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Environmental Geography

Chpt. 16Exploitation of Open Lands

Lecture 16: Exploitation of Open Land

I. The History of Land Exploitation in the US

II. Forests and Land Use

III. Grasslands and Land Use

IV. Managing our Global Environment

A. International Institutions

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I. History of Land Exploitation

I. History of Land Exploitation

Forest Reserve Act (1891)

1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2004

Romantic-TranscendentalismThoreauEmerson

PreservationistEthicMuir Resource Conservation

Ethic - Pinchot

Evolutionary-ecological land ethic

Leopold

1985Society of

Conservation Biology

EcosystemManagement

Anthropocentrism

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I. History of Land Exploitation

Current Public Land Management:

1. U.S. Forest Service:

2. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

3. Bureau of Land Management:

4. National Park Service:

(http://us.fs.fed.us/)

(http://www.fws.gov)

(http://www.nps.gov)

(http://www.blm.gov)

II. Forests and Land Use

Fig. 17.4

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II. Forests and Land Use

Fig. 17.6Uses of wood:•Lumber•Fuelwood•Paper•Recreation\Protected Areas

Since the 1960’s, the harvest of wood for fuel and commercial products has more than doubled. Fuelwood accounts (a) for over half of the world’s annual cut and more than 2 billion people in the developing countries depend on it for heating and cooking. Most commercial wood (b) is cut for lumber, plywood veneer, and pulp.

II. Forests and Land Use

Percentage of Protected Land Area For Selected Countries

25.0% 25.0%

19.0%

14.0%

1.2% 0.8% 0.3%0.0%

5.0%

10.0%

15.0%

20.0%

25.0%

30.0%

Germany Austria UnitedKingdom

UnitedStates

Russia Greece Turkey

Perc

enag

e of

Lan

d Ar

ea P

rote

cted

The World Conservation Union (2004)

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II. Forests and Land Use

Fig. 17.8 Commercial forest ownership in the United States. Most is private land located in the eastern United States.

III. Grasslands and Land Use

•Traditional uses of grasslands- Pastoralism

•Nontraditional uses of grasslands- Ranching- Agriculture- Development

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III. Grasslands and Land Use

III. Grasslands and Land Use

• Less than 8 percent of all grasslands worldwide are protected. • The lowest protection of any biome on earth is temperate grasslands, at

less than 1 percent. This includes North America’s Great Plains.• Poaching, overgrazing and clearing of the land for crops are the main

threats. About 16 percent of tropical grasslands have been converted for agriculture or urban development.

• Desertification is also a significant threat.

U.S. Protection:•Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA)

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IV. Managing our Global Environment

•Stabilize world population•Meet basic human needs•Maintain Earth’s life-support

systems and living resources

Three Key Steps to Sustainable Development:

IV. International Institutions

•United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) (1972)

•United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED): Framework Convention on Climate Change, Convention on Biological Diversity, Agenda 21 – The Future)

•Kyoto Protocol (1990)

Other:

•Development of NGO’s: Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation, etc.

•Grass roots environmentalism

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YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

http://www.panda.org/how_you_can_help/at_home/index.cfm

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/home.html

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/wycd/home.html

Some good websites:

http://www.livingthing.net.au/WYKD_Main.htm

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

"There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use."- Mother Teresa (1910-1997), A Gift for God, 1975.

"The life of every river sings its own song, but in most the song is long marred by the discords of misuse."- Aldo Leopold (1886-1948), Sand County Almanac.

"It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself."

- Rachel Carson, (1907-1964) The Sea Around Us, 1951