Land Resources and Conservation

1
Chapter 17

• Land Resources and Conservation

2
Vocabulary

• Urban- city/high density
• Rural- sparsely populated areas

3
Current Land Use

• 55 private
• 3 Native American
• 35 Federal government (mostly Alaska 11
  western states)
• 7 State Local government
• Federal land managed by U.S. Dept. of Interior
  (Bureau of Land Management, Fish Wildlife
  Service, National Park Service) by Dept. of
  Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service

4
Land Use Types

• Wilderness
• National Parks
• Wildlife Refuges
• Forests
• Rangelands
• Wetlands
• Agricultural lands
• Suburbia/Urban lands

5
Wilderness

• Land not greatly disturbed by human activities
  where humans visit but do not live

6
Wilderness (cont)

• Government to set aside wilderness lands as part
  of National Wilderness Act of 1964- authorized
  U.S. Preservation Systems
• 42 of wilderness areas are in National parks
• 33 of wilderness areas are in National forests
• 22 of wilderness areas are in Wildlife refuges
• Given the highest protection of any federal lands
• 50 are in Alaska western states

7
Wild Scenic Rivers Act of 1968

• Protect rivers w/ outstanding beauty,
  recreational value, unique geological features,
  important habitat or species historic value.
• 50 are in Alaska Pacific NW w/ lt 1 of
  nations total river systems
• No development on shoreline
• Mining claims are allowed

8
National Parks

• Large scenic areas cultural historic sites
• Sites/Lands purchased with money from Land
  Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965
• Primary role of National Park Service is to teach
  people about natural environment, management of
  natural resources history
• Problems over crowding resource violations
• Natural Regulation- letting nature take its
  course most of the time.

9
Wildlife Refuges

• Land committed to wildlife habitat
• Established in 1903 by T. Roosevelt (National
  Wildlife Refuge System)
• 508 refuges representing all major ecosystems

10
Forests

• Occupylt 1/3 earth land area
• Ecosystem service include
• Provide timber
• Recreation
• Transportationgt biological cooling
• O2/CO2 regulation

11
Forest Management Options

1. Tree plantation- monoculture
2. Ecological sustainable forest management- sustain
   forest diversity ecosystem services but keep it
   commercially viable.
3. Selective cutting- cut individual or small
   strands of trees

12
Forest Management Options

• 4. Shelter wood cutting- removal of all mature
  trees in an area over a period of time.
• 5. Seed Tree cutting- almost all trees are
  harvested leaving a scattering of desirable trees
  left behind to provide a scattering of trees.
• 6. Clear cutting- All Trees harvested
• Deforestation

13
Effects of Deforestation

• Soil erosion
• Regional/Global climate changes 97 of water
  absorb from soil is transpired
• Erosion and decrease in soil fertility
• CO2 increases

14
Tropical Rain forests

• 1/2 Tropical Rain forests found in Brazil,
  Congo, Indonesia.
• Tropical Rain forests are disappearing due to
• Slash burn agriculture
• Commercial logging
• Tropical Dry Forests are destroyed for fuel
• Boreal Forests- worlds largest biome(11)
• Conservation easement- legal agreement protecting
  forests property form development for specific
  of years.

15
Rangelands

• Grasslands (temperature tropical)
• Provide food for livestock
• Preserved for biological habitat
• Mined for minerals
• Contains mainly grasses, forbs, shrubs
• Grasslands- predominately grasses w/ fibrous root
  system w/ growth buds below grade
• Tends to be overgrazed which can lead to
  desertification

16
Rangelands Cont

• Rangeland is 30 of total land area w/ 1/3
  publicly owned and 2/3 privately owned
• BLM manages most rangeland via the Taylor Grazing
  Act of 1934, Federal Land Policy Management Act
  of 1976, Public Rangelands Improvement Act of
  1978

17
Wetlands

• Transitional lands between aquatic and
  terrestrial ecosystems
• Ecosystem Services
• Recharge ground water
• Reduce damage from flooding
• Improve water quality
• Provide habitat
• Produce many commercial products
• gt ½ of wetlands have been lost since colonial
  times

18
Wetland loss controlled under

• 1972 Clean Water Act (good for coastal, poorer
  for inland wetlands)
• 1986 Emergency Wetlands Resources Act
• Requires FWS to inventory map wetlands
• Development of wetlands allowed only w/ creation
  of new restored wetland in same amount
• Problems w/ definition of wetlands
• 1985 Food Security Act
• Created wetlands reserve program gt voluntary
  program to protect/restore privately owned
  freshwater wetlands

19
Wetland loss controlled under

• Federal government owns lt 25 of wetlands in
  lower 48 states
• Remaining 75 is privately owned
• Coastal wetlands Saltwater wetlands
• Highly productive
• Protects coastal lines from erosion
• Reduce damage from hurricanes
• Protected under similar legislation rolling
  easements
• Marine sanctuaries (12 in nation) protect off
  shore areas that act as breeding grounds for
  marine animals/plants protect sites of historic
  values

20
Agricultural lands

• U.S. has gt 300 million acres of prime farmland
  (lands w. soil, growing conditions available
  water to produce food, forage, fiber oilseed
  crops)
• Note not all prime farmland is used to grow
  crops 1/3 contains roads, pastures, buildings,
  etc.
• Biggest problem facing agricultural lands is
  urbanization

21
Prevention of Urbanization

• 1996 Farm Bill- established Farmland Protection
  Program, a voluntary program that helps farmers
  keep their land in agriculture by selling their
  conservation easements to prevent conversion to
  non-agricultural uses for at least 30 yrs.

22
Solution to Urbanization

• Urban planning such as smart growth
• Define urban planning
• 32 of worlds total land area is agricultural
  lands ( 11.6 billion acres) (30 of worlds land
  is considered uninhabited by humans)