BIOL 3447- Midterm Flashcards
(102 cards)
forestry
the science, business, art, and practice of purposefully organizing and using forests and their resources to benefit people
silviculture (4)
- translation of knowledge into methods for managing stands to meet objectives
- ensures long term stability, vitality, and resilience
- aims to maintain diversity, increase productivity, and emulate natural patterns
- primary functions are: control (establish composition, structure, growth), facilitate (e.g. thinning), protect, salvage
realm of silviculture
- broad and interdisciplinary (biological, physical, social, humanities)
- Possibilities constrained by biological and physical
- Actions impacted by admin and economics
- Management impacted by law, policy, and democracy
scale of silviculture
forest (area dominated by trees, no ownership) -> forest estate (area managed for resources or other benefits, ownership) -> stand
stand
- a group of trees that
- grow together at a particular time and place
- can be managed as a unit
- have a unique set of characteristics
- can be maintained through treatments
technology of silviculture
treatments (e.g. tending, harvesting, etc.), intensity (intensive vs extensive), sequence
intensive
high operating cost and investment, maximizes timber production
extensive
low operating cost and investment, broad swath of land
high grading
only harvesting commercially valuable trees (large, high quality saw logs)- cull, poor quality trees are retained
diameter limit cutting
only harvesting trees above a certain DBH
sustained yield management
- balance of harvesting, regrowth, and regeneration (only harvesting the quantity of trees that can be regenerated)
- some timber income is reinvested
- supports the ecosystem, but you’re still focused on timber production
ecosystem based management (4)
- emphasizes multivalued
- recognizes hierarchy (can’t manage one thing without managing the whole thing)
- broad spatial and temporal scales
- detailed monitoring, adaptive management, and holistic approach
ecosystem based management in forestry
- maintain a complex ecosystem
- attend to stand structure and function over broad spatial and temporal scales
- supports:
- economic and ecological vitality
- transformation of landscapes
- creation and maintenance of ideal conditions
- multiple values
describe forest stands after fire
fire adapted trees remain, understory and overstory mortality, seeds dropped are likely to grow
describe forest stands after historic logging
conifers targeted for removal, balsam fir and white birch retained, more mixed wood stands, lower quality stems, less profit and job, increase in insect and disease damage
describe the homogenization of landscapes
all the forests in NA were cut and abandoned at the same time, so they all grew and matured at the same time
landscape equilibrium
- through time forests shift from young to mature to old, the areas may shift but the general ratio remains the same
- fire suppression has changed this ratio
- trying to maintain natural ratio during silviculture
values of forests
provisioning (goods), regulating (carbon sequestration), supporting (oxygen production), offering (cultural, spiritual)
functional zoning approach
- looks at the forest as a series of zones: ecosystem management, full protection, intensive management, fibre farms
- characteristics: science based, ecologically driven, adaptive
- goals: maintain biodiversity, increase productivity, meet wood supply demands
ecosystem management
- 74%
- reduced timber production, longer rotation periods, diversification of cuts, preservation of biological heritage
full protection
- 12%
- includes all ecosystem types, controls required
intensive management
- 10%
- traditional silvicultural, indigenous species, allows more land to be put into full protection, typically the best sites
fiber farms
- 4%
- hybrid larches and poplars
silvics
the biological characteristics of trees and the communities they form