Forest and Rangeland Policy Midterm

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Legislation

The overall process or set of rules. It is the entire act of making, drafting, and passing laws by a governing body like Congress or a parliament.

Statute

Another name for an enacted law. In everyday use, an "act" and a "statute" mean the same thing—a written law you must follow.

Act

A specific, official written law that has been passed through the legislation process and approved by the government leader (like a president

Agency Policies

Agency policies are official guiding principles and rules set by an organization or government body to direct decisions, shape daily operations, and ensure consistent behavior.

Policy Types

Policies generally fall into three main categories:

1. public (government) policies,

2. organizational (business) policies,

3. insurance policies.

Policy Makers

a person or group responsible for making the rules, plans, and laws that guide a government, organization, or community

Example: US President

Policy Influencers

a person or organization that shapes public laws, rules, and government decisions by sharing research, expert opinions, or public messaging.

Example: Environmental Advocates

Public Lands

areas of land and water owned by the citizens and managed by a government entity for the benefit of the public.

Example: National and State Parks

Private Lands

Private lands are pieces of property or land owned by individuals, families, or private companies rather than by a government.

Example: A Family Home, Private Farm or Ranch

Public Trust Resources

1. The Public as Owner: The citizens are the actual owners of these shared resources.

2. State or federal agencies manage and protect these assets like a guardian, ensuring they remain available for public use now and in the future.

3. Key Protection: The government cannot sell these resources off for purely private gain if it harms the public's right to use or enjoy them.

Examples: Navigable Waterways, Wildlife, Public Lands

Tragedy of The Commons

Definition: An economic and environmental concept where individuals use a shared, unowned resource for personal gain, which ultimately overuses and destroys it for everyone.

Example: Imagine a shared grassy field where local farmers bring their cows to graze.

• Adding an extra cow gives one farmer all the profit from selling that extra animal.

• But the extra grass eaten is shared by every cow on the field.

• Because every farmer thinks this way, they all add more cows until the grass is completely gone, ruining the field for everyone

Natural Resource Products

Every man-made product and everyday item is made from Earth's natural resources at its fundamental level.

Example:

1. Tree & Paper Resources- Paper, Cardboard, TP, Wooden Furniture, Houses.

2. Animal Resources: Leather, Meat, Milk, Eggs, Wool

3. Fossil Fuels: Plastic Toys, Gasoline

4. Earth, Rock & Mineral: Granite, Copper Wires

Bureau of Land Management

Job: manages public lands and subsurface mineral estates across the United States to balance commercial use, recreation, and resource conservation

Responsibilities: Recreation, Conservation, Minerals + energy

How much land do they manage?: manages approximately 245 million surface acres of public land and 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estate in the United States

Do they own the land? NO

US FOREST SERVICE

Responsibilities: manages 193 million acres of public land, meaning the federal government owns these lands in the public trust rather than the agency itself owning them privately

Do they own the land?: The USFS does not own the land as a private corporation or entity. Instead, it administers and stewards federal public land on behalf of the American people.

Fish and Wildlife Services

Responsibilities: conserves, protects, and enhances fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats.

Do they own land? - Yes! owns and manages public lands

National Park Service

Responsibilities: manages and protects over 84 million acres of federal public land across more than 430 designated units, but it administers them as federal property rather than holding private corporate ownership.

Simple terms: manages and protects national parks, monuments, and historic sites across the United States for public enjoyment and conservation

Do they own the land?-

Federal Ownership: Yes, the National Park Service manages over 85 million acres of federal public land, but this land is officially owned by the United States government on behalf of the American public.

• Private Lands?- Not all land inside national park boundaries belongs to the government. About 2.6 million acres within park borders are privately owned by individuals, companies, or state and local governments. [1]

Forestry

Definition: the science, art, and practice of planting, managing, using, and conserving forests and their associated resources in a sustainable way

Key focus areas in forestry:

1. Sustainability

2. Protection

3. Multiple use management

Working Forest

Definition: a forested land that is actively and sustainably managed to produce wood and timber products while simultaneously protecting ecosystem services like clean water, wildlife habitat, and carbon storage

Example:

1. Active Management

2. Private Ownership: The vast majority of working forests are owned by families, individuals, or private companies rather than the government.

3. Conservation Balance

REPLANT Act:

Definition:

Repairing Existing Public Land by Adding Necessary Trees Act), passed in November 2021 as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, eliminates the $30 million annual funding cap on the Reforestation Trust Fund.

Western Checkerboard Problem

Issues: refers to a massive 19th-century land-grid system that left millions of acres of public land legally locked away behind private property.

The Origin: The Railroad Boom

In the mid-to-late 1800s, the U.S. government wanted to build transcontinental railroads but didn't want to pay for them in cash. Instead, they paid the railroad companies in land grants.

To prevent the railroads from hoarding giant, continuous blocks of territory, Congress used a "checkerboard" design:

• The land was surveyed into a grid of 1-square-mile sections.

• The government gave the railroad company every other square (the black squares on a checkerboard).

• The government kept the alternating squares for the public (the white squares), managed today by agencies like the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or the U.S. Forest Service.

Eventually, the railroads sold their squares to private ranchers, timber companies, and homeowners.

Prehistoric American Forests

385 mill. yrs - First woody trees (Wattieza)

300 mill. yrs - First conifers

140 mill. yrs - First flowering/broadleaf trees

66 mill. yrs - Last of the dinosaurs

34 mill. yrs - Ice Age begins (because of forests!)

3 mill. yrs - Pleistocene ice age (tree ranges shift)

15,000 yrs - Humans present in North America

10,000 yrs - Mastodons (& other herbivores) extinct

4,500 yrs - Humans practice agriculture

North Coast Tribes

Yurok

Wiyot

Tolowa

Karuk

Hupa

Pomo

Who have inhabited these homelands since time immemorial

Traditional Ecological Knowledge ( TEK )

The cumulative body of knowledge, practices, and beliefs about how living things relate to each other and their environment, passed down through generations by Indigenous and local communities

Examples:

1. Wildfire Management ( cultural burning)

2. Sustainable agriculture and water systems

3. Climate Adaptation and Ecosystem restoration

Tanoak Acorns

a vital cultural food staple, economic base, and sacred resource for Indigenous peoples along the Pacific coast of California and Oregon.

Examples:

1. Preparation: Because they contain bitter tannins, tribes leach them with water after grinding them into flour, then use the meal to make soups, mush, and bread

2. High calories: Tanoak acorns are rich in nutritious fats and proteins. They provided up to 40% of the diet for groups like the Pomo people

3. Long storage: They feature a thick shell that resists insects and fungus. Properly stored acorns last for years, providing reliable food through cold winter months

Columbian Exchange

The massive transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, and diseases between the Americas (the New World) and Afro-Eurasia (the Old World) that began after Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage.

Eastern White Pine

&

Kings Broad Arrow Policy:

White pine harvested for ship

Significance to colonists: White pine harvested for ship building (masts) and lumber trade (“three cornered trade”)

-building (masts) and lumber trade

(“three cornered trade”)

The Mark: Royal surveyors marked eligible trees with the "Broad Arrow"—a symbol made of three quick hatchet slashes shaped like an arrowhead

• Answer: , refers to a historical system of transatlantic trade routes active from the 16th through the 19th centuries that connected Europe, West Africa, and the Americas

3 levels of of the Trade

What is three cornered trade?

• Answer: , refers to a historical system of transatlantic trade routes active from the 16th through the 19th centuries that connected Europe, West Africa, and the Americas

Longleaf Pine and its significance to southern economy and enslaved Americans Missouri Compromise

Definition: The longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) was foundational to the Southern American economy through the production of naval stores and lumber, relying heavily on the brutal, forced labor of enslaved people, while the Missouri Compromise of 1820 later managed the political expansion of the slavery-based plantation economy into new western territories

Pecans: The Centennial Pecan: Antoine successfully grafted 126 trees, producing the world's first uniform, commercially viable cultivar, later named the "Centennial" variety

(Antoine was an enslaved man)

13th Amendment

The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished slavery and involuntary servitude across the nation, except as a punishment for a convicted crime

14th Amendment

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified on July 9, 1868, grants birthright citizenship, guarantees equal protection under the law, and prohibits states from depriving anyone of life, liberty, or property without due process

15th Amendment

The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits the federal government and states from denying a citizen the right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude"

Consequences of the civil war for American forests

American Civil War caused massive deforestation and ecological damage, with armies consuming 400,000 acres of firewood annually and killing an estimated two million trees.

1. Direct Destruction and Deforestation

2. Long-Term Ecological and Industrial Consequences

Timber Culture Act

The Timber Culture Act of 1873 was a United States federal law that gave settlers an extra 160 acres of free land if they agreed to plant and grow trees on a portion of it. President Ulysses S. Grant signed the act into law on March 3, 1873

Goals

• Purpose and Goals

  • Increase rainfall: 19th-century scientists mistakenly believed that planting large numbers of trees—called afforestation—would alter the climate and bring more rain to the dry Great Plains.

  • Provide resources: The treeless western prairies lacked local wood for building houses, fencing, and fuel for fires.

  • Block harsh winds: Trees served as natural windbreaks to protect crops and stop blowing snow from burying fields.

Yosemite Grant Act

was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on June 30, 1864, marking the first time the U.S. federal government set aside scenic public land specifically for preservation and public recreation.

• Land Granted: Transferred ownership of the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias to the State of California.

• Core Conditions: The land was to be held inalienable for all time for "public use, resort, and recreation".

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Mega Fires

Mega Fires are massive, fast-moving wildfires that typically burn over 40,000 to 100,000 acres of forest or rangeland

How do Mega Fires start?

• Fuel build-up: A long history of fire suppression and the stoppage of traditional Indigenous burning practices have left dense brush and uncharacteristic debris in many forests.

• Climate change: Higher global temperatures, severe droughts, and low humidity create longer and hotter fire seasons.

• Invasive species: In rangelands, fast-drying invasive grasses like cheatgrass quickly spread and feed large, repeating fires

Is slavery mentioned in the US Constitution?

NOPE

Chattel Slavery

system in which one human being is legally owned as personal property by another. Can be sold, traded, bought or inherited.

Multiple Use -Sustained Yield Act

The Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960 is a U.S. law that directs the U.S. Forest Service to manage national forests for multiple competing uses rather than timber production alone. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the act into law on June 12, 1960.

• Core Purposes

  The law states that national forests must be administered for five equal primary purposes:

  • Outdoor recreation

  • Range (grazing for livestock)

  • Timber (wood production)

  • Watershed (water protection and management)

  • Wildlife and fish purposes

Wilderness Act

The Wilderness Act of 1964 is a landmark U.S. federal law signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3, 1964, that established the National Wilderness Preservation System.

Core Definition

• Untrammeled Land: Defined as an area where the earth and its community of life are unhindered and free from human control.

• Visitor Status: States that human beings are visitors who do not remain and do not leave permanent structures.

• Size Requirements: Typically applies to undeveloped federal tracts of at least 5,000 acres or areas large enough to preserve natural conditions.

Rules and Prohibitions

• No Mechanized Transport: Bicycles, motor vehicles, motorized equipment, and mechanical transport are banned.

• No Infrastructure: Permanent roads, temporary roads, and new commercial enterprises are prohibited. [

Dutch elm disease

Dutch elm disease is a devastating fungal infection that wiped out millions of elm trees across Europe and North America

Arrival in North America (1930s–1940s)

• U.S. Introduction: The disease arrived in the United States around 1930 via imported European elm logs used for veneer and furniture.

• Canada Arrival: It reached Canada (Quebec) around 1944, likely on crates used to ship European machinery.

• Vulnerability: American elm trees (Ulmus americana) were highly susceptible. Cities had planted them in dense rows, allowing elm bark beetles to spread the fungus rapidly from tree to tree. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]