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| The logging technique that causes the most erosion on steep slopes is ______. | clear-cutting (When you take out every tree on a steep slope, like in clear-cutting, you lose the roots that held the soil in place and you also lose the ability of transpiration in trees to suck water out of the ground, leaving it wetter and more prone to erosion),  |
| Soil in a tropical rainforest can best be described as being nutrient _____. | poor (Rainforest soils are thin and nutrient-poor because everything decomposes so quickly and the rains wash away any nutrients that aren't sucked up right away by tree roots. That is why removing trees in a rainforest is especially damaging. Without the trees and their roots, the little bit of soil and nutrients tends to just wash away.) |
| Tropical rainforests have more different species and varieties of species of plants and animals than any other type of biome, therefore, they have the greatest ______ of any type of biome. | biodiversity |
| ______ forests can support more biodiversity than forests that have been logged in the last 200 years. | Old-growth |
| Even if the total amount of land is the same, if that land has undergone _____ by being broken up into patches by things like roads and housing developments going in, that land will not be able to support as much biodiversity as the same amount of land if that land is all grouped together. | habitat fragmentation (For example, a 1000 acre forest will support more biodiversity than ten fragments of forest that are 100 acres each. Even though it's the same amount of overall land, animals need have access to bigger populations of their own species, and bigger populations of diverse plants and prey species in order to survive well.),  |
| Which type of terrestrial biome has the greatest biodiversity? | Tropical rainforest |
| What can you put near streams and rivers to prevent erosion and help keep the water cooler? | Trees (They also help provide more habitat when they die and fall into the stream because they change the flow of water and help deeper pools of water to form) |
| Most trees in tropical rainforests are being cleared by _____. | being slashed and burned,  |
| The northern spotted owl is a(n) ____ because it can only live in very healthy biodiverse forests. | indicator species (their presence indicates the forest is healthy) |
| TRUE or FALSE: Many medicines were originally discovered in rainforest plants and animals. | TRUE |
| TRUE or FALSE: The soil in tropical rainforests is thick and fertile. | False (It's thin and nutrient-poor due to the frequent and heavy rains that wash the nutrients from quickly decomposing dead organisms away. Soil doesn't have time to build up like it does colder areas where decomposition happens slowly if at all in the winter) |
| Which logging technique was used in this picture?, | Clear-cutting, |
| Helping to prevent erosion, flooding, desertification, and climate change, along with helping to purify water are all examples of ______ that healthy forests provide for humans. | ecosystem services |
Forests help prevent land that isn't close to large bodies of water from drying out (desertifying) because trees return moisture from the soil to the atmosphere through the process of ______ instead of letting the water run off into nearby streams and back out to the ocean. This allows rain to clouds to form and penetrate further inland., .png) | transpiration (Transpiration is the evaporation of water from leaves when the sun beats down on them. This helps pull more water up from the ground. It helps prevent desertification and erosion when there are trees on the land), .png) |
| Which type of forest biome has more biodiversity than any other type of biome? | Tropical Rainforests (Don't just say "rainforest" because the temperature rainforests don't have nearly as much biodiversity. |
| Logging companies like to point out that they replant forests after they log them. What is the problem with their "solution"? | They usually just replant with 1 or 2 species of fast growing commercially valuable trees. The forest basically turns into a tree farm and can't support the diversity of animal life that used to be there because there is little diversity in types of plant life on these tree farms. |
Which logging technique is being shown in the picture below?,  | selective cutting (this method is much better for the environment than clear-cutting, but takes more effort and money and may be less safe for loggers than clear-cutting), |
| Forests than have never been logged before would be classified as being ______ forests. | old-growth (Most environmentalists only consider forests that have never been logged as being old-growth forests. The Bureau of Land Management in the U.S. defines them as being at least 150 to 250 years old. The National Forest Service focuses their definition of "old-growth" as forests that have similar traits to ones that have never been logged before, like having very old trees but also trees of all ages, structural complexity in the canopy, high species diversity of trees and other plants, and dead trees and branches on the forest floor) |
| Which species of tree is the largest in the world by mass? | Giant Sequoias (These are mostly found out in Southern California up in the Sierra Nevada mountains at elevations between between 4400 to 6500 feet. The tallest can get up to 325 feet while their close relative, the Giant Redwoods, can get up to 375 feet tall. However, Giant Sequoias are much thicker than the Redwoods, so they weigh more)),  |
| Which species of tree grows the tallest? | Giant Redwood (These are a close relative of the Giant Sequoias, but most are found near the coast of northern California instead of the mountains of Southern California. They can grow up to 375 feet tall, but because they are skinnier than the Sequoias, they aren't as massive),  |
| Which species has a hard time living in anything other than an old-growth forest and ended up severely slowing down logging in the Pacific Northwest in order to prevent it from going extinct? | Northern Spotted Owl (This photo was taken in a forest that was owned and logged by a private timber company. They got permission to log because they used selective cutting methods and kept the forest healthy enough for spotted owls to survive. The biologist for this company had to monitor the spotted owl population using the tagging method),  |
| TRUE or FALSE: Forests can be logged in a sustainable manner. | TRUE (As long as you only log the inverse fraction of the number of years you let the trees grow, you will have a crop of trees every year. For example, if the trees take 100 years to grow to maturity, you can take 1/100th or 1% of the trees every year) |
| TRUE or FALSE: Old Growth Forests are considered to be renewable resources. | FALSE (It takes forests 100's of years to grow back to the point where they can support as much life as an old-growth forest, therefore they are not considered to be renewable) |
| About ___ % of the forests in the United States have been completely logged in within the last several hundred years. | 95% (Less than 5% of the forests in this country are considered to be old-growth forests) |
| TRUE or FALSE: Old-growth forests are federally protected and it is illegal to log them. | FALSE (Environmentalists would like small amount of old-growth forests left in the United States to be protected from logging, but they are not) |
| Tropical Rainforests only cover about 7% of Earth's dry surface, but probably contain about ___ of all the different species on this planet. | half |
| TRUE or FALSE: Tropical Rainforests are being cut mainly for their valuable lumber. | FALSE (They are mostly being cut to turn the land into pastures and farmland. The trees are often just cut and burned to clear the land quickly. This is referred to as "slash and burn."), |
| This method of clearing trees out in the tropical rainforests in order to turn it into farmland and pastures is called _______., | slash and burn, |
| Replacing forests for a different use (like land for farming, houses, or industry) is called ______. | deforestation (this is a satellite view of a large section of tropical rainforest that has been cut. What is left is so heavily fragmented that it can't support the diversity of life that an a large intact area of rainforest can support),  |
| Dead trees that are still standing are called ____. | snags (Dead trees that are standing provide more homes and food than living trees and they help keep the soil fertile when they decompose),  |
| TRUE or FALSE: Removing dead trees and branches from forests helps make the forest healthier. | FALSE (Dead wood in forests helps keep the soil fertile as it decomposes and also provides a lot of food and habitat for a variety of organisms) |
| The practice of having forest rangers intentionally setting a forest on fire in order to prevent the buildup of lots of dead wood on the forest floor that could lead to really big forest fires is called a(n) _______. | prescribed burn,  |
| Leaving strips of forest called __________ that connect one forest to the next allows animals to migrate back and forth, reducing the negative effects of habitat fragmentation. | wildlife corridors,  |
| TRUE or FALSE: It is a good forestry practice to remove trees that are near streams and rivers so that they don't fall into the water when they die. | FALSE (Trees provide shade which keeps the water colder, allowing it to hold more oxygen. Their roots help prevent erosion that can affect water quality. Lastly, dead trees that fall into streams help provide better habitat for fish) |
