Topic 1.1: Plantation Introduction and Forest Site

Content

Topic Introduction

This topic covers the concept of plantation and some other related concepts such as afforestation, reforestation and deforestation. But more effort is given to introduce how to conduct a site inventory, and how to do a site classification.

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

Explain the concept of plantation.
Conduct an inventory on forest site.
Classify a forest site depending on the site inventory.

Topic Readings

Required Readings

FODE007 e-Notebook Links to an external site.: Module I Topic 1.1 Introduction, Topic 1.2 Site Inventory and Site Classification
APFNet Course 6: Forest Resource Management and Protection (http://blogs.ubc.ca/apfnet06/) Module I, Topic 1 Principles of silviculture, 1.1.1 Forest site.
APFNet Course 5: Restoration of Degraded Forest Ecosystems & Forest Plantation Development (http://blogs.ubc.ca/apfnet05/), Module III, Topic 1: What is a forest plantation?

Supplementary Materials (Optional)

Textbook: Juian Evans, John W. Trunbull. Plantation Forestry in the Tropics: The Role, Silviculture, and Use of Planted Forests for Industrial, Social, Environmental, and Agroforestry Purposes. Oxford University Press, 2010.

Self-check Quiz (For certificate learning)

Now take a little time to complete an online self-check quiz after finishing required readings and viewing each lecture for this topic. The main purpose of the quiz is for you to self check how well you grasp the fundamental concepts covered in the required readings and lectures for this topic. You will have 5 mins to complete the quiz. You can attempt as many times as you like until you get the full mark.

When you are ready, click the link Self-check Quiz 1.1 or go to left menu > Quizzes > Self-check Quiz 1.1 to start taking the quiz

Activities & Assignments (For certificate learning)

Online Discussions

Online Class Discussion 1.1

We will start our first class discussion this week. You are expected to summarize and express your views on the current learning topic or reading materials and respond to your peers’ questions regarding the topic. When a question can't be answered by your peers, the instructor will involve in the discussion.

In this online discussion, we don't have a fixed question to discuss, but it comes from your participate in. Each of you is expected to:

Post/Summarize what you learned from readings and presentations by end of Day 3 of the week.
Comment on/Respond to at least two of your peers’ posts by end of Day 7 of the week.

We hope you can actively participate in online discussions, because only by understanding your mastery of the course content, the instructor can guide your learning better.

About the grading, please refer to the detailed descriptions of Assignment Overview and Online Class Discussions.

Please notice the deadline and be sure to keep several general netiquette guidelines in mind when you participate in the online discussions.

Graded Assignments

Design Proposal

In order to complete the final design and obtain the certificate, you have to complete several graded assignments one after another. All the assignments including 1 proposal and 4 assignments would be the milestone assignments of the final design, and every single assignment paves its way to the next one. Please see detailed deadlines for each assignment in the Course Schedule.

This week you need to start working on the proposal. You can see the description, grading criteria and requirements for the proposal on the Design Proposal page under Modules > Graded Assignments > Design Proposal.

The proposal is actually a preliminary plantation design base on the specie you familiar with and at your local site condition. It will help you to know what aim you can reach and what knowledge and technique you have to learn to actually making a real plantation design. So it function as a guidance for your study of this course.

Please complete it before the due date (see Course Schedule) and keep Academic Integrity in mind.

Topic Summary

This topic mainly focuses on the concept of plantation, as well as the related concepts of afforestation, reforestation and deforestation. To compile a successful forest site inventory, one should get the information of climatic condition, topographic condition, soil condition and biological condition for the site. Site classification should depend on the site inventory information and the main factors affecting tree growth in local area.

FODE007