Unit 5 part 1 apes

Bureau of Land Management

An agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior responsible for administering public lands, including grazing, recreation, and conservation.

Broad-spectrum pesticide

A pesticide that is effective against a wide range of pests, including insects, weeds, and fungi.

Clear-cutting

A forestry practice where all trees in a designated area are uniformly cut down to promote regrowth.

Crop rotation

The practice of planting different crops in the same area in sequential seasons to improve soil health and reduce pest and weed pressure.

Ecologically sustainable forestry

A method of forest management that aims to maintain healthy ecosystems while providing timber and other forest products.

Economies of scale

Cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to the scale of operation, with cost per unit of output generally decreasing with increasing scale as fixed costs are spread out over more units of output.

Endangered Species Act

A U.S. law designed to protect critically endangered species from extinction and to conserve their habitats.

Energy subsidy

Financial assistance from the government to support energy production or consumption, often aimed at reducing costs.

Externality

A cost or benefit incurred by a third party who did not choose to incur that cost or benefit, often leading to market failure.

Forest

A large area dominated by trees, providing habitat, resources, and ecosystem services.

Fungicide

A chemical used to kill fungi or inhibit their growth.

Green Revolution

A period of agricultural transformation in the mid-20th century characterized by high-yield crop varieties, increased use of fertilizers, and improvements in irrigation, aimed at increasing food production.

Herbicide

A chemical used to kill unwanted plants, especially weeds.

Industrial agriculture

A system of farming that involves the intensive production of crops and livestock, often using modern machinery and technology for efficiency.

Insecticide

chemicals used to control insects by killing them or preventing them from engaging in undesirable or destructive behaviors

Integrated pest management (IPM)

a process you can use to solve pest problems while minimizing risks to people and the environment

Intercropping

the practice of growing two or more crops in close proximity

Maximum sustainable yield (MSY)

the largest yield (catch) that can be taken from a specific fish stock over an indefinite period under constant environmental conditions

Monocropping

the agricultural practice of growing the same crop year after year on the same land

National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

US law that requires federal agencies to consider the environmental impact of major actions before making decisions.

National Park Service

The service manages all national parks; most national monuments; and other natural, historical, and recreational properties, with various title designations. 

Nonpersistent pesticide

less harmful to the environment because they do not build up but they have to be applied more often to households and crops to be effective

Organic fertilizer

fertilizers that are naturally produced.

Persistent pesticide

primarily consist of organochlorine pesticides, are considered persistent because they are stable in the environment and resist being broken down.

Pesticide resistance

occurs when a pesticide exhibits reduced effectiveness or no longer controls the pest population at the formerly effective rate

Plowing

to dig into the earth with a large farming tool to make the earth ready for planting, or to move snow or sand away from an area with a large, curved blade fixed to the front of a vehicle

Rangeland

any extensive area of land that is occupied by native herbaceous or shrubby vegetation which is grazed by domestic or wild herbivores

Rodenticide

pesticides that kill rodents like mice and rats

Selective cutting

the cutting out of trees that are mature or defective, or of inferior kinds to encourage the growth of the remaining trees in a forest or wood

Selective pesticide

only kills certain kinds of plants or animals

Slash-and-burn agriculture (aka shifting agriculture)

the natural vegetation is cut down and burned as a method of clearing the land for cultivation, and then, when the plot becomes infertile, the farmer moves to a new fresh plot and does the same again

Subsistence farming

agricultural activity to produce food which is predominantly consumed by the farming household.

Synthetic fertilizer (aka inorganic fertilizer)

prepared from rock and minerals and are formed by physical and chemical processes

Tilling

agricultural preparation of soil by mechanical agitation of various types, such as digging, stirring, and overturning

Tragedy of the Commons

the concept that, if many people enjoy unfettered access to a finite, valuable resource, such as a pasture, they will tend to overuse it and may end up destroying its value altogether.

Tree plantation

a forest planted for high volume production of wood, usually by planting one type of tree as a monoculture forest.

United States Forest Service (USFS)

is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forestsand 20 national grasslands covering 193 million acres (780,000 km²) of land.