Emily D'Souza- Topic of Choice 3: Caleb Redick Forest Restoration

 I believe this lecture took place over two class periods, and Caleb Redick presented on ecological restoration, and his personal experience with experiments on restoring areas in different ways. We learned that there are many issues that ecosystems may face, such as habitat loss, invasive species, disruptions in nutrient cycling, and overexploitation of resources. His niche was in forest restoration so that is what the lecture focused on. Some of the obstacles to forest restoration are the overpopulation of herbivores, competing vegetation, invasive species, soil composition, etc.. The most interesting part of his lecture to me was the discussion on deer, and how they can be detrimental to an ecosystem and forest restoration. I didn’t know that deer could cause so many problems, as well as do damage to an ecosystem. I knew that overpopulation of one species in an ecosystem would raise issues, but it seems that deer, just being deer, can cause issues to forest restoration. How does a cute animal that I see often cause this? Redick classified deer as “anthropogenically abundant”, which basically means they are capable of making changes to the environment. Deer are herbivores, so since they eat plants, when trying to restore trees and vegetation, they eat the plants before they have time to fully mature. Them walking on the soil can also reduce the possibility of successful restoration. Other issues they pose is an increase in time and costs for regeneration, or a total failure in ecological restoration. Him and his team concluded that fencing the restoration area had the greatest positive influence on survival and growth. Other management strategies discussed were population reduction/control and an increase in food resources for the ecosystem.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nature Walk

 I took a walk around the Noland trail last week to just be able to say I have done it before my time ends at CNU. This was always a bucket list thing to do and after the 6-mile walk, I wish I had done it a lot earlier. I felt at peace during the walk like I didn't have finals coming up or papers to write. The only thing that was going through my head was "Wow it's been an hour already". The walk calmed my nerves and prepared me for my finals week and everything to get crazy. I wish I did this freshman year so I could have made it a habit before my final semester.
Read more

Haley Conroy - 2/14/23 - John Muir - (Outside of Class Reading)

  In the beginning section of John Muir’s essay titled Wild Parks and Reservations , he goes into depressing detail about noticeable changes in landscapes, particularly plant life, in many different regions of the United States. As I read this section I found myself thinking that it seems somewhat similar to something you would see in an essay on the environmental changes induced by climate change today. One connection between the text and modern-day was between ecotourism and the quote "Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity, and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers but as fountains of life." (721). Muir has taken the ideas of simplicity in life suggested by philosophers such as Thoreau and embodied them, although I think that Muir is a well-educated man that understood the complexities that exis...
Read more

Makenna Sowards—Free Response 3, Vegetarianism

 Dr. Kip speaking in class about renouncing vegetarianism because he considered it to boost him onto a moral high ground made me consider my own stance on vegetarianism. I haven't eaten meat in a year and a half, and my reasons for starting on this journey have remained as my reasons to continue. After learning about the detrimental impact of the meat-packing industry, I very quickly realized that was not something that I wanted to perpetuate by spending money on meat products. Though, it can very easily be argued that my small, personal movement against the food conglomerates responsible for releasing grotesque amounts of methane into the atmosphere as well as carbon emissions from large numbers of fossil-fueled machines does not make a very big impact, I think it serves another purpose: awareness. When people ask why I refuse to eat meat, it gives me the opportunity to speak on the carbon footprint of the meat-packing industry and how it is one of the largest contributors to dest...
Read more