Chapter 17 Land Resources

1. Chapter 17Land Resources

2. Overview of Chapter 17 • Land Use • 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

5. Local areas • National Parks • http://www.nps.gov/applications/parksearch/state.cfm?st=PA National Wildlife Refuge- Erie and Tinicum (John Heinz, close to Philadelphia) http://www.fws.gov/heinz/index.html • Allegheny National Forest – only one in PA • http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/allegheny/

6. John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge

7. Allegheny National Forest

8. Land Use- United States • 55% of US land is privately owned • Remainder of land is owned by government • Most federally owned land is in Alaska and 11 western states

9. Managing Public and Private Land • Public Planning and Land Use • Land use decisions are complex and have multiple effects • Must take into account all repercussions of proposed land use • Management of Federal Land • Wide-Use Movement • Environmental Movement

10. Wilderness Areas • Wilderness • 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), trails left alone, not maintained. Maybe difficult to visit • Managed by NPS, USFS, FWS & BLM

11. Wilderness • Some areas have a limited number of permitted human guests to reduce impact • Other problems include invasive species

12. PA Wilderness areas • http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&sec=wildView&WID=7 • http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/allegheny/recreation/hiking/hickory_creek/ Within Allegheny National Forest

13. National Park System Yosemite National Park • Created in 1916 • Currently includes 58 parks (not including other designations like monument, historic site etc.) • Primary goal • Teach people about the natural environment, management of natural resources and history of a site

14. National Park System • Threats to U.S. Parks • 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 hunting) • No suppressing wildfire

15. Ken Burn’s National Parks documentary • Antiquities Act • http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/watch-video/#658 • Teddy Roosevelt – A Progressive Republican of his day • Park scandal of the day: http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/watch-video/#807

18. Wildlife Refuges • National Wildlife Refuge System (1903) • Represent all major ecosystems founds 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

19. Forests • Role in Hydrologic Cycle (right) • Forest Management • Deforestation • Forest Trends in the US • Trends in Tropical Forests • Boreal Forests

20. Succession How has succession played a role in Okehocking? Describe the historical change in Okehocking’s land use? What stage of succession is Okehocking? Think of trees that indicate stage.

21. 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

22. Harvesting Trees

23. Harvesting Trees - Clearcutting

24. 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

25. 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

26. Forest Trends in US • Most temperature 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 • Conservation easement

27. Local Efforts • http://www.wctrust.org/Conservation/RushtonWoodsPreserve/RushtonWoodsPreserve.html

28. US National Forests • Managed for multiple uses • Timber harvest • Livestock forage • Water resource and watershed protection • Mining, hunting, fishing, etc. • Road building is an issue • Provides logging companies with access to forest • Clearcutting is an issue

29. Sheep grazing in Apache National Forest, AZ

30. 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

31. Trends in Tropical Forests • Tropical rainforests (below) and tropical dry forests

32. Disappearing Tropical Rain Forests • Population growth • Cannot account for all of it • Immediate causes • Subsistence agriculture • Commercial logging • Cattle ranching • Other causes • Mining • Hydroelectric power

33. Disappearing Tropical Dry Forests • Primarily destroyed for fuelwood • Used for heating and cooking

34. Boreal Forests • World’s largest biome • Extensive clearcutting • Primary source of world’s industrial wood and wood fiber

35. Rangeland and Agricultural lands • Rangeland • Land that is not intensively managed and is used for grazing livestock

36. 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

37. Rangeland Trends in US • 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) • Federal Land Policy and Management Act (1976) • Conditions of public rangeland are slowly improving • Grazing fees is an issue

38. Agricultural Land • US has 300 million acres of prime farmland • Much is being overtaken by suburban sprawl • Parking lots • Housing developments • Shopping malls

39. 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

40. Hurricane Sandy Impact • Influence of wetlands http://articles.philly.com/2013-10-29/news/43497891_1_wetlands-loss-barnegat-bay-hurricane-sandy • Influence of oysters http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/12/oysters-eyed-as-help-for-new-york-harbor/

41. 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

42. Restoring Wetlands • No Net Loss of Wetlands: • Development of wetlands is allowed if corresponding amount of previously converted wetland is restored • Not all wetland restorations are successful

43. Coastlines • Coastal wetlands • Provide food and habitat for many aquatic animals • Historically regarded as wasteland • US starting to see importance of protecting this environment • Retaining seawalls (right)

44. Coastal Demographics • Many coastal areas overdeveloped • 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

45. Conservation and Land Resources • All types of ecosystems must be preserved • Four criteria of importance: • 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

46. Conservation and Land Resources