Lecture 15 Outline of Last Lecture II. Grasslands III. Fire a. Why do grasslands like fire? b. Generalizations about fire c. Fire benefits to wildlife IV. Interactions a. Great Plains b. Serengeti c. Agriculture d. Overgrazing V. Management for Wildlife on Ranch/Grassland Outline of Current Lecture II. Forest Distribution III. History in North America IV. Wildlife and Forest Change V. Forest Management VI. Important Forest Characteristics VII. Assessing Wildlife Habitat in the Northeast VIII. Wildlife Use Current Lecture Forest Distribution -temperate forests across much of Asia NRC 261 1 These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best !used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute. !-big forests are tropical forests in south america, Asia and southern Africa -Boreal forest in Siberia is the largest forest in the world Pristine Forests = before human population got above half a billion (not as much human impact) -predominant forest tree in New England was the American Chestnut (large circumference and tall)— produced chestnuts that wildlife made use of but disease wiped them out Forest Use: cut down lots of trees for their wood, which we use all the time History in North America Prior to 1900, forests regarded as inexhaustible (1600-1890) -when people reached the Pacific Ocean they realized that the trees didn’t continue and we had cut a lot of them down -caused concern among citizens (not just food wood, started people thinking about conservation) 1891 - Congress authorized the first federal forest reserves: saying that on federal land forests had to be protected (thousands of square kilos were set aside) Early 1900's- U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Forests (Gifford Pinchot) — enlarged forest reserve program 8x University training — people started being trained to do forestry (understand forests and utilize them in ways beneficial to new generations) 1950’s — growing use in forest products and forest land National Forests and recreation “multiple-use management”: wanted forests to continue to produce timber but we also wanted them as places for recreation like camping, hiking, skiing, hunting, fishing, birdwatching - many different ways in which people saw the forests as important Wildlife biologists hired 1976 - National Forest Management Act - put more in regulation - economic as well as environmental impacts — had to think about both when trying to manage the land Forest Ownership : varies across the country Southeast - 73% of forests are privately owned - corporations, private individuals - the rest is publicly owned but federal reserves can only work on some of it West - 3/4 is federally owned, only 21% is privately owned- it all started as federal land (from Louisiana purchase etc) and states formed but the federal government owned it before there were ever states - the management that does and can happen differs depending on who owns the land Massachusetts - around 65% forested - but the ownership looks like the southeast: 85% of the land in MA is privately owned - not by large corporations, there are hundreds of thousands of people who own substantial acres of forest - so if you want to manage the forest you can only manage several acres at a time (unless people ban together to pool resources or pool management practices to have an affect over a large period of land) Why manage forest land? -doing nothing is a management choice, you’re making conscious decisions no matter what -used by people a lot! -the good part : if you do it correctly it is renewable, the forest will grow back! You could continually have forests and continually use wood products -manage it wisely Wildlife and Forest Change Forest succession: idea that over time as plants, grow, compete, and die there is an ecological replacement of one plant community with another refers both to plants and to wildlife - goes back to the kinds of places that you’re likely to find certain species - grasshopper sparrows only occur where there’s grass — once lots of shrubs start appearing they disappear - some species particularly adapted to certain successional stages Succession and Ruffed Grouse -shows 2 different forests: Hardwood forest and coniferous forest (pines and spruce trees) -at the beginning when its starting to form, not as good for ruffed grouse (coniferous) -you would look for them and their densities to be highest at a forest of a certain age (they do well in young hardwood forests) Forest Management Silviculture: regeneration, tending, and harvesting of the forest Sustained yield management - "constant" supply over time - continually produces a certain amount, used in forestry for logging and timber - used in fisheries to have a constant supplyRotation time: The number of years between the time a tree or stand of trees is cut and the time it is replaced by another harvestable tree or stand. - trees grow pretty slowly - thinking about wildlife, rotation time is about a year, but for forests growing for timber there isn’t really anything less than a 40 year rotation time (much different timescale) Methods Uneven-aged management - selective cutting (single-tree selection, group selection) -when you do this you’re leaving some younger trees and some older ones, so the age structure of the trees is uneven (takes more work) -gives you diversity in the age, the size and the structure of trees Even-aged management - clear cutting, shelterwood cut -going into a large area and cutting all the trees, so if you went back in 20 years, the trees are all the same age because they were cut at the same time -can vary from an area half the size of classroom to much larger -much cheaper Benefits - mimics traditional historic natural processes like fire - lets you end up with an even age forest Costs - doing it too much or in the wrong way can fragment a habitat - wildlife separated from other parts of its previously whole habitat Important Forest Characteristics Snags - dead or mostly dead standing trees - provide shelter for nesting wildlife, food storage bin etc. Deadwood – downed woody debris, brush piles - some species need this kind of structure in