Wildlife and Ecosystems

Chapter 23

Sustain Ecosystems: Land Use Conservation Management

Land Use

Frontier World view-They saw a hostile Wilderness to be conquered and exploited for its resources as quickly as possible

1850 80% of the total land area of the territorial U.S. was government owned

• 1872 Yellow Stone National Park• Between 1870 and 1900 began concern

of environmental degradation

Land Use

1903 First Federal Refuge at Pelican Island

1905 Created the U.S. Forest Service1912 Congress Created the U.S. National Park

Land Use

Between 1900 and 1927 public health boards were created in most cities

Era of Roosevelt new time of national resource conservation

Bought land for cheap from cash-poor landowners

Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 required permits and fees for the use of grazing lands

Environmental Developments

Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act of 1934

Soil conservation Service 1935 U.S. Fish and Wild Life Service Silent Spring Books about air pollution

like DDT 1964 wilderness Act 1973 Ban of oil Shipments to the U.S.

Environmental Developments 1980’s

Reagan was against conservation

He greatly increased private energy and mineral development and timber cutting on public lands

Conservation

Biodiversiyt and ecological integrity are necessary to all life on earth and should not be reduced by human actions

Public Lands Multiple Use lands Principle of sustainable yield Principle of multiple use Moderately Restricted-Use Lands Restricted-Use Lands

Managing and Sustaining Rangelands

Land that supplies forage or vegetation for grazing and browsing animals and that is not intensively managed

Overgrazing occurs when too many animals graze for too long and exceed the carrying capacity of grassland area

Riparian zones- thin strips of lush vegetation along streams

To manage rangelands to maximize livestock productivity without overgrazing rangeland overgrazing

National Parks

Cause of increased popularity is one of the biggest problems of national parks

They are way under staffed

National Park Management

Require integrated management plans for parks and other nearby federal lands

Increase the budget for adding new parkland near the most threatened parks

Increase the budget for buying private lands inside parks

Land Management

Map Existing natural Vegetation Map Distribution of native vertebrate

species Map public land ownership and private

conservation lands Show the current network of

conservation lands

Chapter 24

Sustaining ecosystems: Deforestation, Biodiversity, and Forest Management

photo2.si.edu/turtles/ forest.html

What are the major types of Forests?TropicalTemperatePolar

Types of growth forests

Old Growth Forests:

uncut forests that have not been seriously disturbed for several hundred or thousands of years

Second Growth Forests:

stands of trees resulting from secondary ecological succession after cutting

Economic Importance of Forests

Lumber for housing, biomass for fuelwood, pulp for paper, medicines, mining, grazing livestock, and recreation

up to $300 billion a year in supplies

Ecological Importance of Forests

Regulate the flow of water from mountain highlands to croplands and urban areas

influence climate vital to global carbon cycle provides oxygen, air purification, soil

fertility, erosion control, water recycling, and humidity control

How Rapidly are Old-Growth Forests being Cleared?

85-95% of the temperate-zone old growth forests have been cleared away

since the mid-1960’s, a large amount of old growth forests have been cleared away and replaced with tree plantations

most of remaining old-growth forests are in fragmented sections on U.S. public lands in Washington, Oregon, and northern CA

Old Growth Forests

http://www.colorado.edu/communication/meta-discourses/Theory/burke/img005.gif

How fast are Tropical Forests being cleared and degraded?

Mature tropical forests once covered at least twice as much area as they do today

Between 1960 and 1990, 1/5 of all tropical forest cover was lost

40% of current tropical deforestation is taking place in South America

rates of deforestation in Southeast Asia and Central America are 2.7 times higher than those in South America

Tropical Forests

What Causes Tropical Deforestation?

Population growth poverty government policies

Degradation of Tropical Forests

http://www.rcfa-cfan.org/english/issues.12-3.html

Reducing Tropical Deforestation and Degradation

Conservation biologists suggest quickly protecting areas of tropical forests that have many unique species; called hot spots

environmentalists push governments to reduce the amount of poor in forests by slowing population growth and stopping poor from migrating to tropical forests

use economic policies to protect and sustain tropical forests

Debt-for-nature swaps and conservation easements

Fuelwood Crisis in Developing Countries

1998-2.2 billion people in 63 developing countries could not get enough fuelwood to meet their basic needs or were forced to meet their needs by using wood faster than it was replenished

fuelwood scarcity places a burden on the rural poor, especially women and children

buying fuelwood or charcoal can take 40% of a poor family’s income

Solutions for Fuelwood Crisis

Planting more fast-growing fuelwood trees or shrubs and burning wood more efficiently

placing emphasis on community woodlots

encourage villagers to use the sun-dried roots of gourds and squashes as cooking fuel

solar ovens

Major Types of Forest Management

Even-aged management: goal is to grow and

harvest trees using monoculture techniques

begins with 1 or 2 cuttings and is then replanted with seedlings

Uneven-aged management:

variety of tree species in given stand are maintained at many ages and sizes to foster natural regeneration

goals are biological diversity, long-term production of high-quality timber, reasonable economic return, and multiple use

Ways Trees are Harvested

Selective cutting Shelterwood cutting Seed-Tree cutting clear-cutting strip cutting whole-tree harvesting

Forest Fires

Surface Fires

Crown Fires

ground fires

moosehorn.fws.gov/ Forest_Management.htm

Protecting forest resources

Prevention, prescribed burning-setting controlled ground fires for prevention

presuppression-early detection and control of fires

suppression-fighting fires once they have already started

Chapter 25

Sustaining Wild Species

The Importance of Wild Species

They provide many of the ecological services that make up earth capital.

They help sustain the earth’s biodiversity and ecological integrity.

Preservation is important because most people believe that each wild species has an inherent right to exist, or to struggle to exist.

Passenger Pigeon: Gone Forever

It was said that in the 1800s the passenger pigeon flocked in groups up to 2 billion strong, but by 1914 the species was extinct.

Who is to blame? Humans

Who Is Responsible?

Passenger pigeons were:

Good to eat Good to make

pillows out of Used for fertilizer Easy to kill

Is There an Extinction Crisis?

It is hard to tell because there is such a wide range of species (Between 5 and 100 million species)

It is difficult to observe species extinction, especially if it is a species we know little about

A species is considered extinct when it hasn’t been seen for 50 years.

Types of Extinction

Local Extinction- When a species is no longer found in an area it once inhabited but is still found elsewhere.

Ecological Extinction- When there are so few members of a species left that it can no longer play its ecological roles in biological communities.

Types of Extinction (Cont.)

Biological Extinction- When a species is no longer found anywhere on the earth.

Endangered and Threatened

An endangered species has so few individual survivors that the species could soon become extinct.

A threatened species is still abundant in its natural range but is declining in numbers and is likely to become endangered.