Page 351 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

Climate change threatens protected areas Conclusion

As if we did not face enough challenges in designing, estab-
lishing, and guarding protected areas to preserve species, Forests are ecologically vital and economically valuable, yet we
communities, and ecosystems, global climate change (Chapter continue to lose them around the world. Forest management in
18) now threatens to undo our efforts. As temperatures become North America reflects trends in land and resource management
warmer, species ranges shift toward cooler climes: toward the in general. Early emphasis on resource extraction evolved into
poles and upward in elevation (pp. 307, 519). policies of sustainable yield and multiple use as land and resource
In a landscape of fragmented habitat, some organisms availability declined and as the public became more aware of
may be unable to move from one fragment to another. Spe- environmental degradation. Public forests today are managed
cies we had hoped to protect in parks may, in a warming not only for timber production, but also for recreation, wildlife
world, become trapped in them. High-elevation species are habitat, and ecosystem integrity. Sustainable forest certification
most at risk from climate change, because there is nowhere provides economic incentives for conservation on forested lands.
for them to go once a mountaintop becomes too warm or Meanwhile, public support for the preservation of natural
dry. For this reason, corridors to allow movement from place lands has led to the establishment of parks and protected areas
to place become still more important. In response to these worldwide. As development spreads across the landscape,
challenges, conservation biologists are now looking beyond fragmenting habitats and subdividing populations, scientists
parks and protected areas as they explore strategies for sav- trying to conserve species, communities, and ecosystems are
ing biodiversity. thinking and working at the landscape level.

Reviewing Objectives

You should now be able to: • The U.S. national forests were established to conserve tim-
ber and allow its sustainable extraction. (p. 334)
Summarize the ecological and economic contributions • Most U.S. timber today comes from private lands.
of forests
(pp. 334–335)
• Many kinds of forests exist. (p. 326)
• Plantation forestry, featuring single-species, even-aged
• Forests are ecologically complex and support a wealth of stands, is widespread and growing. (p. 335)
biodiversity. (pp. 327–328)
• Harvesting methods include clear-cutting and other
• Forests contribute ecosystem services, including carbon even-aged techniques, as well as selection strategies that
storage. (p. 328) maintain uneven-aged stands that more closely resemble
natural forest. (pp. 335–337)
• Forests provide us timber and other economically impor-
tant products and resources. (pp. 328–329) • Foresters are now managing in part for recreation, wildlife
habitat, and ecosystem integrity. (pp. 337–338)
Outline the history and current scale of deforestation
• Fire suppression encourages eventual catastrophic fires.
• We have lost forests as a result of timber harvesting and One solution is to reduce fuel loads by conducting pre-
clearance for agriculture. (p. 329) scribed burns. (pp. 338–339)

• Industrialized nations deforested much of their land as settle- • Climate change and outbreaks of bark beetles are affecting
ment, farming, and industrialization proceeded. (pp. 329–330) forests. (pp. 339–340)
• Today deforestation is taking place most rapidly in devel- • Certification of sustainable forest products allows con-
oping nations. (pp. 330–332) sumer choice in the marketplace to influence forestry prac-
• Carbon offsets are one new potential solution to deforesta- tices. (pp. 340–341)
tion. (p. 332)
Identify federal land management agencies and the
Assess aspects of forest management and describe lands they manage
methods of harvesting timber
• The U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Fish
• Forestry is one type of resource management. (p. 333)
and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management
• Resource managers have long managed for maximum sus- manage U.S. national forests, national parks, national
tainable yield and have begun to implement ecosystem-based wildlife refuges, and BLM land, respectively. (pp. 334,
350 management and adaptive management. (pp. 333–334) 341–343)

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