Chapter 16: Landscape Ecology, Urban Forestry and Wetlands

Questions
Exercises
Links

Summary
Vegetation, the ecological producers, provides the foundation of food webs and ecosystems. Take care of the vegetation and you will do much to care for the ecosystem. Landscape ecology teaches us that terrestrial ecological functions depend on the interrelationships of the dominant land use/cover matrix with vegetative patches and corridors. People are an integral part of ecosystems and not surprisingly, vegetation provides to them significant economic, environmental, aesthetic and spiritual benefits. To preserve those benefits it is necessary to manage vegetative cover and the tree canopy.
Urban forestry has emerged as the basic discipline for managing the tree canopy in urban and metropolitan areas. Fundamental objectives include maintaining and protecting existing trees and increasing tree planting to expand the urban forest canopy. Studies by AF show that forest canopy has declined significantly in urban and metropolitan areas across the United States. Heavy canopy (_50% cover) in urban areas has decreased typically from 40–50 percent to 20 percent of total land area from the 1970s to the 1990s. AF recommends an average metropolitan canopy cover of 40 percent to maximize stormwater management, air quality, and energy benefits. It estimates a national urban tree deficit of 634 million trees, the number needed to be planted to achieve this 40 percent canopy level.

Some of the most important ecological areas are wetlands and the coastal zone at the land-water interface. Recognition of the economic, environmental, and social benefits of wetlands has helped establish a variety of programs to protect them. These programs have reduced the rate of conversion of wetlands to other uses, but we still have not achieved a no-net-loss status that is our national policy.
Coastal zones are critical environmental areas because they combine environmental sensitivity and development pressures. During the past three decades, federally supported state CZM programs have increased land use planning and management in these areas with mixed success. Some states, like California and Maryland, have developed effective programs that may inform other state and local governments.

Chapter 16 Discussion Questions:

1. Landscape ecology uses basic ecological principles to characterize key land-scape components that contribute to wildlife habitat and ecological integrity in human altered environments. List four basic landscape ecology characteristics and briefly define them.

2. Distinguish between the following vegetative buffers in terms of vegetative type, objectives, and effectiveness: fliter strips, wind-trap strips, shelterbelts, grassed waterways, and contour grass strips.

3. Wetlands currently offer a dramatic stage for the conflicting interests of land development and environmental protection. Since 1990, the federal government has adopted a "no net loss" policy which aims to prevent a net reduction in wetland acres.
a. What is wetlands mitigation and how does it rank in the hierarchy of methods to achieve a "no net loss"?
b. Define "wetlands mitigation banking":
c. Can wetlands mitigation banking contribute to "no net loss"? Briefly explain.

Chapter 16 Exercises:

1. Investigate your local community’s program for urban forestry, tree preservation, and landscaping ordinances. How do they compare to the program guidelines presented in Chapter 16?
2. Select a coastal state in the U.S. and investigate its coastal zone management program. Referring to program information on the Internet, as well as the CZM evaluation studies cited in the references, write a two page synopsis and critical review of the program.
3. Select one of the American Forests Regional Ecological Studies posted on the Internet for a metropolitan area near you. Write a two page synopsis of the study, including its major findings, conclusions, and recommendations.