1. Land Resources

2. Overview Land Use Wilderness Park and Wildlife Refuges Forests
World land use
US land use
Wilderness Park and Wildlife Refuges
National Parks
Wildlife Refuge
Forests
Forest management
Deforestation
Rangeland and Agricultural Land
Wetlands and Coastal Areas
Conservation of Land Resources

3. Land Use- Worldwide

4. Land Use- United States
Military lands and research facilities not included

5. Land Use- United States
55% of US land is privately owned by citizens corporations and non-profit organizations
3% owned by Indians (Native Americans)
Remainder of land is owned by government
Most federally owned land is in Alaska and 11 western states

6. Managing Public and Private Land
Public Planning and Land Use
Must take into account all repercussions of proposed land use (must avoid Trajedy of the Commons)
Management of Federal Land
Wide-Use Movement
Environmental Movement

7. Wilderness Parks and Wildlife Refuges
A protected area of land in which no human development is permitted
Wilderness Act (1964)
Set aside federally owned land as part of National Wilderness Preservation System
No development permitted (including roads)
Managed by NPS, USFS, FWS & BLM

8. Wilderness
Some areas have a limited number of permitted human guests to reduce impact
Other problems include invasive species (White Pine blister rust in Rockies)
Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in Idaho

9. National Park System
Yosemite National Park
Created in 1916 (first National Park; Yellowstone was established in 1872)
Currently includes 58 parks
Primary goal
Teach people about the natural environment, management of natural resources and history of a site
Merced River flowing past El Capitan

10. National Park System Threats to U.S. Parks Natural Regulation
Crime & Vandalism
Traffic jams
Pollution of the soil, water and air
Originating both inside and outside the park
Resource violations
Natural Regulation
Policy to let nature take it course
No culling wildlife
No suppressing wildfire

11. Wildlife Refuges National Wildlife Refuge System (1903)
Represent all major ecosystems found in the US
Mission
To preserve lands and waters for the conservation of fishes, wildlife and plants of the US
Recreation (including hunting and fishing) are permitted
Cannot impede conservation efforts

12. Forests Role in Hydrologic Cycle (right)
Most of water that falls as precipitation is released back into the atmosphere through transpiration
Widescale loss alters climates

13. Forest Management Traditional Forest Management
Low diversity- monocultures (right)
Managed for timber production
Ecological Sustainable Forest Management
Environmentally balanced
Diverse trees
Prevent soil erosion
Preserve watersheds
Wildlife corridors- unlogged
Intensively managed Pine Plantation is a monoculture; US currently consumes 20% more Timber than it replaces

14. Harvesting Trees

15. Harvesting Trees - Clearcutting
Clear cutting must STOP!!!

16. Deforestation
Temporary or permanent clearance of large expanses of forest for agriculture or other use
World forests shrank 90 million acres from 2000–2005
Causes
Fire
Expansion of agriculture
Construction of roads
Tree harvest
Insect and disease

17. Deforestation Results Decreased soil fertility
Uncontrolled soil erosion
Production of hydroelectric power (silt build up behind dams)
Increased sedimentation of waterways
Formation of deserts
Extinction of species
Global climate changes

18. Forest Trends in US Most temperate forest are steady or expanding
Returning stands lack biodiversity of original forests
More than half of US forest are privately owned (right)
Forest Legacy Program- helps protect environmentally important forest lands
Conservation easement – protects the forest property for development for a given number of years

19. US National Forests (155 Ntl
US National Forests (155 Ntl. Forests ;191 million Acres according to USFS)
Managed for multiple uses
Timber harvest
Livestock forage
Water resource and watershed protection
Mining, hunting, fishing, etc.
Road building is an issue
Taxpayer funded roads allow logging companies with access to forest (money is not reimbursed)
Clearcutting is an issue

20. Case-In-Point Tongass National Park
One of world’s few temperate rainforests
Prime logging area
Modified 1997 Forest Plan
Roadless Area Conservation Rule (2000)
Politics rules government agencies

21. Trends in Tropical Forests
Tropical rainforests and tropical dry forests (what remains is highly fragmented)

22. Disappearing Tropical Rain Forests
Population growth
Cannot account for all of it
Immediate causes
Subsistence agriculture (60% of deforestation)
Commercial logging (20%)
Cattle ranching (12%)
Other causes
Mining
Hydroelectric power
As more and more farmers settle along the roads they clear out more of the forests

23. Disappearing Tropical Dry Forests
Primarily destroyed for fuelwood
Used for heating and cooking
Gathering firewood in Ranthambore National Park buffer zone. Note how the branches have been trimmed off the trees in the background

24. Boreal Forests (Taiga)
World’s largest biome
Extensive clearcutting
Primary source of world’s industrial wood and wood fiber
Annual loss is equivalent to twice the size of the Amazonian rainforests of Brazil
Canada is the worlds largest timber exporter

25. Rangeland and Agricultural lands
Land that is not intensively managed and is used for grazing livestock
Grasses have a fibrous root system and benefit from animals grazing as long as the carrying capacity has not been met

26. Rangeland Degradation and Deforestation
Overgrazing leaves ground barren
Animals exceed their carrying capacity
Land degradation
Natural or human-induced process that decreases future ability of land to support crops or livestock
Desertification
Degradation of once fertile land into nonproductive desert

27. Rangeland Trends in US Pressure from developers to subdivide
Make up 30% of total US land area
2/3 privately owned
Pressure from developers to subdivide
Public rangeland managed by:
Taylor Grazing Act (1934) (allow fewer livestock permitted to graze rangelands)
Federal Land Policy and Management Act (1976)
Conditions of public rangeland are slowly improving (fewer livestock allowed to graze)
Grazing fees is an issue (cheaper on public land and taxpayers contributing more money than the grazers

28. Agricultural Land US has 300 million acres of prime farmland
Much is being overtaken by suburban sprawl
Parking lots
Housing developments
Shopping malls
Homes and businesses occupying what was once cornfields In York City Pennsylvania.
According to the American Farmland Trust 400,000 acres of prime US farmland are lost each year

29. Wetlands
Lands that are usually covered with water for at least part of the year
Have characteristic soils and water-tolerant vegetation
Benefits
Habitat for migratory waterfowl and wildlife
Recharge groundwater
Reduce damage from flooding
Improve water quality
Produce many commercially important products

30. Wetlands Human activity that threatens wetlands
Drainage for agriculture or mosquito control
Dredging for navigation
Construction of dams, dykes or seawalls
Filling in for solid waste disposal
Road building
Mining for gravel, fossil fuels, etc.
Shrinking 58,500 acres per year

31. Restoring Wetlands
No Net Loss of Wetlands: (conserving new and restoring old)
Development of wetlands is allowed if corresponding amount of previously converted wetland is restored
Not all wetland restorations are successful

32. A Reconstructed Wetland (failure)
Sweetwater Marsh constructed in 1984 along San Diego Bay
California Department Of Transportation was legally required to do so because it destroyed a similar marsh for road construction
Intended top provide habitat for the light-footed clapper rail
Never worked out because the marsh grass was not high enough to provide ample nesting sites
Natural marshes have sediments that retain the nitrogen in the sediments necessary to grow the taller grasses
reconstructed sediments were too sandy to retain the nutrients

33. Coastlines Coastal wetlands
Provide food and habitat for many aquatic animals
Historically regarded as wasteland (only good for mosquitos)
US starting to see importance of protecting this environment (NURSERIES FOR FISH)
Retaining seawalls (right) eventhough the sea wall helps protect the home the cause much faster rates of erosion further down the beach where there are no seawalls

34. Coastal Demographics Many coastal areas overdeveloped United States
3.8 billion people live within 150km of coastline
6.4 billion people will likely live there by 2025
United States
14 of 20 largest US cities along coast
19 of 20 most densely populated countries along coasts

35. Conservation and Land Resources
All types of ecosystems must be preserved
Four criteria of importance used as a ranking system:
Areas lost or degraded since European colonization
Number of present examples of a particular ecosystem (or the total area)
Estimate of the likelihood that a given ecosystem will lost a significant area or be degraded in next 10 years
Number of threatened and endangered species living in the ecosystem

36. Conservation and Land Resources

37. MATH PRACTICE
Excluding agriculture, only about 0.8% of the Earth's total surface area (which is 14.7 billion hectares) is settled (homes, roads, cities, etc.). What is this settled area in hectares?
a) 8 billion hectares
b) 8 million hectares
c) million hectares
d) billion hectares
e) billion hectares

38. Answer Ans: c Response:
.008 * 14.7 billion hectares = billion hectares = million hectares