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1. One hundred years ago, California forests were more "open" than they are today. What does that mean?
Answer:
The forest was not as dense
2.ln some places, where there used to be twenty trees per acre of land, now there are more than three hundred trees. How healthy do you think those three hundred trees are? What could you do to make them healthier?
Answer:
Overcrowded trees are stressed from too much competition. To make them healthier, they should be thinned by careful harvesting and controlled bums to remove brush.
3.Overcrowding in the forest makes trees unhealthy. They have to compete too heavily for sun, food, and water. This competition weakens them. They cannot resist wildfires, insects, and disease. What does competition mean? Can you think of other examples where too much competition is unhealthy?
Answer:
- Competition is when two or more persons or things try to get the same object.
- Too much competition between friends or family members can cause hard feelings.
- Too much competition in the classroom for grades makes a student lose sight of what is truly important - the learning going on.
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4. Dead and dying trees produce great amounts of fuel which feed wildfires. These fires rage out of control and are hard to stop. Describe what happens in a wildfire to all the elements of this ecological community.
Answer:
- Animals and people are forced to leave the area or are injured.
- Many plants and trees are destroyed.
- People having homes or businesses in the forest may lose them.
- Millions of dollars are lost in fighting wildfires.
5. Raging wildfires get so hot that they bake the "biota" out of the soil. If "bio" means life, what do you guess "biota" means? What other "bio" words can you think of?
Answer:
- Biota - living things
- Biology - the study of living things
- Bionic - life like
- Biography - the writing about someone's life
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Forest Facts