Silviculture: lessons from our past, thoughts about the future

Abstract

Silviculture has always been a keystone of American forestry, but to many, it seems, this discipline has lost its relevance during the past decade or so. In some regions, silviculture has become unfairly equated with production forestry, leaving a perceived void that forest ecologists or other specialists have attempted to fill, I would argue, somewhat unsuccessfully. In reality, most silviculturists see production forestry as but one of many applications of silviculture, and in the past decade, many have embraced paradigms involving conservation biology, natural disturbance patterns and processes, and management for structure rather than yield. Yet silvicultural research, on both traditional and contemporary issues, has waned as the USDA Forest Service and other organizations have refocused on other more topical issues.

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the Great Lakes silviculture summit

Citation

Seymour, Robert S. 2004. Silviculture: lessons from our past, thoughts about the future. In: Palik, Brian; Levy, Louise, eds. Proceedings of the Great Lakes silviculture summit. Gen. Tech. Rep. NC-254. St. Paul, MN: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, North Central Forest Experiment Station: 5-14.