Treesearch

A joint Northeastern Forest Experiment Station - Eastern Region team is working with Russian counterparts on a Forests for the Future Initiative in the Krasnoyarsk region of central Siberia. Russian team members include scientists from the Sukachev Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, managers from a number of units of the Federal Forest Service of Russia, and the directors of a logging and sawmilling enterprise. The goal is to establish a pilot project demonstrating principals of forest conservation and sustainable development. Applying silvicultural treatments appropriate for...

The research program of the Blue Mountains Natural Resources Institute (BMNRI) aims to understand the ecological effects of current management practices. In forest systems, this amounts to silvicultural research. We describe how the BMNRl fosters partnerships to carry out and showcase silvicultural research leading to information that allows assessment of economic/environmental tradeoffs. We also describe how partnerships are fostered not only to undertake research, but to encourage adaptive management. The BMNRl plays a unique role as a facilitator of relationships among managers,...

Resource managers are seeking silvicultural solutions to a variety of ecological, economic, and social issues. These issues include maintaining healthy and aesthetically pleasing forests, and sustaining or increasing ecological diversity. To reestablish a conifer component, and thereby increase species diversity, the LaCroix Ranger District of the Superior National Forest planned to apply a reserve tree method (RTM) to reduce the density of aspen suckers and increase survival and growth of planted conifers. The Ruffed Grouse Society questioned widespread application of the treatment...

The Chief of the Forest Service and the Chief Executive Officer of Mead Corporation signed a Memorandum of Understating (MOU) that created the Raccoon Ecological Management Area (REMA). This MOU designated nearly 17,000 acres as a special area to be co-managed by Mead and the Forest Service. The REMA is a working forest that continues to produce timber and pulpwood for Mead. Current Forest Service research within the REMA consists of two sites of a large, oak ecosystem restoration research project, and one site of a long-term oak stand density study. Facilities provide a place for researche...

There is considerable data in the literature on the diet of the Ural Owl (Strix uralensis) based on pellet analysis. Though it is possible to identify prey items by this method, the volume of food consumption is still unknown. The population of Ural Owls in Japan is declining due to the reduction of old-growth forest and the concurrent loss of natural nest cavities in older trees. More information, including dietary requirements, is needed to conserve suitable habitat and manage for this species. In this study, ingested food and cast pellet mass were quantified to determine if food...

The philosophy of ecosystem management calls for a new way of doing business. It represents an evolution of thinking and acting that began during the era of dominant use, and continued through the time of multiple use. As such, ecosystem management represents a maturing of thought about silviculture and other aspects of natural resources management and use. It stresses creating and maintaining a predetermined set of ecosystem conditions that serve well-defined objectives. This places a new emphasis on silviculture, but will not require a new silviculture. Rather, it means applying silvicult...

Forests have been tied to social progress since the dawn of agriculture 10 thousand years ago. Silviculture, groomed the oldest application of ecological principles, contains all the skills needed to produce forests with the myriad conditions valued by modern society. Historically, we have been success-makers. Yet, our profession faces a crisis. Often we are seen as tree killers, more concerned with timber harvests than with managing forests for multiple uses. Perceptions trace to critical rhetoric by those who are unusually effective communicators. Silviculturists have not responded...

Contains 32 articles on communicating the values and benefits of silviculture in managing the national forests. Specific topics addressed are how communications affect: policymakers, inventory and monitoring, resource management, research, education and demonstration, and partnerships.

Reductions in research operating budgets and recent trends in research management philosophy have in many instances forced Forest Service scientists to realign their research programs to compete for short-term grants and other sources of funding. This approach may prove detrimental in silviculture, a discipline where long-term research is critical for: (1) research in the regeneration and establishment of forests, (2) testing management alternatives in established stands, (3) retaining research installations for future remeasurement; using them as laboratories for other disciplines, and...

Silviculturists create desired forest conditions across the landscape and over time. Our job is to synthesize knowledge from many disciplines to develop prescriptions that produce desired forest conditions. In turn, forest conditions result in products and values for society. Silviculture and silviculture research help provide the scientific basis for land management decisions. Crucial roles for research silviculturists are mensurative studies that quantify resources, manipulative studies that test hypotheses, synthesis, and publication; without these, new knowledge will not be generated...