 An ecosystem encompasses all of the biotic or living and abiotic or non-living pieces of an environment. All ecosystems are considered to be either wild or managed based on the amount of human influence in an ecosystem. Wild ecosystems are mostly free of man's influence and tend to be places like old growth forests and wildlife reserves. In contrast, managed ecosystems are actively modified by humans like parks in the middle of a city and farms. While both wild and managed ecosystems are important, humans tend to favor managed ecosystems because they allow us to manipulate many of the ecosystems components to maximise our benefit. Ecosystem management is achieved through a variety of measures, including controlled burns, pesticide application, selected harvesting or removal of a certain resource. In all of these cases, the action is designed to promote or prevent a specific goal. In the case of a controlled burn, those managing the ecosystem light small controllable fires so that the amount of fuel is kept to a low level. Without controlled burns as a form of management, wildfires can quickly spread out of control and destroy entire ecosystems. While all management actions are designed to promote their goals, sometimes management actions backfire, as in the case of a controlled burn that spreads more quickly than anticipated and becomes a dangerous wildfire. Ecosystem management takes a variety of different forms depending upon the desired goal for the habitat. Two very common types of ecosystem management are forestry and agriculture. Forestry's primary goal is to grow, manage and conserve forests. Usually, this is so that the wood and other natural resources can be harvested over a long period of time, often measured in decades. However, foresters often manage the habitat so that certain species such as an endangered bird will be protected and conserved for future generations. In contrast, agriculture's primary goal is to grow crops that are harvested at least annually. While both forestry and agriculture are frequently aimed at the harvest of goods, these two management styles take vastly different approaches since the ecosystem being managed at vastly different biotic and abiotic components. Forestry and agriculture also differ in that forestry usually manages the ecosystem for the benefit of several species, while agriculture manages it for the benefit of a single species. In fact, foresters manage not only for the lumber that will eventually be harvested, but the approach may also include strategies to enhance recreational use of the area or to reintroduce locally endangered or extinct species through conservation practices. Agriculture on the other hand is focused exclusively on growing as much of a single species as possible, even if it is the detriment of other species. Agriculture management of agricultural areas has historically gone out of its way to reduce the biodiversity of a given area to a single species. Can you think of an instance where it could be beneficial to remove the species from an area? Pause the video and have a think. If you said something like the removal of a pest from a farm, you're right. Often, aggressive measures are taken to remove and control unwanted species, especially pests. These pests can be other unwanted plants or animals that feed on the crops such as rabbits and insects. So from this video, you should now appreciate that regardless of the habitat type, method of management or end goal, ecosystem management plays a large part in modern society. Without effective ecosystem management, we'd have much less access to the resources that we use for our daily lives.