Land Resource Management Final

If you were clearcutting a 1,000 acre forest on a 50 year rotation, you could cut ____ acres every year indefinitely, as long as all the conditions for forest regrowth and replenishment were carefully maintained.

20

The federal land management agency that manages the vast majority of the desert and desert-scrub rangelands in the interior US West is the

Bureau of Land Management

A genetically modified blight-resistant variety of has been developed to possibly replace the native wild species that has nearly been wiped out by blight in the Eastern U.S.

Chestnut

Which of the following "New Deal" conservation initiatives utilized crews of young men to plant trees, fight forest fires, and improve visitor facilities on federal lands?

Civilian Conservation Corps

Which of the following is the only one that is an international agreement (as opposed to a U.S. federal law)?

Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species

Who was the author of the bestselling book Silent Spring, credited with enlightening the public to the dangers of runaway agricultural pesticide use?

Rachel Carson

The Prairie States Forestry Project was launched during the presidential administration.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Match the natural resource with the appropriate category (I pray you can all get this question right in your sleep).

__1__ fisheries __1__ game species of wildlife __2__ copper __2__ coal __2__ oil 1. renewable resource 2. nonrenewable resource

Which of the following land surfaces has a higher albedo?

an alpine glacier

When estimating the amount of forage on a pasture for a certain growing season, the unit most commonly used by range managers is

animal unit months

When estimating the amount of forage on a certain pasture for a certain growing season, the unit most commonly used by range managers is:

animal unit months (AUMs)

Which of the following would not typically be classified as "wildlife"?

crayfish

What is the term that refers to the dark-colored portion of topsoil that is comprised of decomposed organic matter?

humus

Which of the following soil textural classes "drain the fastest"?

loamy sand

Which of the following soil textural classes "drain the fastest"? (Stated another way: After a heavy rainfall and saturation of the soil, in which of the following soils would water move out of the macropores the fastest?)

loamy sand

In a healthy pasture that has seen only light to moderate grazing for a limited time, which of the following will be the dominant type of rangeland vegetation?

decreasers

Most grasses are classified as due to their nutritiousness and palatibility, whereas nearly all rangeland woody brush species are classified as for exactly the opposite reason.

decreasers / invaders

is the technical term for the property of clay particles that results from their large surface area and negatively charged surface.

exchange capacity (also got wrong so just hope for the best hoe)

What law was passed during the Civil War that allowed settlers to move West and farm lands for five years, after which the received title to the land for free?

homestead act

Rills and gullies are symptoms of relatively developed soil erosion usually caused by .

rainfall

Sustained yield is a management framework that can be applied to:

renewable

Which of the following methods for regrowing clearcut and burnt forests has become the dominant method of the USFS over the past few decades?

replanting with nursery saplings

Which of the following is not a method that could be classified as short-duration grazing?

rest rotation grazing

Soil texture is determined by the relative proportions of the of the soil.

sand, silt, and clay OR the fine earth fraction of mineral components

What two types of ecosystems (biomes) are most commonly managed as rangelands in the conterminous U.S.?

shortgrass prairie and desert

Perpetual passes of heavy machinery over industrial agricultural soils will result in a change in the soil:

structure

"Industrial fixation" is a term that refers to the use of in agriculture.

synthetic mineral fertilizer

The relative proportions of the fine earth fraction of a soil determine its:

texture

What federal law established the CRP program?

the 1985 Food Security Act

What devastating wildfire motivated the National Park Service to rethink it's "Let it Burn" policy?

the 1988 Yellowstone National Park fires

Which of the following is considered a density-independent factor limiting the growth of populations?

tornado

Selective cutting is classified as an:

unevenaged harvest method

Which of the following non-native insect pests is reeking havoc on hemlocks in Pennsylvania (and the surrounding region)?

woody adelgid

The class of landowners that own the largest percentage of all U.S. forestland is

"private non-industrial landowners"

The USFS defines "forestland" as land covered by at least trees.

10%

The USDA "T-value" states that agricultural fields can lose ______________ per year to erosion indefinitely without the result being a net loss of topsoil.

11 metric tons per acre

The USDA Shelterbelt Program began in what decade?

1930s

The federal first codified into law that national forests are to managed for "multiple use" in what year?

1960

In what year was the federal Environmental Protection Agency formed?

1970

The Endangered Species Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and National Forest Management Act were all passed during what decade?

1970s

As you move "up" the food web from one trophic level to another, about of the energy is lost at each successive step.

90%

What percentage of U.S. rangelands are located west of the Mississippi River?

99% +

Explain what it means to say the interior West suffered from "tragedy of the commons" overgrazing prior to the establishment of the Bureau of Land Management.

A. "Tragedy of the Commons" is a phrase that was created to explain the exploitation and overuse of lands that were shared amongst a group of people. Prior to the establishment of the Bureau of Land Management, many farmers grazed their cattle on the public lands and did not tend to land as they should have, which resulted in a decrease in soil health and overall production. Things such as deforestation, animal extinction or over-consumption, and climate change have all been linked back to the tragedy of the commons. Hide Feedback Just a bit incomplete here, but close.

Who wrote the first textbook on wildlife management (titled "Game Management") in 1933?

Aldo Leopold

List and describe the many benefits resulting from a carefully applied controlled burning program on forestland.

B. Controlled burning has a ton of benefits for our forests. These planned and controlled fires are a lot safer and help maintain the health of the forest. The burn removes things such as fallen branches, dead grass, and thicker undergrowth that could potentially flare up into a large fire. Not only does it get rid of the items listed, but it may also get rid of things such as invasive plants or larger insect populations. In addition to this, the burning returns nutrients back into the soils and the new open space allows for more sunlight to hit the forest floor and potentially grow new plants and trees. Overall, these burns are well controlled and a lot safer than a natural forest fire, and they have a lot of environmental benefits.

What is heart rot? How does the presence (or persistent threat) of heart rot influence the age at which timber managers want to harvest trees?

B. Heart rot is a fungal infection that affects the interior structure of a tree. This infection decays the wood at the center of the trunk and branches of the tree and results in the softness of the tree that makes it more susceptible to breakage. Heart rot has definitely affected the age in which timber managers want to harvest the trees because if heart rot has set in, the lumber is not as valuable due to its weakened state. Therefore, lumber companies want to harvest the trees at a younger, but still mature, age so that they can get their profits before the tree begins to show symptoms of heart rot.

What is rangeland carrying capacity and why it is so difficult to estimate with much precision?

B. Rangeland carrying capacity is the maximum number of livestock that a rangeland can fully support long-term without depleting the vegetation or soil resources. Determining the carrying capacity precisely is very hard to do because there are a lot of factors that must be taken into consideration. Things such as total acreage available, estimated rainfall, foraging demand based on animal species, and condition of the rangeland, to begin with, are just a few of the many factors considered. Since there is no accurate estimation of things such as vegetation production or the precipitation rates for the upcoming year, a farmer must make sure that they do not overestimate their numbers or there could be a shortage of food supply for their animals or overgrazing of their fields which could have long-term effects.

Explain in some detail the increasingly serious problem of severe bark beetle outbreaks in the evergreen forests of the interior U.S. West. [Please reference (a) climate change, (b) the US Forest Service, and (c) Diana Six in your answer.]

Bark Beetles are invading places all over the world, but they have been especially making their mark on the forests of the interior US West. These beetles thrive in environments that have been weakened by the effects of climate change, especially in areas of rising heat and drought. Fires have also made their invasion worse, and it is a big concern for the US Forest Service on how it could affect our lands. One forest ecologist, Diana Six, has done a lot of research on these beetles and has expressed her concerns on how easily they are spreading and how easily they adapt to changing environments. If these beetles continue to spread and wipe out the trees making up these evergreen forests, they may continue to keep moving East and if so, they could harm more land within the US. Hide Feedback "Bark Beetles are invading places all over the world." Incorrect. These are are feature of the world's temperate and cool coniferous forests. The second half of that statement just restates information supplied in the question. Try not to add superfluous information to your answers on questions like these. There is plenty pertinent information to write about. You don't need to pad your answers with fluff. You completely omitted any discussion of the FS's preferred method of managing beetle outbreaks, which is to harvest huge swaths of forest in their path, and also (crucially) Six's strong critique of this method. This was discussed in detail on April 13. You were in attendance at this zoom class.

Describe the following three silvicultural methods: clearcutting, seed tree cutting, and shelterwood cutting. Be sure you explicitly lay out the differences between the different methods, but explain, also, why they are all considered even-aged harvest methods.

Clearcutting is the dominant method of harvesting on both public and private lands. This form of harvest produces a monoculture forest that typically cuts down all of the trees in a uniform way. Seed tree cutting is somewhat similar to clearcutting, but instead of cutting everything down, they leave the trees that are needed for regeneration. Shelterwood cutting, on the other hand, is essentially where the new growth trees are protected by the coverage from the old-growth trees, and therefore can grow safely over a period of many years. All of these methods are even-aged because they all remove and or grow trees that are within a single age class. Hide Feedback A thorough explanation of clearcutting as a silvicultural method (as discussed in great detail in class on April 13) would have to include some mention of rotation age and shade tolerance. In seed tree harvesting, what "trees ... are needed for regeneration"? Explain. Your other crucial omission is that in both seed tree and shelterwood cutting, the remaining trees are harvested a few years after the initial cut, once the seedlings are established (if they were not cut, it would not be an even-aged harvest, hence the necessity of including this information).

If erosion from runoff in gullies gets severe enough, ___ made of straw and manure can be effective at mitigating the problem.

Dams??? (didn't get this one right so idk bish)

Explain Why a wildlife manager might want to keep local game species populations around only half of the local ecosystem's carrying capacity.

Deliberate management around 50% of carrying capacity has to do with maximizing yield by managing where population growth rates are at their highest along the sigmoidal growth curve that most populations follow. see chapter 3 lecture 3 at minute 22 We talked about this twice in class, once in the in-class discussion of chapter 3 and again in the review session before exam 2.

The construction of the Tellico Dam along the Tennessee River was temporarily halted after the passage of which of the following laws?

Endangered Species Act

Lead shot is banned for all types of hunting across the entire United States.

False

How does the "extractive reserve" model (employed primarily in developing countries) differ significantly from the national parks model that is dominant in the U.S. and Canada?

Extractive reserves are different than the national parks model for a number of reasons. One of the biggest is that these reserves are used by indigenous people in tropical forest areas. In addition to this, those who fought for these areas were not only the environmentalists, but also the trappers whose livelihood was being threatened by the loggers, ranchers, and miners trying to get hold of the land. Hide Feedback I am pretty sure you misread the part about the people in the original extractive reserves being "trappers." The first ones in Brazil were established for rubber tappers.

Heart-rot is a fungal pathogen caused by non-native fungal species accidentally introduced from Asia.

False

Who was the first chief of the United States Forest Service?

Gifford Pinchot

The concept of community is central in Aldo Leopold's landmark essay "The Land Ethic." Explain how Leopold uses this concept to illustrate the urgency and importance of society developing a "land ethic."

In Aldo Leopold's essay, he explains that community does not only include the humans, but also all of the other parts of the land, including things like soil, water, animals, and plants. He pushed for a connection between the people and the land because he believed that a land ethic would make people understand that people will not be able to survive without the land, and that means that they need to take care of it. He believed that the people should have some sort of moral values when it comes to taking care of the land and that they needed to extend their moral compass beyond just humans, because if they did not start doing that soon then the Earth was never going to recover from its neglect. Hide Feedback A good start but a bit incomplete. The crucial omission from your answer is a little more detailed explanation of the community metaphor itself, especially something about our recognition of a community as being a group of interdependent parts, but our blindness to the fact that we are dependent upon (interdepedent with) "the land" as well as with other (human) members of our community.

What is the name of the songbird species that nests in only 13 counties in Michigan that has rebounded from 300 individuals in 1974 to over 1,600, due to concerted efforts or reforestation and a careful prescribed burning program?

Kirtland's warbler

Which of the following "New Deal" soil erosion reduction initiatives focused its efforts centered on the 100th meridian?

Prairie States Forestry Project

Describe each of the following classes of rangeland vegetation: decreasers, increasers, invaders. Your description should include a basic definition of the category and what types of plants commonly fall within the category. Additionally, describe the relative proportion of each category of rangeland plants at three "stages" of grazing intensity: (1) healthy pasture grazed lightly or for a short amount of time; (2) a pasture grazed with moderate to heavy intensity for a modest amount of time; (3) a pasture grazed heavily for too long; at this point, signs of overgrazing start to appear.

Rangeland vegetation can fall into three separate categories: decreasers, increasers, and invaders. Decreasers, plants that are extremely nutritious and palatable tend to be the prominent plant of very healthy rangeland. These plants are things such as big and little bluestem, wheatgrass, and buffalo grass. As the land is grazed, the area starts to get taken over by the increasers, which are still quite nutritious but not as much as the decreasers. These plants are things like blue grama, needle-and-thread, and Nebraska sedge. Once these plants are grazed and or trampled by the herd they begin to be replaced by the invaders. Once the invaders start to appear, this is a sign that the rangeland is in terrible condition. These plants have little to no nutritional value and at some points may be harmful if the animals choose to eat it. Plants in this category are things such as Canada thistle, salsify, and gumweed. During stage 1 listed in the question, the rangeland would be full of decreasers and as they are eaten we move onto stage 2 where there are few decreasers left, with an influx of increasers. Once the increasers have been consumed we are then in stage 3 where all that is left are the invaders.

Describe in some detail each of the three grazing methods below. Be sure to explain how each method keeps pastures from being overgrazed. rest rotation grazing deferred rotation grazing short duration grazing

Rest rotation grazing is where certain pastures of the range are not used for a year or more so that the land can improve. This means that the resting period is used in a way that will offset the effects that happen due to the grazing. This method stops overgrazing from occurring because the resting period allows for the land to grow and flourish and therefore will not be overgrazed and ruined.Deferred rotation grazing is where there are multiple grazing areas, and each of them has one grazing period per season. The order in which these pastures are grazed also changes from year to year, but the intent is that the land will recover from the grazing more quickly and that the rangeland altogether will be healthier. This method stops overgrazing because the orders in which the pastures are grazed are well thought out, and the animals are not in one area long enough to severely damage the rangeland or overgraze.Short Duration grazing is where one herd only grazes an area for a very short period of time, typically less than a week. This form of grazing does not allow for overgrazing because the animals are not there long enough to fully consume all of the vegetation, and the rest periods after the grazing allow for new growth on the land. Hide Feedback deferred rotation: the key here is that all pastures are grazed every year (contrast with rest rotation) but each pasture is "deferred" two consecutive years out of every six year cycle. deferred pastures are not grazed until fall to allow annual grasses to mature and drop their seeds. (i.e., so it's a bit more specific than your explanation makes it out to be)

The USDA has determined that farmland can lose 11 metric tons of topsoil per year and maintain its natural fertility. This estimate comes from the belief that this is approximately equal to the amount of soil generated annually by natural processes. This figure is known as the:

T-value

What 1934 law took all unclaimed federal lands out of the public domain and attempted to begin regulating grazing in much of the interior West?

Taylor Grazing Act (aka Taylor Grazing Control Act)

Which of the following "New Deal" conservation initiatives took the farsighted approach of managing natural resources at the scale of the natural watershed?

Tennessee Valley Authority

Discuss the conditions (environmental, climatic, agricultural, and technological) that led to the Dust Bowl.

The Dust Bowl, although detrimental to the economy and those affected, was a huge breakthrough in terms of people finally taking care of their land and taking the environmental crises plaguing the nation more seriously. The great amounts of people moving out West for a better life and increased opportunity led to a lot more untouched land being farmed on. This land was also being experimented with new farming techniques, mostly revolving around plowing machinery, that would lead the farmers to increase yield and hopefully profits, but in the long run, it just eroded the soil because they weren't properly taking care of the land. The eroding soil plus the, what seemed to be non-stop, dust storms and drought created a recipe for disaster. Clouds of dust traveled across states and blackened our skies, and it led to a lot of concern regarding our environment, and eventually led to the formation of a few environmental agencies. Hide Feedback You didn't really describe the evolution of events over time. Other key points missing here: the decades of above-average rainfall that preceded the DB the marginal nature of the land for farming to begin with the actual farming practices that set the stage for the catastrophe (or ones that were not used that would have been preferable)

Explain the fundamental agricultural innovation being developed at the Land Institute (central to their paradigm of "natural systems agriculture"). Be sure to explain why the successful development of this innovation is so potentially revolutionary to agriculture as we know it.

The Land Institute is making strides in the field of natural systems agriculture, where they are trying to develop edible perennial grain and crop seeds. They are hoping that this development will help reduce the overall impact of industrial agriculture on the land. Making these annual grains into perennials would be completely revolutionary, and change agriculture as we know it today. These new perennial grains would be part of a perennial polyculture, which means that they would essentially all be working together to create a self-sustaining little system that would require little assistance from the farmers. Overall, it would not only be easier for the farmer, but these perennial grains would grow in a healthier way for the land as well. Hide Feedback Your answer is short on specifics and detailed explanation. For example, you assert that NSA would "require little assistance from the farmers " and "be easier for the farmer." Ok, how, why, and in what ways? Perrenial grains would "grow in a healthier way for the land as well." Ditto previous questions. Perhaps most crucially, you don't mention the reduction or elimination of soil erosion that would result from the successful widespread adoption of such a system.

The White House Conference on Natural Resources was convened during which presidential administration?

Theodore Roosevelt

The U.S. National Grasslands network is managed by what federal agency?

US Forest Service

How do gypsy moth infestations pose a lethal threat to northeastern forests?

When present in large numbers for 2-3 consecutive years, gypsy moths will eat the leaves of trees to such a degree that trees can become defoliated and die.

Which of the following terms is synonymous with "anthropogenic erosion"?

accelerated erosion

Most agricultural plants thrive in slightly soil.

acidic

What is the name of the property of clay soil particles that results from their large surface area and negatively charged surface?

adsorption

The ___ trophic level will invariably contain the fewest animals and least biomass in any terrestrial ecosystem.

apex predator

In any given terrestrial ecosystem, which of the following trophic levels will usually contain the least total biomass and the fewest individual organisms?

apex predators

is the term for the hypothetical maximum number of individuals of a given species that a particular ecosystem can sustain for an indefinite period of time.

carrying capacity

Which of the following soil textural classes would have the lowest permeability and the slowest movement of air into its pore spaces?

clay loam

"All of the living organisms occupying a given locality" is the ecological definition of:

community i think

is a model of alternative agriculture where community members purchase subscriptions of "shares" of fresh produce for an entire growing season from local farmers.

community supported agriculture

_______ harvesting is the method where all trees of the same age are harvested, and the successive harvest will come from regrowth from the cut stumps.

coppice

Most grasses are classified as ______ due to their nutritiousness and palatability, and the fact that they are the plants first eaten by grazers. By contrast, nearly all woody brush species are classified as ______ because they are unpalatable and will increase in abundance on an overgrazed range.

decreasers/invaders

Which of the following grazing methods defers grazing on one-third of a set of pastures for two consecutive years out of every six years?

deferred rotation grazing

The main innovation being developed by researchers at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas (their system is called "natural systems agriculture") is:

development of edible perennial grains

A wildlife species that subsists on a very wide variety of foods is known as a species.

euryphagous

Clearcutting is classified as an:

even-aged harvest method

"Commercial timberland" is defined as forested land from which timber harvest is an active, significant economic sector.

false

A wildlife manager will always want to manage wildlife populations at or near their carrying capacity to maximize a sustainable annual harvest.

false

Nearly all firetowers in national forests in the West have been torn down because infrared detectors, drones, and satellite imagery have largely replace fire spotters.

false

Total soil erosion in the U.S. has increased over the last half-century.

false

Creating a. _____ is the term for clearing the fuel (usually trees) in the path of a forest fire to try and stop it spread.

firebreak

When identifying rangeland plants, if you saw a soft-stemmed (as opposed to woody) plant with netlike veins, you would classify it as a

forb

Quail habitat can be enhanced by maximizing:

forest/open edge habitat

If woody invaders become well-enough established on a parcel of rangeland, a land manager may have to resort to manually pulling out the undesirable plants with tractors and chains, a method known as:

grubbing

______is the term for the typical environment where a species lives, whereas ______is a more active term, referring to what the species does within the ecosystem.

habitat, niche

When classifying rangeland plants, we can sort them into plants two groups, (a) those with woody stems and (b) soft-stemmed plants. An "umbrella term" for all of the various soft-stemmed plants is___ plant

herbaceous

Which of the following words would be more likely to be associated with a nutritious, palatable forage species?

herbaceous

Bottomland forests dominated by oak, gum, and hickory species are mostly located:

in the southern Mississippi River Delta

What types of plants are notable for their property of biological fixation of atmospheric nitrogen?

legumes

are a family of plants that are notable for their property of biological fixation of atmospheric nitrogen.

legumes

When assessing the relative affect of local slope of the terrain on soil erosion, two main variable determine erosion rates. These are the and the of the slope.

length / steepness

What is the term for soil that is rich with deposits of windborne sand and silt? Where topography and climate are favorable, these soils make up some of the most fertile dryland agricultural soils in the world.

loess

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are all considered plant:

macronutrients

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are all considered plant ______ whereas copper, sulfur, and magnesium are considered plant _____

macronutrients, micronutrients

The bottom-half (approximately) of the above-ground portion of a palatable rangeland plant is known as the:

metabolic reserve

Portable electric fencing has been a savior to those landowners interested in using which of the following grazing methods?

mob grazing

Clay soil particles have a charged surface.

negatively

The competitive exclusion principle states that two species cannot occupy the same in the same ecosystem.

niche

Which of the following class of forest land owners owns the most total land area in the United States?

nonindustrial private forest owners

"Tragedy of the Commons" mismanagement of land is most likely to happen:

on public lands that are unregulated and freely accessible to anyone

What was the most numerous bird species in North America in the early nineteenth century?

passenger pigeon

When contour farming, rows are planted to the slope of the terrain.

perpendicular

Carbon moves from the atmosphere into the biosphere primarily through the process of

photosynthesis

"All of the members of a species living in a given locality" is the ecological definition of:

population

All of the living organisms in the Susquehanna River watershed is an example of a biological:

population i think

The main change to farming practices made when a farmer agrees to a CRP contract is:

removal of highly erodable land from farming

John Muir is considered an iconic figure of the early movement.

preservation

Using trophic levels terminology, herbivores are referred to as:

primary consumers

Which of the following appears first?

rills

To keep livestock from congregating in streams, an inexpensive and effective technique is to place _____ 1,500 feet (or so) away from streams, encouraging livestock to move back and forth between the two (this also helps spread the grazing out over a larger portion of the pasture).

salt blocks

What tiny fish species caused a stir when construction of a large dam on the Tennessee River was halted due to fears that the dam would cause the extinction of the species?

snail darter

What bird species was nearly hunted to extinction around the turn of the twentieth century? The bird's breeding plumage feathers were sold to provide plumes for women's decorative formal hats.

snowy egret

The listing of the under the Endangered Species Act was incredibly controversial because it resulted in sever limits being placed on logging of the remaining old growth forests of the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

spotted owl

What 1976 law finally gave the BLM some real "teeth" to more thoroughly regulate overgrazing on Western rangelands?

the Federal Land Policy and Management Act

In 1994, the Soil Conservation Service was renamed:

the Natural Resources Conservation Service

What is the name of the fertile loess hills in Eastern Washington and Central Idaho?

the Palouse

By 1930, the region of the U.S. West that was the least settled was:

the arid Interior West

Which of the following regions has the highest percentage of its forested land owned and managed by the USFS?

the west

Most rangelands are managed as rangelands because:

they are generally to dry to be productively farmed

When a species is listed on the Endangered Species Act, it is classified as either or endangered

threatened

Total soil erosion in the U.S. has declined over the last half-century.

true

Trees of all species will eventually succumb to some degree of heartwood decay.

true

Which of the following would be a more technically efficient use of natural gas for heating water in your home?

using a natural gas boiler to directly heat your water

Gifford Pinchot is considered an iconic figure of the early movement.

utilitarian conservation

What resource/environmental ethical framework would best describe the founding mission of the United States Forest Service

utilitarian conservation

Shelterbelts were planted to reduce erosion caused by .

wind