Rain forests used for
ag expansion mismanaged
UNIVERSITY PARK -
Misunderstanding and
mismanagement are
destroying the world’s
Jungles and they could be
gone in 20 years, says Penn
State’s David L, Pearson, an
Internationally known
specialist in tropical rain
forest ecology.
Tropical rain forests, he
contends, determine
weather patterns, form one
of tbe last potential sites for
agricultural expansion, and
contain a living chronicle of
earth's evolutionary history.
"They are the moat
complex ecosystems on
earth,” he adds, "and the
terrestrial area we know the
least about.”
Dr. Pearson, assistant
professor of biology, has
conducted research in rain
forests throughout the world
and has published over a
dozen scholarly papers on
Jungle ecology over the last
four years. Recently, he was
invited Co be a featured
speaker at the Fourth Pan
African Ornithological
Congress to be held later this
year in the Seychelles
Islands.
Pearson frequently
focuses on birds in his
research because, he says,
“they are the one tropical
group about which scientists
already know -a great deal
'and are also good subjects
with which to test general
ecological patterns.”
To illustrate, Pearson
explains that tropical rain
forests contain the greatest
variety of bird species of any
area on earth more than
400 in a 300-mil e-square area
versus about 100 in a similar
forest area in the eastern
U.S.
"This pattern of extreme
diversity, along with a
similar pattern in plants,
suggests that traditional one
crop agriculture
(monoculture) will not work
in these areas,” v he says.
“And, in fact, wherever
monoculture has been at
tempted, it has invariably
failed.”
In the jungle, Pearson
notes, nutrients are not
stored in the soil but are
maintained in the plants and
animals. Leaf litter and
other organic debris is
almost immediately
recycled and reabsorbed into
the plants.
Wholesale clear-cutting,
as practiced in eastern Peru,
for example, leaves behind
relatively infertile soil and
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MOUNT JOY,
leads to altered weather
patterns via increased
convection currents,
dissipation of rain storms
and an eventual drying up of
the region.
In addition, the Jungle's
disappearance robs scien
tists of a unique opportunity
to study evolution, Pearson
believes. “Rain forests may
be the areas in which birds
originated,” he says, “and
they probably give a more
accurate insight into normal
bird communities than any
other place on earth.”
Tropical rain forests occur
in a broad band circling the
globe near the equator.
Although they are radically
different from forests in
temperate areas, Pearson
says they rarely fit the
popular image of hot,
steamy, impenetrable
tangles of vegetation
teeming with hostile tribes
and ferocious beasts. He
says the forest floor is ac
tually darkly shaded by the
taller trees, there is little
ground cover, and travel is
fairly easy. Local tribesmen
are usually friendly and
helpful and hostile animals
are rarely encountered.
Pearson admits that the
jungle does hold some
discomforts mosquitos,
for example but he claims
to have met more annoying
varieties in Minnesota. “All
in all,” he says, “tropical
rain forests are benign and
comfortable places.
PA
'*' Lancaster Farming, Saturday.’ March 6.1976
Wine grape
growers to meet
LANCASTER - A special * in f;P r< £“ cln * t rc H lonM o{
salute to Pcnnaylvanla'i theU S Wine consumption is
wine grape growers will be B row * n B rapidly throughout
given at a meeting of the cxc ®®dlng 3®°
Southeast Grape Industry JZI. °? Ballons last year
Association on Sunday, P* figure is expected to
March 7at the Farm 4 Home j OU^J c du f n * the next
Center. Arcadia Road. decide «nd « f
Lancaster. Members from dollars have been invested in
the fourteen wine grape Pamsylvania vineyards to
growing counties of I 1 ® P. mcat th * demand,
southeastern Pennsylvania leading wine grape growing
will attend, plus invited ® oU P tiea "« L «ncaster.
guests from nearby states. Bu ?£. Y °«*. B€rka - Adams
Featured speaker will be and FrarUa,n
Robert M. Ivie, president of
Guild Wineries and
Distilleries, San Francisco,
the nation’s largest grower-
owned wine and brandy
producing cooperative.
Guild markets such well-
brands
known
Winemasters Guild, Cresta
Blanca, Roma, Tavola and
Cribari.
Special guests will be Agricultural educators and
Pennsylvania’s Deputy youth leaders from around
Secretary of Agriculture the world met here recently
Jane Mr Alexander, a leader to begin planning for the
in promoting wine grape First World Conference in
growing in Pennsylvania, Agricultural Education to be
and State Representative held there in November,
Marvin E. Miller of Lan- 1876.
caster County. The World Conference will
Mr. Ivie, whose firm has be held in conjunction with
wine-producing facilities in the 1976 National FFA
California with an annual Convention and will include
crushing capacity of 250,000 an “International Ag
tons of grapes, will speak on Olympics” competition in
“The Demand for Wine.” farming skills such as
The wine grape growingtractor operation,
areas of southeastern mechanics, dairy and
Pennsylvania are attracting livestock judging, hor
national interest and may ticulture, poultry, and meat
develop into one of the major judging.
PH:
653-1451
World ag ed
conference
planned
KANSAS CITY, Mo
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