UNIT 5 - AP Environmental Science IN PROGRESS

APES 202526

Tragedy of the commons

The tendency of a shared, limited resource to become depleted if it is not regulated in some way.

Externality

The cost or benefit of a good or service that is not included in the purchase price of that good or service or otherwise accounted for.

Rangelands

Dry, open grassland primarily used for grazing cattle.

Forests

Land dominated by trees and other woody vegetation and sometimes used for commercial logging.

Clear-cutting

A method of harvesting trees that involves removing all or almost all of the trees within an area.

Selective cutting

The method of harvesting trees that involves the removal of single trees or a relatively small number of trees from the larger forest.

Ecologically sustainable forestry

An approach to removing trees from forests in ways that do not unduly affect the viability of other noncommercial tree species.

Tree plantations

A large area typically planted with a single fast-growing tree species.

Endangered Species Act

A 1973 U.S. law designed to protect plant and animal species that are threatened with extinction, and the habitats that support those species.