Forest Management

9/20/11

What is Deforestation?

• Deforestation is the removal of large expanses of forest for other uses.

What is clear cutting?

• When loggers remove ALL the trees from an area.

Pros and Cons of clear cutting

• Efficient, quick • Higher yields• Location focused• Can replenish with fast

growing trees• Good for trees needing

lots of direct sunlight

• May create erosion, and soil infertility

• Habitat destruction• Loss of biodiversity• Increases water

pollution

What is selective cutting?

• Intermediate aged or mature trees in the forest are cut one at a time or in small groups.

What is strip cutting?

• Clear cutting a strip of trees along the contour of the land within a corridor narrow enough to allow natural forest regeneration.

What is a tree plantation?

• A managed forest containing only one of the two species of trees that are all the same age.

Pros and Cons of Tree plantations

pros• Produce wood at a fast

rate/maximize harvest yield• Diminishes the need to cut

down old growth forests• Focus on one species• Easy access• Provide ecological services,

such as oxygen production

cons• Less biodiversity• Less sustainable than

natural forests• Deplete the topsoil of

nutrients• Spread of genetically

engineered seeds

How can fires be used to manage forests?

• Prescribed surface fires• Prevention of Crown fires

What is a surface burn?• Undergrowth fires,

which burn leaf litter on the forest floor. – Free up nutrients in

decomposing material– Release seeds form cones

of trees– Begin sprouting of

secondary succession

What is a crown burn?

• Huge, hot fire that burns whole trees.

What is a prescribed burn?

• A carefully controlled surface burn, that eliminates the dry underbrush that might otherwise cause a crown fire.