Name______

Study Guide: Unit 7 – Forestry

  1. What is sustainability?

Resource use that occurs only as fast as it can be replaced naturally

  1. What two things must resource managers balance?

Human and ecological needs

  1. How is soil made?

Weathering and erosion of rocks and the decomposition of organisms

  1. How long can one inch of topsoil take to form?

Hundreds of years

  1. How is fresh water supplied?

Natural Processes

  1. Why do we need to be concerned with the quality of our drinking water?

It is vital for drinking and agriculture

  1. What is a game animal?

An animal that can be legally hunted

  1. Compare what is happening to forests in developed versus developing countries.

In developed countries, most trees are regrowing slowly due to forest management but in undeveloped countries, forests are still rapidly disappearing

  1. Label each statement with one of the following management approaches: Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY), Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) or Adaptive Management (AM).
  • AM - The goal is to gather data and develop a customized, responsive plan
  • EBM - One problem is choosing which areas to protect and which to harvest since ecosystems are complex
  • MSY - The goal is to maximize the harvest without minimizing future harvests
  • EBM - The goal is to harvest resources while minimizing the effects on the ecosystem
  • MSY - One problem is that it can effect species interactions since the population is kept below its carrying capacity
  • AM - One problem is that it is time consuming and requires a large amount of date to be collected.
  1. What are most of the forests that are left on earth classified as?

Boreal Forests and Tropical Rain forests

  1. List 3 ecological benefits of forests.

Provide Habitats for Organisms

Source of Biodiversity

Prevent Erosion

Purify Water

Store Carbon and Release CO2

  1. List 2 economic benefits of forests.

Timber for lumber and fuel

Source of food

Supply many medicines

  1. Fill in the following chart about timber harvesting methods.

Clear Cutting / Seed Tree and Shelterwood / Selection System
Explain the process / The entire forest is cut down / Most of the trees are cut down but a few trees are left as shelter or to reseed the forest / Certain trees are chosen to be harvested
Even Aged or Uneven Aged Forest Left? / Even / Mostly Even / Uneven
Benefits / Efficient / Less damaging than clear cutting / More biodiverse
Overall less harmful
Costs / Destroys an entire community
Leads to soil erosion / Leads to mostly even aged regrowth / More dangerous for loggers
Expensive
  1. What is the difference between timber harvesting and deforestation?

With timber harvesting, the forest is allowed to regrow but with deforestation, the forest is permanently cleared

  1. Where does deforestation have the most negative effects?

In arid regions – leads to desertification

In tropical regions – loss of biodiversity

  1. Name two ways that deforestation adds CO2 to the atmosphere.

When trees are cut down, the release CO2 as they are burned or decomposing

When trees are cut down, they can no longer take in CO2 and convert it to oxygen

  1. What is an old growth forest? How much still exists in the US?

A forest that has never been logged

Not very much at all

  1. Why do developing nations cut down old growth forests?

Because they can make a quick profit

  1. When was the National Forest Service established and what is its purpose?

1905

It was originally established to manage timber harvesting and to protect watersheds

Now, it manages timber, recreation, habitats and mining

  1. Explain why people have an issue with the government building the roads used for timber harvesting?

Because they don’t think that public tax dollars should be used to help build roads to allow private companies to profit

  1. What does the national forest management act (NFMA) require?

Each national forest to have a resource management plan

  1. Name two successes of the NFMA and one challenge.

Successes

1)Plants and animals have been managed sustainably

2)Logging has decreased in national forests

3)Tree growth has outpaced logging 11:1

Challenge

1)It is very susceptible to political influence

  1. Where does most logging occur?

On private land

  1. What is a monoculture?

A single type of tree growing on a farm

  1. How can fires be beneficial to some ecosystems?

Some plants only sprout after a fire has come through

It clears out the brush so that when the next fire comes through, it’s not as big

  1. Name a plant that only sprouts after a fire has come through.

Jack pine

  1. What is fire suppression? Is it always a good idea?

Stopping a fire from burning. No.

  1. What is a prescribed burn?

Purposely setting a forest on fire in order to get rid of some of the built up dead material

  1. What is the Health Forest Restoration Act? What do most scientists think about it?

It is an act that is supposed to make forests less susceptible to fires.

They don’t like it because they don’t think it is helpful to the environment and it makes it easier for loggers to take trees out of national forests

  1. What is the FSC? What is their purpose?

Forest Stewardship Council

A council that certifies forest products as sustainably produced