Chapter #18
Land Resources
pg. 401 - 424
In-class Discussion Readers:
Chapter #1 - Me
Chapter #2 – David Dudley
Chapter #3 – Elisabeth Goodrich (Izzie)
Chapter #4 – James McLeod
Chapter #5 – Labecca Hampton and Jessica Vidal
Chapter #6 – Patrick Grennan and Scott Arnold
Chapter #7 – William Arnold
Chapter #8 – Crisy Overgard
Chapter #9 – Juan Rodriguez
Chapter #18
Land “Use”?
o
Land Use
•
•
o
Wilderness Parks
and Wildlife Refuges
•
•
o
•
o
o
National Parks
Wildlife Refuge
Forests
•
o
World land use
US land use
Forest management
Deforestation
Rangeland and Agricultural Land
Wetlands and Coastal Areas
Conservation of Land Resources
Land Use Worldwide – A
Global Perspective
Land Use in the United States
Land Use- United States
o
o
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
Managing Public - Private Lands
o
Public Planning and Land Use
•
•
o
Land use decisions are complex and have multiple
effects
Must take into account all repercussions of proposed
land use
Management of Federal Land
•
•
Wise-Use Movement
Environmental Movement
o
Wilderness
•
o
•
o
A protected area of land in which no human development is permitted.
Wilderness Act (1964)
•
o
Wilderness Areas
Set aside federally owned land as part of National Wilderness Preservation System
No development permitted (including roads)
Managed by NPS, USFS, FWS & BLM
Some areas have a
limited number of
human guests to
reduce impacts.
o Other problems
include invasive
species.
Wilderness Areas
Wilderness Parks and National Forests
National Wildlife Refuges
National Park System
Yosemite National Park
o
o
o
Created in 1916
Currently includes 58 parks
Primary goal
•
Teach people about the
natural environment,
management of natural
resources and history of a
site
National Park System
o
Threats
•
•
•
Crime & Vandalism
Traffic jams
Pollution
•
•
o
inside & outside
Resource violations
Natural Regulation
•
•
•
Policy to let nature take it course
No culling wildlife
No suppressing wildfire
U.S. National Wildlife
Refuges
o
National Wildlife
Refuge System (1903)
Represent all major
ecosystems in the US
o
Mission
o
o
•
o
Preserve lands and waters for the conservation of fishes, wildlife
and plants of the US.
Recreation (including hunting and
permitted
•
Cannot impede conservation efforts
fishing) are
Forests
o
o
o
o
o
o
Role in Hydrologic
Cycle (right)
Forest Management
Deforestation
Forest Trends in the US
Trends in Tropical
Forests
Boreal Forests
Forest Management
o
Traditional Forest Management
•
•
o
Low diversity- monocultures (right)
Managed for timber production
Ecological Sustainable Forest
Management
•
•
•
•
•
Environmentally balanced
Diverse trees
Prevent soil erosion
Preserve watersheds
Wildlife corridors- unlogged
Harvesting Trees - Clearcutting
Deforestation
o
o
o
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
Deforestation
o
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
Forest Trends in US
o
o
o
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
US National Forests
o
Managed for multiple uses
•
•
•
•
o
Road building is an issue
•
o
Timber harvest
Livestock forage
Water resource and watershed
protection
Mining, hunting, fishing, etc.
Provides logging companies with
access to forest
Clearcutting is an issue
Case-In-Point Tongass National Park
o
o
o
o
o
One of world’s few
temperate rainforests
Prime logging area
Modified 1997 Forest
Plan
Roadless Area
Conservation Rule
(2000)
Politics rules
government agencies
Trends in Tropical Forests
o
Tropical rainforests (below) and tropical dry forests
Disappearing Tropical Rain Forests
o
Population growth
•
o
Immediate causes
•
•
•
o
Cannot account for all
of it
Subsistence agriculture
Commercial logging
Cattle ranching
Other causes
•
•
Mining
Hydroelectric power
Disappearing Tropical Dry Forests
o
Primarily destroyed for fuelwood
•
Used for heating and cooking
Boreal Forests
o
o
World’s largest biome
Extensive clearcutting
•
Primary source of world’s industrial wood and wood
fiber
Rangeland and Agricultural lands
o
Rangeland
•
Land that is not intensively managed and is used for grazing
livestock
Rangeland Degradation and Deforestation
o
Overgrazing leaves ground barren
•
o
Land degradation
•
o
Animals exceed their carrying capacity
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
Rangeland Trends in US
o
Make up 30% of total US land area
•
o
o
Pressure from developers to subdivide
Public rangeland managed by:
•
•
o
2/3 privately owned
Taylor Grazing Act (1934)
Federal Land Policy and Management Act (1976)
Conditions of public rangeland are slowly
improving
•
Grazing fees is an issue
Agricultural Land
o
US has 300 million acres of prime farmland
o
Much is being
overtaken by
suburban sprawl
•
•
•
Parking lots
Housing
developments
Shopping malls
Wetlands
o
o
o
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
Wetlands
o
Human activity that threatens wetlands
•
•
•
•
•
•
o
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
Restoring (?) Wetlands
o
o
o
No Net Loss of Wetlands:
Development (change of land
use) of wetlands is allowed if
corresponding amount of
previously converted wetland
is restored
Not all wetland restorations
are successful
Coastlines
o
Coastal wetlands
•
•
o
Provide food and habitat for many aquatic animals
Historically regarded as wasteland
US starting to see
importance of
protecting this
environment
•
Retaining seawalls
(right)
Coastal Demographics
o
Many coastal areas overdeveloped
•
•
o
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
Conservation and Land Resources
o
o
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
Conservation and Land Resources
The Top 10 most endangered ecosystems in the United States (in
order of priority)
Fraser, Columbia River Watersheds
Fraser, Columbia River Watersheds
Hell’s Gate in
The Fraser River
Watershed
Fraser, Columbia River Watersheds
Hell’s Gate,
before construction
Fraser, Columbia River Watersheds
Fraser, Columbia River Watersheds
Fraser, Columbia River Watersheds
Fraser, Columbia River Watersheds
Trapped Sockeye
Salmon, 1913.
Fraser, Columbia River Watersheds
Fraser, Columbia River Watersheds
Temporary
Fishway,
1914
Fraser, Columbia River Watersheds
Fishway
scale model,
University of
Washington,
1943.
Fraser, Columbia River Watersheds
Fraser, Columbia River Watersheds
Hells Gate
Fishways,1990
Fraser, Columbia River Watersheds
A Conspiracy of Optimism?
“where the long-term health of the ecosystem and its salmon
were repeatedly sacrificed for short-term economic gains from
development or excessive harvest.”
-page 197
Fraser, Columbia River Watersheds
Hatcheries
“man the conqueror
versus man the biotic
citizen.”
Watersheds