Forest management in Pennsylvania, USA

How managing low-quality wood (also known as low-use wood) for

bioenergy can encourage sustainable forest management
A
A tree’s ‘value’ depends on several factors including
its species, size, form, condition, quality, function,
and accessibility, and depends on the management
goals for a given forest. The same tree can be
valued very differently by each person who looks at
it. A large, straight black cherry tree has high value
as timber to be cut into logs or made into furniture,
but for a landowner more interested in wildlife
habitat, the real value of that stem (or trunk) may be
the food it provides to animals. Likewise, if the tree
suffers from black knot disease, its value for timber
decreases, but to a woodworker interested in
making bowls, it brings an opportunity for a unique
and beautiful piece of art.
B
In the past, Pennsylvania landowners were solely
interested in the value of their trees as high-quality
timber. The norm was to remove the stems of
highest quality and leave behind poorly formed
trees that were not as well suited to the site where
they grew. This practice, called ‘high-grading’, has
left a legacy of ‘low-use wood’ in the forests. Some
people even call these ‘junk trees’, and they are
abundant in Pennsylvania. These trees have lower
economic value for traditional timber markets,
compete for growth with higher-value trees, shade
out desirable regeneration and decrease the health
of a stand leaving it more vulnerable to poor
weather and disease. Management that specifically
targets low-use wood can help landowners manage
these forest health issues, and wood energy
markets help promote this.
C
Wood energy markets can accept less expensive
wood material of lower quality than would be
suitable for traditional timber markets. Most wood
used for energy in Pennsylvania is used to produce
heat or electricity through combustion. Many
schools and hospitals use wood boiler systems to
heat and power their facilities, many homes are
primarily heated with wood, and some coal plants
incorporate wood into their coal streams to produce
electricity. Wood can also be gasified for electrical
generation and can even be made into liquid fuels
like ethanol and gasoline for lorries and cars. All
these products are made primarily from low-use
wood. Several tree- and plant-cutting approaches,
which could greatly improve the long-term quality of
a forest, focus strongly or solely on the use of wood
for those markets.
D
One such approach is called a Timber Stand
Improvement (TSI) Cut. In a TSI Cut, really poor-
quality tree and plant material is cut down to allow
more space, light, and other resources to the
highest-valued stems that remain. Removing
invasive plants might be another primary goal of a
TSI Cut. The stems that are left behind might then
grow in size and develop more foliage and larger
crowns or tops that produce more coverage for
wildlife; they have a better chance to regenerate in
a less crowded environment. TSI Cuts can be
tailored to one farmer’s specific management goals
for his or her land.
E
Another approach that might yield a high amount of
low-use wood is a Salvage Cut. With the many
pests and pathogens visiting forests including
hemlock wooly adelgid, Asian longhomed beetle,
emerald ash borer, and gypsy moth, to name just a
few, it is important to remember that those working
in the forests can help ease these issues through
cutting procedures. These types of cut reduce the
number of sick trees and seek to manage the future
spread of a pest problem. They leave vigorous trees
that have stayed healthy enough to survive the
outbreak.
F
A Shelterwood Cut, which only takes place in a
mature forest that has already been thinned several
times, involves removing all the mature trees when
other seedlings have become established. This then
allows the forester to decide which tree species are
regenerated. It leaves a young forest where all trees
are at a similar point in their growth. It can also be
used to develop a two-tier forest so that there are
two harvests and the money that comes in is spread
out over a decade or more.
G
Thinnings and dense and dead wood removal for
fire prevention also center on the production of low-
use wood. However, it is important to remember
that some retention of what many would classify as
low-use wood is very important. The tops of trees
that have been cut down should be left on the site
so that their nutrients cycle back into the soil. In
addition, trees with many cavities are extremely
important habitats for insect predators like
woodpeckers, bats and small mammals. They help
control problem insects and increase the health and
resilience of the forest. It is also important to
remember that not all small trees are low-use. For
example, many species like hawthorn provide food
for wildlife. Finally, rare species of trees in a forest
should also stay behind as they add to its structural
diversity.
—–
*Stand – An area covered with trees that have common features (e.g.
size)
Questions 14-18
Reading Passage 2 has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Which paragraph contains the following
information?
Write the correct letter, A-G, in boxes 14-18 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
14 bad outcomes for a forest when people focus
only on its financial reward
15 reference to the aspects of any tree that
contribute to its worth
16 mention of the potential use of wood to help run
vehicles
17 examples of insects that attack trees
18 an alternative name for trees that produce low-
use wood
Questions 19-21
Look at the following purposes (Questions 18-21) and the list of
timber cuts below.
Match each purpose with the correct timber cut, A, B or C.
Write the correct letter, A, B or C, in boxes 19-21 on your answer
sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
19 to remove trees that are diseased
20 to generate income across a number of years
21 to create a forest whose trees are close in age
List of Timber Cuts
A a TSI Cut
B a Salvage Cut
C a Shelterwood Cut
Questions 22-26
Complete the sentences below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 22-26 on your answer sheet.
22 Some dead wood is removed to avoid the
possibility of ………………. .
23 The ………………. from the tops of cut trees
can help improve soil quality.
24 Some damaged trees should be left, as their
………………. provide habitats for a range of
creatures.
25 Some trees that are small, such as
………………., are a source of food for animals and
insects.
26 Any trees that are ………………. should be left
to grow, as they add to the variety of species in the
forest.
Conquering Earth’s space junk problem
Satellites, rocket shards and collision debris are creating major traffic
risks in orbit around the planet. Researchers are working to reduce
these threats
A
Last year, commercial companies, military and civil
departments and amateurs sent more than 400
satellites into orbit, over four times the yearly
average in the previous decade. Numbers could
rise even more sharply if leading space companies
follow through on plans to deploy hundreds to
thousands of large constellations of satellites to
space in the next few years.
All that traffic can lead to disaster. Ten years ago, a
US commercial Iridium satellite smashed into an
inactive Russian communications satellite called
Cosmos-2251, creating thousands of new pieces of
space shrapnel that now threaten other satellites in
low Earth orbit – the zone stretching up to 2,000
kilometres in altitude. Altogether, there are roughly
20,000 human-made objects in orbit, from working
satellites to small rocket pieces. And satellite
operators can’t steer away from every potential
crash, because each move consumes time and fuel
that could otherwise be used for the spacecraft’s
main job.
B
Concern about space junk goes back to the
beginning of the satellite era, but the number of
objects in orbit is rising so rapidly that researchers
are investigating new ways of attacking the
problem. Several teams are trying to improve
methods for assessing what is in orbit, so that
satellite operators can work more efficiently in ever-
more-crowded space. Some researchers are now
starting to compile a massive data set that includes
the best possible information on where everything is
in orbit. Others are developing taxonomies of space
– working on measuring properties such as the
shape and size of an object, so that satellite
operators know how much to worry about what’s
coming their way.
The alternative, many say, is unthinkable. Just a
few uncontrolled space crashes could generate
enough debris to set off a runaway cascade of
fragments, rendering near-Earth space unusable. ‘If
we go on like this, we will reach a point of no
return,’ says Carolin Frueh, an astrodynamical
researcher at Purdue University in West Lafayette,
Indiana.
C
Even as our ability to monitor space objects
increases, so too does the total number of items in
orbit. That means companies, governments and
other players in space are collaborating in new
ways to avoid a shared threat. International groups
such as the Inter-Agency Space Debris
Coordination Committee have developed guidelines
on space sustainability. Those include inactivating
satellites at the end of their useful life by venting
pressurised materials or leftover fuel that might lead
to explosions. The intergovernmental groups also
advise lowering satellites deep enough into the
atmosphere that they will burn up or disintegrate
within 25 years. But so far, only about half of all
missions have abided by this 25-year goal, says
Holger Krag, head of the European Space Agency’s
space-debris office in Darmstadt, Germany.
Operators of the planned large constellations of
satellites say they will be responsible stewards in
their enterprises in space, but Krag worries that
problems could increase, despite their best
intentions. ‘What happens to those that fail or go
bankrupt?’ he asks. They are probably not going to
spend money to remove their satellites from space.’
D
In theory, given the vastness of space, satellite
operators should have plenty of room for all these
missions to fly safely without ever nearing another
object. So some scientists are tackling the problem
of space junk by trying to find out where all the
debris is to a high degree of precision. That would
alleviate the need for many of the unnecessary
manoeuvres that are carried out to avoid potential
collisions. ‘If you knew precisely where everything
was, you would almost never have a problem,’ says
Marlon Sorge, a space-debris specialist at the
Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California.
E
The field is called space traffic management,
because it’s similar to managing traffic on the roads
or in the air. Think about a busy day at an airport,
says Moriba Jah, an astrodynamicist at the
University of Texas at Austin: planes line up in the
sky, landing and taking off close to one another in a
carefully choreographed routine. Air-traffic
controllers know the location of the planes down to
one metre in accuracy. The same can’t be said for
space debris. Not all objects in orbit are known, and
even those included in databases are not tracked
consistently.
F
An additional problem is that there is no
authoritative catalogue that accurately lists the
orbits of all known space debris. Jah illustrates this
with a web-based database that he has developed.
It draws on several sources, such as catalogues
maintained by the US and Russian governments, to
visualise where objects are in space. When he
types in an identifier for a particular space object,
the database draws a purple line to designate its
orbit. Only this doesn’t quite work for a number of
objects, such as a Russian rocket body designated
in the database as object number 32280. When Jah
enters that number, the database draws two purple
lines: the US and Russian sources contain two
completely different orbits for the same object. Jah
says that it is almost impossible to tell which is
correct, unless a third source of information made it
possible to cross-correlate.
Jah describes himself as a space environmentalist:
‘I want to make space a place that is safe to
operate, that is free and useful for generations to
come.’ Until that happens, he argues, the space
community will continue devolving into a tragedy in
which all spaceflight operators are polluting a
common resource.
Questions 27-31
Reading Passage 3 has six sections, A-F.
Which section contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-F, in boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet.
27 a reference to the cooperation that takes place
to try and minimise risk
28 an explanation of a person’s aims
29 a description of a major collision that occurred in
space
30 a comparison between tracking objects in space
and the efficiency of a transportation system
31 a reference to efforts to classify space junk
Questions 32-35
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet.
The Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee
The committee gives advice on how
the 32……………… of space can be achieved. The
committee advises that when satellites are no
longer active, any unused 33……………… or
pressurised material that could
cause 34……………… should be removed.
Although operators of large satellite constellations
accept that they have obligations as stewards of
space, Holger Krag points out that the operators
that become 35……………… are unlikely to
prioritise removing their satellites from space.
Questions 36-40
Look at the following statements (Questions 36-40) and the list of
people below.
Match each statement with the correct person, A, B, C or D.
Write the correct letter, A, B, C or D, in boxes 36-40 on your answer
sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
36 Knowing the exact location of space junk would
help prevent any possible danger.
37 Space should be available to everyone and
should be preserved for the future.
38 A recommendation regarding satellites is widely
ignored.
39 There is conflicting information about where
some satellites are in space.
40 There is a risk we will not be able to undo the
damage that occurs in space.
List of People
A CarolinFrueh
B Holger Krag
C Marlon Sorge
D Moriba Jah