SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY: THE PINE BELT AND INTERNATIONALLY

Joshua OliverGHY 543

Spring 2016

OVERVIEW• What is Sustainable Forestry?

• Elements of Sustainable Forestry

• Examples of Sustainable Forestry Management• Here in Mississippi

• De Soto National Forest• Sandhill Crane National Wildlife

Refuge• Aboard (Peruvian Amazon)

Misty Amazonian Morning, Madre de Dios, Peru(Photo by Joshua Oliver, 2015)

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY?

“If we manage forests as closely as possible to how nature would manage them, then we should be able to ensure continued growth”

-Forest Stewardship Council; 2013

Sustainable forest management, Georgia; 2014

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY?

Sustainable forestry overarching goals:

• Environmental protection• Socio-economical gain

for today’s needs

Cibola National Forest, NE New Mexico, USA (Photo by Joshua Oliver, 2015)

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION• Sanction of land

• 155 National Forests• 190m acres

• Protection from development

• Protection of endemic and naturally occurring species

Winged Pitcher Plant, De Soto National Forest, Mississippi (Photo by Joshua Oliver, 2015)

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONManagement Practices:

• Thinning (selective cutting)• Prescribed burning, pesticides, and

herbicides• Restoration efforts Proscribed burning in

Thomas Jefferson National Forest, Virginia (top),

Longleaf Pine nursery, De Soto National Forest,

Mississippi (Left) (Top- Joshua Oliver, 2013; Left- Joshua Oliver, 2015)

SOCIO-ECONOMIC• International Union for

Conservation of Nature• Most National Forest are IUCN

Category IV

• Under Category IV• Rights to make profits by

• Cutting timber• Oil and natural gas collection• Coal collection• Water collection and hydro-

electrical powerMarcellus Shale Deposit in the Virginian

Appalachians(Map by Harper and Voros; 2012)

POTENTIAL EFFECTS• Conservation vs

Preservation

• Should we allow such activities in National Forests?

• Outgoing effects of doing so?

Clear cut off I-20 in Rankin County, Mississippi (Left), Paul Karason of Bellingham, Washington (Bottom)

(Source: www.airphotona.com; 2014)

(Source: www.washingtonpost.com; 2008)

DE SOTO NATIONAL FOREST

• De Soto National Forest• 518,587 acres federally

protected• 284,357 acres under IUCN

category IV

• Three main ecosystems• Maturing longleaf pine

forests• Successional rangelands• Pitcher Plant bogs De Soto’s Three Main Ecotones

(Photo by Joshua Oliver; 2015)(Source: Google Earth, 2016)

DE SOTO NATIONAL FORESTManagement Practices• Prescribed

burning• Highly

important for Longleaf Pine

• “Off limits” Zones• Within 100

meters of the pitcher plant bog

Prescribed burning of De Soto National Forest in Jackson County, MS (Left)Regeneration of Longleaf Pine after a fire (bottom)

(Source: www.natl.ifas.ufl.edu; 2009)

(Source: www. blog.gulflive.com; 2013)

SANDHILL CRANE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

• 26.7 mi² of fully protected land

• Constructed in efforts of protecting the endangered Mississippi Sandhill Crane

(Source: Google Earth; 2016)

Mississippi Sandhill Crane(Source: www.whiteoakwildlife.org)

SANDHILL CRANE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

Management Practices

• Selective thinning• Importance?

• Hydration of land to provide important bog-like conditions• Providing food and nursery

to the cranes Selective thinning and bogs of SCNWR to provide the perfect habit for the cranes

(Photo by Joshua Oliver; 2016)

MADRE DE DIOS, PERU• 32,934.72 mi² in area

• ~25,000 mi² never seen by modern society

• Las Piedras• One of the largest headwater rivers

of the Amazon

• Home to thousands if not millions of species of flora and fauna

(most are microbes)Madre De Dios Region of Peru (red)

(Source: www.lahistoriaconmapas.com)

MADRE DE DIOS, PERUManagement Practices??

• Fighting the needs of development• Extremely poor region of Peru

• ‘The Rainforest is there for the picking’• Illegal gold and silver operation

• Deforestation of Rainforest and quality of water

Police destroying a illegal gold operation(Source: www.latinpost.com; 2015)

MADRE DE DIOS, PERUManagement Practices??

• Large tree species such as Ironwood and Kapok bring in thousands of dollars per tree• Selecting cut of

these trees in sight off the rivers

STIHL Shop in Puerto Maldonado, Peru (Top), Selected Cut of an Ironwood Tree off the Las Piedras (Right) (Photos by Joshua Oliver, 2015)

MADRE DE DIOS, PERUManagement Practice??

• Peruvian Gov’t sanctioned most of undeveloped land within the Peruvian Amazonian Rainforest in 2015• Protection of species• To be used in Ecotourism

• Giant step towards protecting this vital ecosystem

(Photos by Will Dowd and Joshua Oliver; 2015)

CONCLUSION• Providing sustainable

practices to forests in the U.S. and aboard is a difficult task

• Hopefully, with what our societies have put in place the next 10 generations can enjoy the same places we can stand in today

(Photos by Joshua Oliver; 2015-2016)