Every one of us uses wood products every single day. So how do we balance the needs of us humans with the forests that provide us with wood?
Watch this Serious Science video to discover how forests can provide humans with countless resources and animals with places to live. See how forests can be managed in a sustainable way. Paul Bunyan has nothing on today’s modern foresters.
Then, take a short-CUT to learning by downloading the lesson below.
The Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association was the educational partner that supported this video. Check out their website for bonus information on how forests are managed in the Great Lakes Region.
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The doctor is in! In this lesson, you will be a forest doctor and conduct a forest health checkup. You will get the opportunity to visit a local forest and, in a small group, study the forest to see if it is healthy or sick.
The lesson also provides you with the opportunity to discuss big topics, like what does sustainability mean to each of us and how do foresters balance different points of view. Check it out.
So what is this “sustainable forestry” stuff? Find out by watching this video that’s “rooted” in forest science. Then you can also expand your “tree of learning” in your classroom with a combination of watching the video and taking part in classroom fun when your teacher downloads the free Lesson Guide that further explores this topic. So download the free Lesson Activity at the bottom of this page to get started!
We hear the word “sustainability” a lot, but what does it really mean? And how does “sustainability” really affect our lives?
Well, for biological systems such as a forest or a wetland, sustainability is the system’s ability to remain productive over a long time. It needs to continuously “sustain” the health of the system that can contain air, water, soil, trees, and animals. One of the things that can affect the sustainability of a system is the impact of humans consuming vital parts of the system.
To find out more about how all a dynamic forest system works, just open the “Learn More” below here.
Plus, the educational partner noted below supported the video and lesson content here for all of us to learn from. They also offer other learning opportunities on their website. Educators are encouraged to evaluate and consider their science sources. Click on their logo to discover more!
For instance, if humans use all the water in a wetland to irrigate nearby crops, the wetlands ecosystem is disrupted to the point that it can’t function as a wetland. In short it dries up and is no longer a sustainable system. Or, let’s say humans mine all the coal from a rock formation. Once it’s gone, it would take hundreds of millions of years and ideal conditions to create more coal. So by depleting a natural resource that can’t replenish itself continuously such as coal, gas, or oil, humans can break a natural resource’s cycle of sustainability.
Forests on the other hand are a good example of a sustainable system because forests can naturally regrow while “sustaining” the other parts of the system. Even when facing the devastating effects of something like a forest fire, forests are one of the rare natural systems that have the ability to eventually come back to life with renewed growth. It may take some time, but the system remains sustainable. Although forests can regenerate naturally over time, they can achieve higher levels of sustainability when they are professionally managed.
For example, let’s say we have a forest that is “managed” naturally by Mother Nature where humans are not involved. So really, it’s not managed at all. Depending on the type of forest, it may take hundreds of years to reach maturity, get old, die, decompose, and eventually begin growing a new forest again. In that “do nothing” management model, forests can take a long time going through their progressive stages of forest succession. That in turn affects what other biological systems can be sustained during each stage of forest succession. For instance, mature forests with tall trees and little understory may be good habitat for woodpeckers and squirrels, but cannot sustain a healthy population of bears, deer, turkeys, and many other species that require different forest stages.
However, when forests are purposefully managed, they have the ability to sustain not only increased timber production, but often increase the sustainability of related biological systems that live within the forest. So let’s take a look two common types of forest systems and figure out how they are sustainable for the entire system.
One common type of forest is an aspen forest. Aspen forests grow comparatively fast and uniform compared to other forests. Plus, they can regenerate quickly by sprouting dense growth of new saplings from root suckers along older root networks. All of these factors combine to make aspen forests one of the fastest regenerating and sustainable forest systems. That in turn helps make aspen forests effective at soil and water conservation, while also offering abundant and bio-diverse wildlife habitat for many species of birds and mammals.
When managed by the practice of clear cutting, aspen forests regenerate quickly and grow back to timber harvest maturity in 45 to 55 years – a relatively short time frame if you’re a tree. This highly sustainable aspen forest makes it a prime system for growing and re-growing timber for human uses, plus a valuable tool for wildlife management. It’s kind of a two-for.
Another common forest type is mixed hardwoods. “Mixed” is the key word here. Unlike aspen forests where you have one uniform species that grows at the same rate, mixed forests have different species that grow at different rates and shade tolerances. This causes the forest to look, well, all “mixed” up. Some trees are big while others are small or misshaped. Hmmm, so how do we manage that mixed mess if we want the most sustainable forest for tree harvest and wildlife?
If left to chance and time by Mother Nature, mixed hardwoods eventually turn into a mature “climax” forest with minimal new growth and only a handful of remaining old species. So biodiversity of other biological systems within the forest are reduced and the regeneration of the forest can take a long time.
Forestry professionals however, have learned to “manage” mixed hardwood forests to increase the sustained productivity of the forests. Here’s how. It’s called “selective harvesting” where forestry professionals evaluate and select the individual trees to harvest. They harvest trees that will help the long-term growth and health of the entire forest system. It increases the amount and quality of timber that can be harvested over time, while also providing somewhat of a continuous forest succession that offers more diverse wildlife habitat than an unmanaged hardwood forest.
So next time you see a clear cut forest, consider how aspen regeneration is a way of managing for sustainable forest production and related wildlife communities. And when you see selective harvesting in a mixed hardwood forest, consider how humans have the technology, tools, and knowledge to manage a forest as a natural resource in such a way that it can continue to thrive as a sustainable system.
Forest Science Lesson Plan
