forestry
FORESTRYTo harvest resources while minimizing effects on the rest of the ecosystem
Ecologically sensitive areas are carefully monitored and protected; resources are harvested selectively. Ecosystems are complex, so choosing which areas to protect and which to harvest is a challenge. Old-growth or primary forest 36% of world’s forests Second-growth forest 60% of world’s forests Tree plantation, tree farm or commercial forest 4% of world’s forests May supply most of the industrial wood in the future Ecological value: Provide habitat for organisms Source of biodiversity Prevent erosion Purify water Store carbon, release oxygen Economic value: Timber for lumber and fuel Source of food Raw material for many medicines Three methods: Clear-cutting, seed-tree or shelterwood approach, and selection system May result in even-aged or uneven-aged regrowth Even-aged regrowth tends to be less biodiverse than uneven-aged regrowth. •Involves cutting down all trees in a region, resulting in even-aged stands of regrowth •Changes abiotic conditions in the area, including light penetration, precipitation, wind, and temperature •Benefit: Cost efficient •Costs: Entire communities usually displaced or destroyed; causes soil erosion. Seed-tree: Small numbers of mature, healthy trees are left standing, to reseed the area. •Shelterwood: Involves leaving a few mature trees standing to provide shelter for seedlings •Benefit: Less damaging than clear-cutting •Cost: As with clear-cutting, leads to mostly even-aged regrowth Strip cutting: where strips of trees are removed from an area Selective/selection: •Relatively few trees are cut at once under a selection system. •Selection can involve widely spaced single trees or groups. •Benefits: •More biodiverse, uneven-aged growth •Less overall environmental damage •Costs: •Machinery disturbs forest interior. •Expensive process •More dangerous for loggers Unsustainable Logging is a Major Threat to Forest Ecosystems •Increased erosion •Sediment runoff into waterways• •Habitat fragmentation •Loss of biodiversity Deforestation: •Unlike timber harvesting, deforestation replaces forested areas with some other land use, such as commercial or residential property. •Deforestation in tropical and arid regions has the most negative effects due toloss of biodiversity and desertification risk respectively. •Globally, deforestation adds CO2 to Earth’s atmosphere. National Forest Management Act (1976) •Requires that renewable resource management plans be made for each national forest •Plans are required to be consistent with the principles of multiple use and maximum sustainable yield. •Logging has declined in national forests since passage of the Act, but policies are vulnerable to political influence. Fire, Insects, and Climate Change Can Threaten Forest Ecosystems 1 •Surface fires •Usually burn leaf litter and undergrowth •May provide food in the form of vegetation that sprouts after fire •Crown fires •Extremely hot: burns whole trees •Kill wildlife •Increase soil erosion Fire Policies •Fire Suppression: •Negative effects on ecosystems that depend on fire •Fuel for future fires accumulates (limbs, sticks, and leaf litter). •Suppressing small fires increases likelihood of larger, dangerous fires. •Prescribed Burns: •Carefully controlled burning helps to reduce fuel buildup and to restore ecosystems. •Rarely burn out of control, but occasional accidents frighten the public. Fire, Insects, and Climate Change Can Threaten Forest Ecosystems 2 •Introduction of foreign diseases and insects •Accidental •Deliberate •Global warming •Rising temperatures •Trees more susceptible to diseases and pests •Drier forests: more fires •More greenhouse gases Healthy Forests Restoration Act (2003) Encourages prescribed burns Promotes salvage logging—removal of small trees, underbrush, and snags by timber companies Seen as harmful by many scientists and environmental advocates Salvage logging can slow forest regrowth, promotes wildfires, and destroys snags—habitat for wildlife. I SPEAK FOR THE TREES!!!! |
The Lorax
Choose two of the following questions to reflect upon and write about on your “Forestry Page underneath the heading “I Speak for the Trees!”
1. How could the Once-ler have managed his company to protect natural resources and not run out of trees to manufacture “Thneeds”? Is it necessary to protect all the trees “from axes that hack”? He should have done some trees so he could make money and not hurt the ecosystem. They do not all need to be protected until their numbers die low.
2. What did the Once-ler mean by “UNLESS”? What responsibility does he seem to think “someone like you” needs to take? What kind of things can we do today to ensure that trees will be available for all different purposes in the future? It means that no one really cares about the wilderness “UNLESS” someone really cared. He thinks we as people need to take leap to protect some of the trees and landscape around us. What we need to do now is to slowly take a way and let them reproduce so we will have more.
3. Compare the Once-ler’s attitude toward the environment at the beginning of the story with his attitude at the end. In the beginning he comes and realized that this land is perfect then he really doesn’t care what others are doing to stop him. Then towards the end when the last tree is gone he changes mainly because his business failed and then he realizes that he should have listened.
4. The Once-ler explains his actions by saying “If I didn’t do it, someone else would.” Is this a good excuse for doing what he did? And why? No, because if the once-ler didn't do it someone else would destroy the land in the way he did.
5. The Lorax says he speaks for the trees. What does this mean to you? What is the Lorax’s attitude at the end of the story? the Lorax "speaks for the trees because they have no tongue" the trees don't want to be cut down but they obviously cant talk so he talks for them and he know how bad the land will be after.
6. What seems to be Dr. Seuss’ purpose in writing this fable? (A fable is a fictional story that teaches a lesson.) Protect land if not it will not look and function the best.
On the same page.. write either an alternative ending to the Lorax or a sequel to the Lorax
Write a alternative ending to the Lorax with a more positive outcome for the Truffula tree and ecosystem
CHOP...CHOP...CHOP. the second to last tree went plop. "The work you've done, I can't stand it. Protect the last tree I demand it." Said the Lorax.
The family kept business slow and waited for a truffula tree to grow. 20 years have passed then the tree sprouted at last. The trees were then protected like they should be and life then moved on more than very happily.
Or
Write a sequel to the Lorax that might explain how the Truffula tree made a comeback through replanting and proper forest management while still being used to make Thneeds.