cleared or degraded
Greatest destruction is taking place in South America (Brazil)
Provide food products, ecological services, industrial materials
Less than 1% of the plant species in the world’s tropical forests have been examined closely for their possible use as human resources

57. Tropical deforestation is caused by:
Population growth
Poverty
Government policies
Forest Depletion and Degradation is caused by:
Commercial logging
Cattle ranching
Unsustainable form of farming
Replacing forest with cash crops
Increasing forest fires
Mining
Dams

58. Solutions: Reducing deforestation and degradation
Education programs – learn sustainable practices
Make it profitable to protect forests (debt-for-nature swaps, conservation easements, and conservation concessions
Carefully harvesting trees
National and global efforts to reforest and rehabilitate degraded forests and watersheds
Reducing waste and consumption of timber, paper, and other resources
Planting more fast-growing fuelwood trees or shrubs
Burning wood more efficiently
Switching to other fuels

59. Fuelwood Crisis Fuelwood provides 7% of the world’s energy supply
Most common use of trees is for fuelwood.
Used for heat and cooking accounts for 80% of the wood harvested in developing countries
2.7 billion people did not get enough fuelwood to meet their basic needs and were forced to meet their needs by using wood faster than it is replenished.
Burn charcoal instead (uses twice as much wood)

60. 23-5 Managing and Sustaining National Parks
First national park system was created in the U.S.
In developed countries, parks are threatened by air and water pollution, invasion of alien species, roads and noise
Biggest problem of US parks is increased number of park visitors
Currently, the greatest danger to the national parks is human activities (mining, logging, grazing, coal-burning plants, dams, urban development)

61. 23-6 Establishing, Designing and Managing Nature Reserves
Principals used to establish and manage reserves:
1. ecosystems are rarely stable
Ecosystems and communities that experience disturbances have the greatest diversity of species (intermediate disturbance hypothesis)
View reserves as habitat islands surrounded by a sea of developed and fragmented land
Include local people in the planning and design
Create use-friendly reserves that allow sustainable logging, grazing, crops, hunting, and fishing.

62. Wilderness
Reasons to protect wilderness are:
Preserve biodiversity
Centers for evolution
Provide undisturbed habitats
Protect diverse biomes from damage
Provides a natural laboratory

63. Wilderness management
Designate camping sites
Limit the number of people using sites
Use volunteers to collect trash

64. What is Ecological Restoration?
1. Restoration ecology- Research and scientific study devoted to restoring, repairing, and reconstructing damaged ecosystems

65. Rehabilitation and Restoration
Almost every place on the earth has been degraded to some degree by humans
Methods
1. Restoration-problems include lack of knowledge about the system, changes in climate, and ecosystem are naturally changeing.
2. Rehabilitation- examples include removing pollutants, replanting
3. Replacement-example: a productive pasture replaced by a degraded forest
4. Creating artificial ecosystem- wastewater treatment systems and artificial wetlands

66. Save a piece of country… and it does not matter in the slightest that only a few people every year will go into it. This is precisely its value…We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more that drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope.
Wallace Stegner