ЕГЭ – диалог (интервью) 54 с вопросами и выбором ответов

1. A managed forest is a place where
1) people can neither plant nor cut down trees.
2) people can plant trees but they are not allowed to cut them down.
3) people can plant and cut down trees.

2. The forest helps to produce high quality water by
1) making it reach the streams through the soil.
2) increasing the velocity of rainwater as it runs across the surface.
3) preventing rainwater from getting into the streams.

3. What did the manager NOT mention while speaking about the importance of trees cities?
1) Trees serve as a natural air-conditioner.
2) Trees can prevent the rapid surface water runoff.
3) Trees improve air quality and attract wildlife.

4. The manager is worried that droughts
1) could destroy the forest ultimately.
2) could retard the growth of trees.
3) could make trees resistant to disease and attack by insects.

5. The saltwater intrusion in the river
1) can be reduced by interbasin transfers.
2) is lower in time of droughts.
3) is caused by both natural and artificial reasons.

6. The saltwater intrusion in the river results in
1) employees’ lay-off.
2) using saltwater in production of pulp and paper.
3) accepting more logs from loggers.

7. According to the manager, the saltwater intrusion
1) could have no impact on wildlife.
2) is a rare and unusual phenomenon.
3) may happen more often in the future.

1 – 3
2 – 1
3 – 2
4 – 2
5 – 3
6 – 1
7 – 3

Question: Can you explain the difference between a managed and unmanaged forest before we talk about water quality?
Answer: An example of an unmanaged forest might be a national park where by law, no forest management activities are allowed. They are strictly there to serve as recreation and as just natural areas. That’s one extreme, and then you have, say, land that is owned by the forest industry. We own the land to produce timber, to produce raw materials for our mills. When I speak of a managed forest, I’m talking about a place where trees are planted, they are nurtured through their lifetime, and they’re thinned. There might be some fertilization, then ultimately, they are harvested, taken to a mill to make forest products, and then the next forest is started.
Question: In your view, what is the role of the forest in producing high quality water?
Answer: In any given river basin the best water quality comes from the forest. This is true, whether it’s a national park where basically nothing is going on, or whether it’s a very heavily managed forest. If you think about a forest, when it rains, some of the rain is intercepted by the tops of the trees and held there. The velocity of the rain is reduced as it falls down through the forest canopy, so that when the rain actually strikes the forest floor, it’s striking it with much less force. Plus, the forest floor is covered with leaves and bushes and other vegetation that also helps to absorb the velocity of the water as it falls. Therefore, you don’t get the rapid surface water runoff from the rainfall that you might get in some other land use, worse case being pavement. In addition to that, the trees have deep root systems, which create opportunities for lots of underground water storage. The water will eventually seep its way through the soil into the streams, rather than running across the surface and perhaps picking up sediment and other pollutants that can get into the water* That’s it in a nutshell, that’s what the forest does for water quality.
Question: What advice would you give to developers or city planners about the importance of trees?
Answer: I think trees are important in cities for a number of reasons. First of all, they make for a more attractive place. Additionally, trees mitigate, to some degree, hot temperatures and provide shade. Trees, especially in a hot climate, can make it more comfortable. As we all know, trees take in carbon dioxide, and give off oxygen and that’s something that we all need and certainly the more trees you have scattered out through developed areas, the more places you have for songbirds and squirrels and other types of wildlife.
Question: When the drought occurred last summer, we had a state of emergency. As an Environmental Manager, what is your view of what was happening and what it may mean from a larger perspective?
Answer: We’ve always had droughts and certainly the drought of last year was an extremely difficult one. Just looking at it from a forestry standpoint, you have to worry about whether the trees are getting enough water and certainly, the trees that had recently been planted just the winter before. That year is a critical year and they need enough water in their first year.
Question: So you really do get worried about it, because it could destroy the forest ultimately, if there wasn’t enough water, especially for the new crops?
Answer: A drought could probably not destroy the forest, but it certainly does slow down its growth. If trees are stressed by drought, it makes them more susceptible to disease and to attack by insects. As I mentioned, the trees that have just recently been planted, are particularly susceptible to drought in that first year.
Question: Speaking about saltwater intrusion, how do you see the problem getting started in the first place?
Answer: The saltwater moving up the river is largely a result of not enough fresh water coming down the river to keep the saltwater out where it’s supposed to be. This holds true particularly in times of drought, it allows the saltwater to come farther and farther up the river.
Question: What are the reasons why water is reduced downstream?
Answer: The freshwater flow can be reduced for a number of reasons. One is natural drought, which we can’t do a whole lot about. Another is interbasin transfer, say, if someone in one river basin is pulling their drinking water out of a particular river, using it, treating it and then discharging it into a different river, then certainly there’s been a net loss of fresh water flow coming down the river where that water was drawn. Consumptive uses can also affect the volume of fresh water. I mean uses where water is taken out of the river for manufacturing practices and released as steam, as opposed to being treated and released back into the river. Certainly as population increases, people need more water for drinking and washing clothes and more and more water is drawn out of the river.
Question: Many industries use water and fresh water is a key to the economy of the areas. What happened last year to your company when salt was making its way up the river? What would the salt have done if it had gotten into your operations?
Answer: If the saltwater comes far enough up the river and gets into the water intake where our manufacturing facility takes in the water, we cannot use saltwater in the process that we use to make pulp and paper. That results in having to shut the operations down and that entails great costs, plus it sends employees home. It puts us in a position where we are no longer able to accept logs from loggers, so it affects the loggers that are out in the countryside.
Question: How concerned are you about the future of saltwater intrusion, as upriver as you are?
Answer: We’ve always experienced saltwater intrusion in these coastal rivers. It is a natural phenomenon. However, more water will be drawn out of the river upstream, as the population increases, or if you have more situations of interbasin transfer. We don’t have a lot of that going on right now, but should that increase in the future, then the obvious result would be more frequent occurrences of saltwater coming up the river and that does give us concern. The intrusion of saltwater in these fresh water rivers not only has an impact, say, on manufacturing, but also has an impact on the biological communities that are in these rivers. I’m not an expert in that but I think I know enough to predict that when the water becomes saltier, the dissolved oxygen content will decrease and in most cases less dissolved oxygen is not good for many of the fish and plant communities that are in these river systems.