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  3. Exactly what a public forest is and how the public should be able to use it

Exactly what a public forest is and how the public should be able to use it

游客2023-10-16  55
问题     Exactly what a public forest is and how the public should be able to use it has been debated since the National Forests were first formed in 1905. Since then, the U. S. Forest Service has been allowing timber, mining, ranching, and recreational interests to use the forests as a resource. In fact, the Forest Service, which manages 34 million acres of wilderness across the country, is part of the Department of Agriculture. Since the government perpetuated the concept of nature as a user-friendly commodity, you might say that it missed the forest for the trees.
    For the last 27 years, the rest of the nation—both public and private—has been working to comply with the landmark Endangered Species Act, but the U. S. Forest Service has paid little attention to the wildlife under its care: sometimes due to a lack of funds, sometimes a lack of information, sometimes a lack of will. For the forests in Southern California, however, this is changing. A little known regional environmental group, the Center for Biological Diversity, brought a lawsuit two years ago that has forced the Forest Service to face the Endangered Species Act and comply with it. Assuming the agency is able, all the life in the forest, from Smith’ s blue butterfly to the cattle rancher to the intrepid backpacker, will be affected.
    In the Los Padres Forest alone, which spans almost two million acres, as many as 11.6 million people have been allowed to troop in each year during the summer months, unknowingly disrupting a fragile ecosystem essential to the health of the forest they have come to enjoy. Even the rugged packers in the backcountry, mostly nature-lovers at heart, have disturbed the breeding of the red-legged frog and arroyo as they camped, with permission, along shallows.
    Invasive species aside from humans pose problems as well. Bullfrogs originally from the Eastern U. S. are munching red-legged frogs and arroyo toads, as are the warm water non-native fish species like small-mouthed bass and blue gill. Fragile native plants are being crowded out by pampas grass and other non-natives in the majority of the meadows. One of the most dangerous invaders of Southern California is the cowbird, also an East Coast native, which has been wreaking havoc on native avian species across the country. Cowbirds have the offensive but biologically useful trait of laying eggs in others’ nests, leaving the host parents to rear its big, hungry young. Often the baby cowbird hatches first and develops faster at the expense of its foster parents’ offspring.
    Temporary emergency measures adopted in January 1999 to address these problems closed four campgrounds in the Ojai Ranger District from sunset to sunrise to protect the arroyo toad. In the Monterey district, fencing and grazing use were limited for the benefit of steel head.
    The final settlement on March 1 of the Center for Biological Diversity suit stipulated another set of protections, largely benefiting the California condor. Poisonous ethylocol-based antifreeze was banned, requirements for anti-perching devices on communication sites went into effect, and bird-safe power lines must be installed.  [br] How much dose the area of the Los Padres Forest cover?
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答案 Two million acres
解析 (此题问的是Los Padres Forest的面积，文章第三段提到In the Los Padres Forest alone，which spans almost two million acres。)
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