1. Forests, Parks and Landscapes
Chapter 13
Forests, Parks and Landscapes

2. Two Mindsets of Wildland Fires
“Smokey the Bear”:
All wildfires are bad and are mostly due to people
Managing and Controlling Fires:
Least damage to human life and property
Solution?
Remove excess fuel in the forests and grasslands

3. Modern Conflicts over Forest Land and Forest Resources
Silviculture: the the professional growing of trees
Forests benefit people through public service functions: functions performed by ecosystems for the betterment of life and human existence
Cleansing of air by trees
Retard erosion
Moderate the availability of water
Habitats for endangered species
Recreation

5. The Life of a Tree How a Tree Grows Tree Niches Tree Diseases
Photosynthesis, Transportation Systems, Evapotranspiration
Tree Niches
Determined by
Water content in the soil
Forest tolerance of shade
Disturbances (fire, floods, bare soil)
Tree Diseases
Fungal

8. A Forester’s View of a Forest
Old-Growth (Virgin) Forest: a forest that has never been cut
Second-Growth Forest: has been cut and re-grown
Foresters group trees into:
- Dominants, Codominants, Intermediate and Suppressed
Sites are classified by site quality: the maximum timber crop the site can produce in a given time
-Forest productivity is determined by soil fertility, water supply and local climate

9. Clear-Cutting The cutting of all trees in a stand at the same time
Types:
1. Shelterwood-Cutting
2. Seed-Tree Cutting
3. Selective Cutting
4. Strip-Cutting
5. Thinning

13. Plantation Forestry
Plantation: a stand of single species planted in straight rows
Properly managed plantations can relieve pressure on forests
A small percentage of the world’s forestland could provide all the world’s timber

14. Sustainable Forest
Efforts to manage a forest so that a resource in it can be harvested at a rate that does not decrease the ability of the forest ecosystem to continue to provide that same rate of harvest indefinitely.
There are few examples of this.
“Certification of Sustainable Forestry” developed.
Determining which methods appear most consistent with sustainability
Comparing the management of a specific forest with those standards

15. 4 Ways Vegetation Can Affect the Atmosphere:
Changing color of the surface and the amount of sunlight reflected and absorbed
Increasing the amount of water transpired and evaporated from the surface to the atmosphere
Changing the rate at which greenhouse gases are released from the Earth’s surface into the atmosphere
Changing the “surface roughness,” which affects wind speed at the surface

17. Deforestation History: Causes: World Firewood Shortage:
Greece, Roman Empire, Present Century
Causes:
Agriculture and settlement; use and sell timber
World Firewood Shortage:
63% used as firewood; 15% of energy in developing countries
Indirect Deforestation:
Acid rain and other pollutants
“Waldsterben” (forest death)
Acid rain and ozone depletion

21. Parks, Nature and Wilderness
Wilderness: an area undisturbed by people
Park: defined boundary
Managing parks for biological conservation is a relatively new idea. Parks that are too small or in the wrong shape may not be able to sustain their species
Must be large enough to maintain genetically viable population

22. Goals of Wilderness Mgmt.
Preserve nature untrammeled by human beings
Provide people with a wilderness experience

23. Fragmentation Large, undisturbed tracts of forest
Corridors between fragments
Gradual transition between developed and undeveloped land
Edge effect: greater fragmentation increases edges, so greater impact on living organisms
Vary depending on species, characteristics of land surrounding fragment and the distance between