Urban Forests 



Although the great bulk of the Nation's forest and 

 range lands is in rural areas, there are lands in the 

 urbanized parts of the country with many of the same 

 characteristics as rural forest and range lands and 

 used for many of the same purposes. They contribute 

 to soil and water conservation, provide habitat for 

 wildlife and sites for many kinds of outdoor recrea- 

 tion, and upgrade the environment and the quality of 

 life in urban environments. 



These lands, frequently called urban forests, in- 

 clude greenbelts, buffer strips, roadside forests, 

 community parks, and wooded residential and indus- 

 trial zones. There is no readily available information 

 that defines the extent and location of urban forests 

 in the United States. Interest in such areas and their 

 management, however, has grown to the point where 

 urban forestry is now recognized as an area of study 

 in some universities and in programs of Federal and 

 State agencies. Federal commitment and concern for 

 urban forestry issues is evident in the urban forestry 

 research effort of the Pinchot Institute for Environ- 

 mental Forestry Research at the Northeastern Forest 

 Experiment Station and in the Human and Com- 

 munity Development Element of the Forest Service 

 Program. '5 '^ 



Urban forests and open space can be looked to as a 

 resource in meeting some of the outdoor recreation, 

 wildlife, and environmental needs of the future. They 

 are located close to population centers and can be 

 especially important in meeting the needs of those 

 who are unable, for one reason for another, to use 

 more distant forest and range lands. 



Wetlands 



As a category of land that is part of the Nation's 

 forest and range land base, wetlands deserve special 

 attention because of their high biological productivity 

 and their importance as habitat for wildlife and fish 

 at critical times in their life cycles. Wetlands include 

 swamps, marshes, bogs, sloughs, potholes, wet mea- 

 dows, river overflows, mud flats, and natural ponds 

 and support vegetation that requires saturated soils 

 for at least part of the year." 



'5 Forest Service. The Pinchot Institute system for environmen- 

 tal forestry studies. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE 2, Northeast. For. Exp. 

 Sta.. Upper Darby, Pa.. 60 p. 1973. 



"■ Riddle, J. R,, G. H. Moeller and W. H. Smith. Breaking new 

 ground in urban America. American Forests, 82(ll):26-30, 66. 

 1976. 



I' Executive Order 1 1990, Protection of Wetlands, May 24, 1977, 

 Federal Register, 42(101), Wednesday, May 25, 1977. 



Most of these wetland areas are also classed as 

 forest or range lands. Salt marshes along the Atlantic 

 Coast; spruce bogs in Maine, the Lake States, and 

 Alaska; and prairie potholes in the Great Plains are 

 all wetland components of forest or range lands. The 

 particular value of wetlands derives from their impor- 

 tance as breeding areas for wildlife and fish; as 

 sources of water for wildlife and livestock; and, de- 

 spite their generally high productivity, as environ- 

 mentally sensitive areas. Disruption of the water 

 regime of wetlands can affect water tables and hydro- 

 logic conditions in surrounding areas. In addition, 

 disturbance of soil and vegetation in wetlands can 

 lead to stream sedimentation and loss of fragile eco- 

 systems that are important for fish breeding. 



Several national wetlands inventories have been 

 conducted beginning with an inventory by the U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture in 1906. These inventories 

 have shown conclusively that wetland acreages are 

 declining. The Soil Conservation Service has esti- 

 mated that there were once 127 million acres of 

 wetlands in the United States.'^ This had declined to 

 82 million acres by 1953." Continued drainage, flood 

 control, and related activities since that time have 

 undoubtedly reduced the wetland area even more. 



Concern over loss of wetlands has led a number of 

 States to pass wetlands protection laws. These laws 

 generally prohibit or restrict filling and other actions 

 in wetlands that are detrimental to waterflows and to 

 the ability of the wetlands to sustain wildlife and fish 

 populations. Their overall impact in reducing the loss 

 of wetlands in the face of major drainage programs 

 and reservoir construction has been limited, however. 

 Protection of remaining wetlands is an important 

 land management objective for both private and pub- 

 lic lands. 



The normal uses of forest and range lands in 

 wetlands areas, including timber harvesting and graz- 

 ing of domestic livestock, are compatible with 

 wetlands protection objectives as long as reasonable 

 care is exercised. The wet grassland ecosystem, most 

 of which occurs in wetlands, is the most productive 

 range ecosystem. Some forested wetlands, such as 

 bottomlands in the Mississippi Delta and along the 

 Southeast Atlantic Coast, are highly productive for 

 valuable hardwood timber species. Restricting log- 

 ging and grazing during certain times of the year and 

 minimizing construction of logging roads or other 

 soil-moving activities will minimize the impacts of 

 logging and grazing on these lands. 



'^Shaw, S. P., and C. G. Fredine. Wetlands of the United States, 

 U.S. Department of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service Circ. 39. 

 1971. 



'''Wooten, H. H, Major uses of land in the United States. U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture, Tech. Bull. 1082. 1953. 



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