Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Science, Economics, and Politics: Managing
U.S. Public Lands
Since the 1800s, controversy has swirled over how
U.S. public lands should be used because of the
valuable resources they contain.
Many federal public lands contain valuable oil, natural
gas, coal, timber, and mineral resources. Since the
1800s, debates have focused on how the resources on
these lands should be used and managed.
Most conservation biologists, environmental econ-
omists, and many free-market economists believe that
four principles should govern use of public land:
■
Continue mining on public lands under the provi-
sions of the 1872 Mining Law, which allows mining
interests to pay no royalties to taxpayers for hard-rock
minerals they remove
■
Repeal the Endangered Species Act or modify it to
allow economic factors to override protection of en-
dangered and threatened species
■
Redefine government-protected wetlands so that
about half of them would no longer be protected
■
Prevent individuals or groups from legally
challenging these uses of public land for private fi-
nancial gain
■
Protecting biodiversity, wildlife habitats, and the
ecological functioning of public land ecosystems
should be the primary goal.
x
H
OW
W
OULD
Y
OU
V
OTE
?
Should much more of U.S. public
lands (or government-owned lands in the country where you
live) be opened up to the extraction of timber, mineral, and
energy resources? Cast your vote online at http://biology
.brookscole.com/miller11.
■
No one should receive subsidies or tax breaks for
using or extracting resources on public lands.
■
The American people deserve fair compensation
for the use of their property.
8-3 MANAGING AND SUSTAINING
FORESTS
■
All users or extractors of resources on public lands
should be fully responsible for any environmental
damage they cause.
Science: Benefits and Types of Forests
Some forests have not been disturbed by human
activities, others have grown back after being cut, and
some consist of planted stands of a particular tree
species.
Forests with at least 10% tree cover occupy about 30%
of the earth's land surface (excluding Greenland and
Antarctica). Figure 5-7 (p. 83) shows the distribution of
the world's boreal, temperate, and tropical forests.
These forests provide many important ecological and
economic services (Figure 8-7, p. 160).
Forest managers and ecologists classify forests
into three major types based on their age and structure.
The first type is an
old-growth forest:
an uncut or re-
generated forest that has not been seriously disturbed
by human activities or natural disasters for at least sev-
eral hundred years. Old-growth forests are store-
houses of biodiversity because they provide ecological
niches for a multitude of wildlife species (Figure 5-17,
p. 91).
The second type is a
second-growth forest:
a
stand of trees resulting from secondary ecological suc-
cession (Figure 6-10, p. 120). These forests develop af-
ter the trees in an area have been removed by
human
activities
(such as clear-cutting for timber or conversion
to cropland) or by
natural forces
(such as fire, hurri-
canes, or volcanic eruption).
A
tree plantation,
also called a
tree farm,
is a third
type (Figure 8-8, 160). This managed tract contains
uniformly aged trees of one or two species that are
There is strong and effective opposition to these
ideas. Economists, developers, and resource extractors
tend to view public lands in terms of their usefulness
in providing mineral, timber, and other resources and
their ability to increase short-term economic growth.
They have succeeded in blocking implementation of
the four principles just listed. For example, in recent
years, the government has given more than $1 billion
per year in subsidies to privately owned mining, fossil
fuel extraction, logging, and grazing interests that use
U.S. public lands.
Some developers and resource extractors have
sought to go further, mounting a campaign to get the
U.S. Congress to pass laws that would do the following:
■
Sell public lands or their resources to corporations
or individuals, usually at less than market value
■
Slash federal funding for regulatory administration
of public lands
■
Cut all old-growth forests in the national forests
and replace them with tree plantations
■
Open all national parks, national wildlife refuges,
and wilderness areas to oil drilling, mining, off-road
vehicles, and commercial development
■
Do away with the National Park Service and
launch a 20-year construction program of new conces-
sions and theme parks run by private firms in the na-
tional parks
