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Forest Environmental Threats

The forests and rangelands face many environmental threats. These often act in concert and with
no regard for land ownership and administrative boundaries. As such, they are difficult to
identify and anticipate, much less manage or control. Researchers and managers are developing a
growing foundation of knowledge which can help assess and/or minimize these threats.

Forest environmental threats are numerous and widespread. Forests are vulnerable to conversion
to other land uses, and an increasing number of houses and other buildings in and near forests
may signify growing costs and complications in fire suppression and the potential loss of many
values derived from forests. Other threats to forests include diseases, severe weather, and climate
change. The Encyclopedia of Forest Threats addresses these topics and more within four major
sections: Land, Air and Water, Fire, and Pests/Biota.

Threats to the land include loss of soil quality and wildland area. Soil quality is potentially
affected by management and wildfire, as well as acid deposition and calcium depletion. Recent
conversions of forestland to other uses pose ecological and economic risks beyond loss of wild
resources. Air and water threats include severe weather and flooding. Fire is often used as a
beneficial management tool yet the severity, spread, and manner of ignition of wildfires can
threaten management goals. Attention is increasingly paid to threats that both native and exotic
biota can introduce into the environment..

Forest Environmental Threats

 Land : Review threats to land, including wildland loss and soil quality.
 Air & Water : Examine threats created from air and water, including severe weather, air
pollution, climate change, and flooding.
 Fire : Explore threats of fire, including its severity, spread, and ignition sources.
 Pests/Biota : Discover threats introduced by native and exotic pests and biota and their
dispersion.
 Salt Injury
Land

Landscape of Agricultural and Forested Land

Threats to forested land extend from site-specific concerns to threats across landscapes. From
1953 to 1997, most States (26) had a loss in forest area, according to periodic surveys by the
USDA Forest Service (e.g. Smith and others 2004). Nine States had net losses of at least 1
million acres each, ranging up to 6.3 million acres. Five categories of significant changes
affecting forest area are afforestation, deforestation, forest fragmentation, forest parcelization,
and increased numbers of structures, such as houses, on forest land. Conversions of forestland
are also proving to be a significant environmental threat. The wildland loss section quantifies
these threats to land.

Air & Water

Thunderhead at edge of Hurricane Rita

Threats from both air and water are numerous and substantial. Severe weather often poses
an immediate and uncontrollable impact on forests. Between 1900 and 2005, an average of 1.6
hurricanes per year made landfall between Texas and Maine, with an average of 0.6 major
hurricanes (category 3 or above on the Saffer-Simpson scale) annually. In 2004 and 2005 alone,
seven major hurricanes had an impact on the United States (Blake and others 2006).
Although weather severity (e.g., wind speed and duration, or form and amount of precipitation)
is clearly an important factor in the occurrence and severity of forest damage, site conditions,
tree characteristics, and stand characteristics play a major role in determining resistance of a
forest stand to wind, ice, and snow loading. This section explores various aspects of forest
vulnerability from severe weather.  It also details the economic impacts of hurricanes on forest
landowners. 

Fire

Biscuit Fire

Though fire can often be an effective management tool and wildfires can have an important role
in natural ecosystem processes, wildfires of extreme severity, size or timing can have damaging
effects on our forests. Managing and responding to fire on the landscape requires knowledge of
three phases: ignition sources including arson, severity and spread processes including mortality,
fuel consumption, smoke production and soil heating, and post-fire response including flash
floods.

Pests/Biota

Mountain Pine Beetle

Threats to forests may come in the form of both native and exotic biota. Several bark beetle
species, mostly in the family Curculionidae, subfamily Scolytinae, have the potential for
dramatic population increases under favorable forest and climate conditions, which can result in
landscape-scale mortality to the host tree species, (e.g., Wood and Unger 1996). For example, the
mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopk.) has killed much of the mature lodgepole
pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. ex. Loud.) over an area of approximately 9 million hectares (ha) in
British Columbia in recent years (Westfall 2005). Events such as these have widespread
implications for current and future forest management, ranging from effects on timber supply
and operations, wildfire-urban interface, wildlife habitat, and aesthetics.

Biotic threats often work in concert with other forests threats, such as fire or severe weather
threats, causing patterns of devastation. In this section, native pests, such as bark beetles, and
nonnative exotic pests, such as gypsy moths, are discussed in terms of stages of invasion and
decision-making in management. A focus on human-mediated pathways is considered as a
means of dispersion.

Salt Injury

Although de-icing salts assist in keeping pavement dry and safe during ice and snow, their
extensive use can cause damage to woody species along streets and highways.

Trees and shrubs can be injured by salt spray and drift, by salt that leaches
into the soil, or by a combination of both. The accumulation of salt within plants and soils affects
plant nutrition and water absorption.

Also follow mentioned threats & solution will helps to readers to understand how to protect our
rain forests.

Threats

 Logging interests cut down rain forest trees for timber used in flooring, furniture, and
other items.
 Power plants and other industries cut and burn trees to generate electricity.
 The paper industry turns huge tracts of rain forest trees into pulp.
  The cattle industry uses slash-and-burn techniques to clear ranch land.
 Agricultural interests, particularly the soy industry, clear forests for cropland.
 Subsistence farmers slash-and-burn rain forest for firewood and to make room for crops
and grazing lands.
 Mining operations clear forest to build roads and dig mines.
 Governments and industry clear-cut forests to make way for service and transit roads.
 Hydroelectric projects flood acres of rain forest.

Solutions

 Sustainable-logging regimes that selectively cull trees rather than clear-cut them would
save millions of acres of rain forest every year.
 Campaigns that educate people about the destruction caused by rain forest timber and
encourage purchasing of sustainable rain forest products could drive demand down
enough to slow deforestation.
 Encouraging people who live near rain forests to harvest its bounty (nuts, fruits,
medicines) rather than clear-cutting it for farmland would save million of acres.

Government moratoriums on road building and large infrastructure projects in the rain forest
would save many acres.