Landscape ecology and forest management

Abstract

Almost all forest management activities affect landscape pattern to some extent. Among the most obvious impacts are those associated with forest harvesting and road building. These activities profoundly affect the size, shape, and configuration of patches in the landscape matrix. Even-age management such as clearcutting has been applied in blocks of uniform size, shape, and distribution, as strip cuts with alternating leave and cut strips or as progressive cutting of strips, and as patches with variable sizes, shapes, and distributions. In contrast to the coarse-grain patterns produced on the landscape by even-age management, uneven-aged regeneration techniques produce small openings in the canopy where individual trees or small blocks of trees are harvested. Roads, another important landscape feature associated with forest management, are essential for access and for extracting forest products. Once built, however, they greatly alter the character as well as the use of the landscape.

Citation

Crow, Thomas R. 1999. Landscape ecology and forest management. Issues in landscape ecology. Greeley, CO: Pioneer Press of Greeley, Inc.: 94-96. (1999)