The Resource Base 



products, especially around the Pacific Rim. In our projections, after about 2010, pine 

 plantations in the South are assumed to begin to reach maturity and help alleviate 

 roundwood price increases. However, the increase in recent years in State and local 

 regulation of forest management on private lands has created a great deal of uncer- 

 tainty about the investment climate for future plantations. 



Global Climate Change Could Have Many Effects on Ecological and Economic 

 Systems— The impacts of global change on natural ecosystems could be dramatic. 

 Changes in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may warm the 

 globe; however, regional effects could range from warming to cooling and from wetter 

 to drier conditions. Concurrent with these climate changes could be shifts in land 

 cover and land use, deforestation, and increases in atmospheric pollutants such as 

 ozone and nitrous oxides. Such global changes would cause major shifts in the 

 processes, structure, and composition of ecological systems, with potentially serious 

 effects on economic systems. 



Increases in Conflicting Demands for Private Lands Are Likely— Prwate lands 

 must provide a greater share of future natural resource outputs if demands are to be 

 met. However, there is not enough information about resource interactions to evalu- 

 ate the feasibility of increasing total outputs from these lands. This situation could 

 lead to misjudgments about the Nation's output capabilities. 



Reclaiming Abandoned Mines Is a Challenge — ^There is a considerable backlog of 

 unreclaimed abandoned and inactive mines, including many on public lands, that are 

 both safety and environmental hazards. Discharges from these mines can cause 

 extensive damage in local areas, especially if there is acid mine drainage. Because of 

 the size of the backlog and the high cost of cleanup, this situation dearly presents 

 serious potential problems. 



The Number of Listed Threatened and Endangered Species Continues To 



Grow— The official list of plant and animal species categorized as threatened or 

 endangered continues to grow. This is occurring because we are learning more about 

 species and because some species' populations are declining to dangerously low 

 levels. Continuation of the decline of species will reduce benefits derived from wild 

 species, greatly increase costs of management, require significant measures to 

 maintain species and unique habitats, and reduce human access where human 

 activities are inconsistent with species recovery. 



Size and Ownership 



Some 1 .7 billion acres (about two-thirds of the Nation's total area) are classified as 

 forest or rangeland, or are covered with water (app. table 1). Over one-half of the 

 Nation's forest and rangeland is in private ownership, and rights to water use are 

 predominantly in the hands of the private sector. The dominant ownership of re- 

 sources by the private sector is reflected in the analyses of demands and supplies 

 presented later in this report. 



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