Global Connections:

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Global Connections Forests of the World
Activity 4 Analyzing Patterns of Forest Change
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Objectives

• Identify global trends in a forest area.
• Analyze maps of a particular forest to determine
  how and why its shape and size have changed over
  time.
• Examine how people affect forest changes.
• Investigate and present the reasons behind
  changes in a forest area observed in your own
  community or in another country.

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Searchable Key Words

• afforestation
• deforestation
• environmental change
• environmental history
• forest clearing
• forest cover change map
• forest history
• landscape history
• long-term ecological site
• plantation forest
• reforestation

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Background

• Activity 4

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Major factors determining the type and extent of
forests
Activity 4 Background

1. latitude
2. climate
3. terrain of a particular location
4. altitude
5. type of soil
6. soil drainage or lack thereof
7. fire intensity and frequency
8. history of glaciers
9. tree species that originated or were able to
   disperse to that area
10. disease or insects
11. frequency of hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes,
    mudslides, and other natural disturbances
12. humans

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Activity 4 Background

• Fossil evidence suggests that hunter-gatherers
  living on the margins of forested land used fire
  to influence the mix of trees, shrubs, and
  grassesperhaps to attract game or to make it
  easier to travel through the landscape

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Activity 4 Background

• As humans began to raise sheep, goats, and other
  herd animals, they used fire to encourage the
  growth of new green grass shoots for their herds
  to graze.

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Activity 4 Background

• Scientists offer varied estimates of how much the
  worlds forest cover has been reduced by human
  activity throughout the past several millennia.
• Those estimates put todays forest cover at
  between 50 and 80 percent of what it might be
  without human activities

Example
Image http//www.fs.fed.us/ne/delaware/biotrends/
trends22.JPG
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Three main human pressures on forests
Activity 4 Background

• deforestation
• forest fires
• and fragmentation

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Deforestation
Activity 4 Background
Definition the permanent removal of trees from a
forested area

• Reasons Loss of forest land, usually from
  development, urbanization, conversion to
  agriculture, flooding land for hydroelectric
  development
• Conditions such as poverty, joblessness, and an
  unequal distribution of land lead to
  deforestation. These conditions force landless
  farmers to clear forests for farming or grazing
  because they have no other way to make a living.
• Other activities indirectly lead to
  deforestation, including warfare, pollution, and
  human-caused global climate change.

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Forest fires
Activity 4 Background
Definition natural or human-caused disturbance
that affect forest.

• The number and intensity of human-caused forest
  fires greatly exceeds naturally occurring fires
• Can cause significant damage even to those forest
  ecosystems that are adapted to a fire regime.
• Routine fires set to burn debris, to clear
  fields, to clear underbrush to reduce fire
  potential near forested areas can escape control
  and cause extensive forest damage.
• Routine fires are an increasing source of
  destruction in tropical moist forests
• Example In the 1980s, and into the late 1990s,
  human-caused fires in Indonesia caused massive
  environmental and economic damage not only within
  that country, but also in neighboring countries
  such as Malaysia and Singapore, where the smoke
  led to health problems, disruption of shipping,
  and international airports being closed

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Fragmentation
Activity 4 Background
Definition division of a large or continuous
forest into smaller blocks, either by roads,
clearing for agriculture, urbanization, or other
human development.

• This fragmentation diminishes species diversity
  because it creates different habitat conditions
  along the edges of the smaller blocks.
• Example there may be less moisture and more
  sunlight and wind near the edges, making it hard
  for certain plant and animal species to survive
  and more difficult for animals to find food or
  shelter. Fragmentation may also block migration
  routes and open new areas for invasion by
  nonnative species. In addition, roads provide
  easier access into the forest for hunting, wood
  gathering, land clearing, and other activities
  that alter the forest ecosystem.

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Image http//www.wettropics.gov.au/st/rainforest_
explorer/Library/ImageLibrary/Development/Developm
entindex_2.htm
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Trying to increase forests
Activity 4 Background

• Reforestation

Afforestation
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Reforestation
Activity 4 Background
Definition renewing forest cover on a cut or
burned forest area by seeding or planting

• Humans may plant trees to increase forests.
• People may decide to reforest an area for
  commercial purposes, such as a plantation for
  forest products, or they may want to reestablish
  the natural forest environment for recreation or
  noncommercial purposes.
• Example The Tijuca Forest in Rio de Janeiro,
  Brazil, is the largest urban forest in the world
  and was reforested in the 1800s when erosion
  threatened the city after the forest was cut for
  coffee plantations.

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Tijuca Forest, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Afforestation
Activity 4 Background
Definition the planting of trees to create a
forest on lands that were not historically forest

• Afforestation usually requires major human
  intervention and management.
• Example Uruguay is one country that has an
  extensive afforestation program. With the goal of
  replacing unprofitable farming and livestock
  grazing on poor soils with profitable forests,
  those afforested plantations provide timber,
  pulpwood (for paper), and fuelwood.

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Doing the activity

• Activity 4

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Now, time to work!
Activity 4 Doing the activity

• Part A
• The Duke Forest

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Activity 4 Doing the activity
1. Discussion

1. How have forests in our state changed over time?
2. How do you think the extent of forests around the
   world have changed over time?
3. Where is forest cover changing the most?

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2. What factors might have influenced these
changes in the worlds forest area?
Activity 4 Doing the activity

• Which factors are forces of nature?
• ______________
• ______________
• ______________
• ______________

• Which factors are human forces?
• ______________
• ______________
• ______________
• ______________

1. Which forces do you think have the biggest
   influence on forests today?
2. How about in the past or the future?

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3. In groups of 3 or 4, look at the cards and
discuss
Activity 4 Doing the activity

1. What are the main ways that humans change
   forests?
2. How does each of those ways influence the extent
   of forests?

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4. Lets look closely at one forest
Activity 4 Doing the activity

• Material
• One Forest Over Time
• Map Analysis Tool

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Activity 4 Doing the activity
a. What are the differences and similarities
between them (size and shape of the forest)?
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Activity 4 Doing the activity
b. Trace the map onto the Map Analysis Tools
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5. In small groups
Activity 4 Doing the activity

• Discuss the causes of the changes
• Read the From Forest to Farm to Urban Forest
  (student page)
• Discuss the questions
• What factors influenced the size of this forest
  over time?
• What factors have influenced its extent and
  location?
• Do you think those factors are similar to what
  might be found in other places on Earth? Why or
  why not?

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Activity 4 Doing the activity

• Part B
• Change over time

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1. Lets check this interview
Activity 4 Doing the activity

• Planting Trees in Kenya
• http//www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/jan-jun
  e05/maathai_1-25.html
• Discussion
• What are the benefits of planting trees in Kenya
  and the challenges or barriers that Maathai and
  other Kenyans have faced?

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2. Challenge
Activity 4 Doing the activity

• Search records on forest cover change in your
  own community or in another country to find out
• what changes have occurred over time,
• the causes of the changes,
• whether anything is being done or could be done
  to slow or reverse the changes,
• what people in the community have been agents of
  change, and
• what students can do to effect changes.

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Potential information sources
Activity 4 Doing the activity

• Aerial photographs or satellite images from the
  local planning department.
• Maps of forest cover from the local forestry
  agency.
• GIS (geographic information systems) digital
  data. http//www.gis.com, http// www.esri.com,
• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of
  the United Nations (check the TEMS - Terrestrial
  Ecosystems Monitoring Sites - database at
  http//www.fao.org).
• Maps, photos, or logs housed at the local
  historical society.

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3. Discuss
Activity 4 Doing the activity

• whether the factors involved in the changes are
  still issues and whether actions can or should be
  taken to slow or reverse those changes.

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Assessment

• Part A, write a paper describing first the
  observed differences in the Duke Forest over time
  and answer the questions
• What factors influenced the size of this forest
  over time?
• What factors have influenced its extent and
  location?
• Do you think those factors are similar to what
  might be found in other places on Earth? Why or
  why not?
• Express your understanding of the various factors
  that play into the Duke Forest story climate,
  family farming, Indian management, research
  forestry, tobacco farming, and urban development.
• Part B, students presentations

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Enrichment

• Activity 4

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Forests change in your area over geologic time
Activity 4 Enrichment 1

• Research how forests have changed in your area
  over geologic time.
• For example where there is now a dry,
  cactus-studded desert in central Arizona, 225
  million years ago the area was a lush forest with
  conifer trees towering almost 200 feet tall. The
  area was once located near the equator and on the
  southwestern edge of the super-continent
  Pangea, which broke up to create our present
  continents.

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Forest data in your state or region
Activity 4 Enrichment 2

• Look for information about a forest in your state
  or region.
• For example Many states and universities have
  research forests similar to the one at Duke
  University. Harvard University has long-term data
  on its Harvard Forest (http//harvardforest.fas.
  harvard.edu).

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Technology
Activity 4 Enrichment - Technology

• Explore how forests relate to the topic of
  biotechnology
• What are the differences between traditional
  methods for modifying plants (such as selective
  breeding) and genetic modification?
• How are forests affected when humans modify the
  DNA of trees to make them (a) adapted to local
  conditions, (b) more resistant to insects or
  disease, or (c) grow faster and bigger to meet
  the needs of the growing human population?
• What trade-offs are involved?
• As a place to start Genetically Modified Trees
  From Stone Age to Modern Biotechnology by Rowland
  D. Burdon and William J. Libby (Forestry History
  Society 2006).

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Careers
Activity 4 Enrichment - Careers

• Interview a local planner (or other person who
  uses maps and mapping in their job) to find how
  mapping and other tools enhance the work being
  done in your community.

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Resource

• Americas Ancient Forests From the Ice Age to
  the Age of Discovery by Thomas M. Bonnicksen (New
  York Wiley, 2000)
• Deforesting the Earth From Prehistory to Global
  Crisis by Michael Williams (Chicago University
  of Chicago Press, 2002)
• The Duke Forest at 75 A Resource for All Seasons
  by Ida Phillips Lynch (Durham, NC Office of the
  Duke Forest, Duke University, 2006)
• A Forest Journey The Role of Wood in the
  Development of Civilization by John Perlin
  (Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press, 1991)
• The Last Forest The Story of Hatfield Forest by
  Oliver Rackham (London Weidenfeld and Nicholson,
  1998)