Practice 4. The answers to the following questions are the summary of the text. Answer these questions and give the summary of the text.

1. What is forestry?

2. What are forests categorized into?

3. Why are forest ecosystems of great importance?

4. What range of concerns does the modern forestry embrace?

5. What is sustainable forest management?

6.  What methods are used in forestry?

7. What activities do foresters engage in?

8. Where can foresters work?

9. What are urban foresters busy with?

10. Should the foresters keep up with new digital technologies?

11. What positive and negative impacts on human health can forests have?

 

Practice 5.Does this text give you sufficient information about forestry? What questions would you like to ask the author of the text?

 

Text B

Growing Forests in Our Own Backyards

Consider the headline and the subtitles of the text. Read the text to find out:

- what organizations protect and restore trees and forests;

- what benefits trees provide in towns and cities;

- who takes part in creating urban forests.

By Scott Steen

When you hear the word “forest,” what do you think of? The mighty redwood forests of northern California with thousand- year-old trees rising hundreds of feet into the air? The majestic pine forests of the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West? The eastern hardwood forests, filled with an enormous variety of maple, ash, elm, oak, beech, aspen and other tree species?

What you may not think of is your local park, your community garden or the trees that line your street. Many Americans live in forest ecosystems and don’t even know it. But unlike forests in wilderness areas, they require human intervention to keep them healthy and growing.

At American Forests, we define urban forests as “ecosystems composed of trees and other vegetation that provide cities and municipalities with environmental, economic and social benefits. They include street and yard trees, vegetation within parks and along public rights of way, water systems, fish and wildlife.”

Urban forests provide many of the same benefits that large, rural forests do. For example, they produce oxygen, remove pollution and greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, clean water and provide animal habitat. But trees and green spaces in populated areas also produce a number of benefits that might surprise you. Various studies have shown:

- residents living in greener surroundings report lower levels of fear and less aggressive and violent behavior;

- street trees in urban communities are associated with a lower incidence of childhood asthma;

- views of nature reduce the stress;

- shoppers shop more often and longer in well-landscaped, tree-rich business districts and are willing to pay more for goods and services.

During the past years, American Forests has been working with urban forest experts around the nation to identify best practices and create new ways to promote the benefits of urban forests. What we have found is truly inspiring — private citizens, nonprofit groups, neighborhood associations, corporations, local businesses, and local, state and federal agencies all working together to make cities greener, healthier and more livable.

In Detroit, a city famously hard-hit by shifting economic and demographic trends, citizens and nonprofits have come together to do what the city is no longer able to do on its own. Nonprofit The Greening of Detroit has conducted tree plantings, educational programs, open space reclamation, green infrastructure initiatives, green workforce development etc. Such communities are showing that forests and trees can make a profound difference in the everyday lives of people.

(https://www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/growing-forests-in-our-own-backyards/)

American Forests is a national nonprofit conservation organization in the United States founded in 1875. Its aim is to protect and restore the country’s forests.

The Greening of Detroit is a nonprofit organization focused on enhancing the quality of life for Detroiters by planting trees, providing job training and involving youth in the education of the natural environment.   

Practice 1. Look through the text to find out who this text is intended for:

a) general reader;

b) students in forestry;

c) professional foresters.