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Forest Management• What are the functions of the forest?• What are the roles of the Amazon tropical

rainforest?• What problems exist in forest

management?

Key Concepts• Multiple Uses of Forests• National Wilderness Preservation System • Old Growth Forest• Forest Ownership• U.S. Federal Agencies and Forest Management• The USDA Forest Service and Natural Resource Conservation Service• Sustained Yield: annual harvest = annual growth• Harvest area = Area of Forestland/No. of yrs to maturity • Harvest Methods : Clear Cutting; Strip Cutting; Selective Cutting; &

Sheltwood Cutting • Reforestation• Natural Reseeding and Artificial Seeding • The Monoculture Controversy• Control of Forest Pests and Diseases. • Integrated Pest Management • Fire Control: Ground fires; Surface fires; Crown fires• Efficient Utilization of Forest Products• Depletion of the Tropical Rain Forests• How to Save the Tropical Forests?

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Land Use: Forests

• World Land Uses• World Forests• Tropical Forests• Temperate Forests• Rangelands• Landownership and Land Reform

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• Forests cover about 32 percent of the earth’s surface (excluding Antarctica) (about 4.1 billion ha).

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Multiple Uses of Forests

• Wood Products-U.S. lumber industry employs 1.5 M employees, over 10,000 products, $30 billion sales . In the 1980s about 50% of all the wood harvested in the U.S. was used as fuel-most of it by the forest industry in its manufacturing processes.

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Multiple Uses of Forests

• Raw Materials: e.g. medicine.• Flood and Erosion Control• Rangelands• Wildlife Habitat

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• Wilderness, Recreational, and Scientific Areas

The Wilderness Act of 1964 established the National Wilderness Preservation System to preserve primitive areas in their natural state.

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• A wilderness, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by humans, where humans themselves are visitors who do not remain.

• Access to an NWPS area can be made only by trail or canoe.

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• Controversy regarding the designation of the remaining 27 million roadless hectares of national forest into NWPS.

• Access to the Old Growth Forest of the Northwest.

• Old Growth Forest: Forests with chronologically old large trees, wide spacing, multiple canopy layers, near zero net productivity, and high resistance to insects and diseases, etc.

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• Source of FuelWood burning and greenhouse gases CO2, NO2.

• Carbon storage (sink)Annually the world’s forests absorb and release about 4 gigatons (109 ) of carbon through net photosynthesis and respiration.The total amount of carbon stored in the world’s forests is about 765 gigatons, of which about 60 percent is in tropical forests.

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Harvard Forest

11/8/2007 15Harvard Forest

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Residue Measurement

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Net Productivity Measurement11/8/2007 18

• The net absorption of carbon by forests is much smaller, more carbon is lost by burning than is stored by net photosynthesis.

• The Southern California’s wildfire of October 19-26, 2007 emitted 8.7 million tons of CO2, the same amount as the state’s power plants and vehicles did. That’s more than the State of Vermont produces in a year.

• Wildfires produces approximately 322 million tons of CO2 each year in the U.S., about 5% of the CO2 emission from burning fossil fuels. (Borenstein, S. 2007. Wildfires Spew Tons of Carbon Dioxide. Associated Press. Nov.4.)

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Forest Ownership

• About 29% of the total land of the U.S. is forest area, of which 2/3 is classified as commercial timberland - of high quality to be used by the timber industry.

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U.S. Forest Ownership Ownership % Private Owners 58Forest Industry 14 National Forest System 18National Park Service 10

Total 100 (262 million ha)

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Federal Agencies in Forest Management• The USDA Forest Service• Natural Resource Conservation Service• The Tennessee Valley Authority• The U.S. Department of Interior • The Fish and Wildlife Service

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The Responsibilities of the Forest Service:

Management of Forest ResourcesResearch and DevelopmentCoordination

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• Sustained Yield: annual harvest = annual growth

• Harvest area= Area of Forestland/No. of yrs to maturity

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Harvest Methods

• Clear Cutting: used on even-aged stands composed of one or two species and is applicable only to trees whose seedlings thrive in full sunlight. e.g. Douglas fir. Its seeds don’t germinate in the shade of the forest floor. The species is not suitable to selective cutting. Rotational Cycle: saw timber for 100 yrs, pulpwood for 30 yrs.

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• Strip Cutting: removing narrow strips of forest (80 m wide) to reduce the soil erosion, and used in southern pines.

• Selective Cutting: used in timber stands composed of unevenly aged trees or in mixed stands composed of valuable timber species and in part of commercially unattractive species. e.g. maple, beech, and hemlock whose seedlings can germinate in the shade of the forest floor. More expensive and time consuming. Rotational cycle: 10 yrs.

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• Shelterwood Cutting: a several-stage harvest technique. 1) removing trees of poor quality from the forest floor and the stand; 2) harvest mature trees. Applicable to small plots with relatively homogeneous tree species. Costly and time consuming.

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Reforestation

• In the U.S., about 1 M hectares of forest land is reforested each year.

• Natural Reseeding: wind, birds, rodents, water.

• Artificial Seeding: vulnerable to drought, flooding, frost, birds, and rodents.

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• Planting• The Monoculture Controversy

Monoculture: growing a single species stand of trees. Pros: efficient, maximum use of technology, and costeffective.Cons: imbalanced ecosystem, use of chemicals, pollution, more vulnerable to fire.

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• Genetic Engineering: breed pest, disease, and drought and cold resistant tree species.

• Tissue Culture: planting shoots, roots, and leaf buds of trees

• Efficient Utilization of Forest Products: fully use of the wood products, e.g. plywood, pulpwood, etc.

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Control of Forest Pests• Diseases: causes 45% of the total saw-timber

destruction. e.g. heart-rot fungus is responsible for 33% of the total forest damage.

• Insects: causes 20% of all timber destruction. • Spread of emerald ash borer in Michigan. It has claimed

8 million ash trees in Michigan so far and will probably spread through the Upper Peninsula, where it was first discovered in Sept. 2005. The ash borer spreads through movement of infested trees or in logs and firewood. The beetles fly well and deposit eggs within a quarter mile from where they emerge (www.emeraldashborer.info).

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Split Bark Over Emerald Ash Borer Larval Gallery

Adult Emerald Ash Borer

Emerald Ash Borer Larva

http://www.michigan.gov/mda/, accessed 9/21/2006

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All counties in Michigan's lower peninsula not under quarantine are considered regulated areas and are subject to Section V, Conditions of Movement of Regulated Articles, under the EAB Quarantine. http://www.michigan.gov/mda/, accessed 9/21/2006 11/8/2007 34

• Integrated Pest Management: integration of biological control, harvesting methods, and chemical application in controlling pests.

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Fire Control• A forest fire starts somewhere every 3 minutes in

the U.S. 10 % of the nation’s forest fires are caused by lighting. The rest by people.

• Forest fires from San Fernando Valley in suburbs northwest of Los Angles to Ensenada, Mexico, about 60 miles south of the border, and in San Diego County Oct. 25 to Nov. 3, 2003. The fires were the most destructive and deadly wildfires in the history of California. At least 1137 homes had been destroyed in California, and 17 people were killed by the fires. The total forest lands burned were over 512,000 acres (about 800 square miles). A state of emergency was declared in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties (Kalamazoo Gazette, Oct. 28, 2003). A number of fires were believed started by arsonists. 11/8/2007 36

• In 2000, the Cerro Grande fire in New Mexico, driven by winds of up to 50 m.p.h., burned out of control over an area of nearly 50,000 acres, forcing evacuation of some 18,000 people and the closure of the Los Alamos national Laboratory.

• In 2002, the Hayman fire burned nearly 138,000 forested acres near Denver.

• The Rodeo-Chediski fire, not far from Flagstaff, blazed for weeks across 466,000 acres.

• The 2002 was the 3rd worst fire year on record (after 1988 and 2000) with nearly 7 million acres burned, 21 fire fighters dead, and 2,000 structures destroyed (Time summer 2003).

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http://contentedcowblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/sdfires.jpg,Accessed Nov.8, 2007.

Southern California Fires

The fires have destroyed about 1,500 homes since Sunday, Oct.21, and led to the largest evacuation in California history. The flames have burned at least 431,000 acres across five counties, from Ventura in the north all the way into Mexico. Property damage has reached at least $1 billion in San Diego County alone, and Bush has signed a major disaster declaration for California.The fires are the first natural disaster on the scale of Hurricane Katrina to occur since that storm in 2005, and the White House is determined to convey a picture of a speedy and effective response.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-25-bush-calif-fires_N.htm, accessed Nov.8, 2007. 11/8/2007 38

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/10/southern-california-fire-imagery.html, accessed Nov.8, 2007.

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Forest fires: a natural and important part of forest ecosystems.

• Prevent high-fuel buildup;• Release nutrients;• Destroy diseases and pests;• Remove old stand.

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Factors Related to Wild Fires

• Wind speed• Topography• Air temperature• Humidity• Fuel load – variations in fuel load create

the equivalent of speed bumps in the landscape that serve to slow fire down. One method – thinning and controlled burns.

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• Ground fires: within the organic matter and litter of the soil. Little or no effect.

• Surface fires: on the ground surface. Little effect on vegetation of the forest.

• Crown fires: burn treetops and low vegetation. Most destructive.

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• Use of infrared systems in monitoring forest fires.

• Controlled burn is used to improve the quality of timber, forage, and habitat.

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Mountain Mitchell

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Mountain Mitchell

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Depletion of the Tropical Rain Forests

• More than 45 percent of the world’s tropical rainforests have been cleared, and the rate continues at 0.8 percent annually

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Desertification• The UN Convention to Combat Desertification defines

desertification as the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. Desertification occurs in arid, semi-arid and sub-humid areas - where the soils are especially fragile, vegetation is sparse and the climate particularly unforgiving. These areas are inhabited by one fifth of the world’s population.

Source: www.unccd.int/publicinfo9th World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

(June 17, 2003)

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• 1/3 of the earth’s land surface (4 billion hectares) is threatened by desertification

• over 250 million people are directly affected by desertification.

• 24 billion tons of fertile soil disappear annually.

• From 1991 to 2000 alone, droughts have been responsible for over 280,000 deaths; they accounted for 11% of the total water-related disasters.

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UNESCO World Map of Aridity

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Causes of Forest Depletion

• Export agriculture to earn foreign currency for technology e.g. beef, sugar, rubber, cocoa , and coffee

• Fuel wood• Industrial logging for international and

local market

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Causes of desertification

• Climatic variations• Human activities:

OvergrazingOvercropping, DeforestationPoor irrigation practices, e.g. drying up rivers and lakes such as the Aral Sea

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Impacts of desertification

• Environmental impacts: flood prone, silting of waterbodies, rising salt level in soil, deteriorating water quality

• Economic impacts: An annual loss of $42 billion worldwide

• Poverty and mass migration: Some 60 million are expected to move from Sub-Saharan to Northern African and Europe between 1997-2020.

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Effects of Forest Depletion

• Effects: firewood scarcity• Loss of gene pools• Extinction of species• Climate change

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How to Save the Tropical Forests?

• The Amazon rainforest covers about 7 million km2 , which is roughly equivalent to 90 percent of the contiguous U.S. In Brazil alone, about 4.9 million km2 of area is in Amazon rainforest.

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• The Brazilian government announced that based on an almost complete evaluation of satellite imagery of the Amazon rainforest, an estimated 23,750 square km were deforested from September 2002 to August 2003, compared to 23,266 sq. km the year before (Financial Times Apr. 8, 2004, p.2).

• Some 640,000 sq km of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed, an area nearly the size of Germany and Poland.

• Farming, cattle ranching, population growth, and illegal logging by timber companies, settlement by impoverished peasants are the main factors for the deforestation.

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• The Amazonian Pact: Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela and Colombia.

• The Treaty of Amazonian Cooperation calls for establishing a balance between economic growth and environmental conservation to achieve both ecological equilibrium and the preservation of species.

• Brazil government has decided to establish the world’s largest forest reserve.

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• U.S. cleared much of its old growth forest for economic development since about 1700. Will the tropical countries be entitled to economic development through deforestation as well?

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Review Questions• What are the functions of the tropical rainforests?• In the U.S., who owns most of forests? Private or public

owners?• What are the types of harvest methods?• What should be the sustained yield of forest harvest?• What is the most destructive agent of forest?• Which type of forest fire is most destructive?• What is the IPM? NWPS? • Who are the leading federal agencies for forest

management?• What are the main causes of forest depletion? • What are the causes of desertification?• What can be done domestically and internationally to

protect the tropical rainforests?

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Wall Street Journal Story of Sept.26, 2000.

• Home Depot and Forest Stewardship Council joined together to cut logging abuse.

• FSC Standard: harvest of forests must not threaten the health of forests, animals, and plants. Not to pollute rivers by applying too much chemicals, and to recognize the rights of workers and indigenous peoples.

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• Lowe’s Inc., Wickes Inc., Andersen Corp, signed on to sell FSC certified wood products.

• Many European companies also signed on.

• In the U.S., most of the largest timber companies have created the rival Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), which covers about 60 million acres of North American timberland.

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