Opening remarks; special session 4. Burning issues and smoke screens: heat and light in southern forests

Abstract

In Roussopoulos’ opening remarks he included nine assertions about southern forests: 1) that their characteristics are unique; 2) that they recovered from abusive agricultural practices and exploitive forest extraction in the 19th and early 20th centuries; 3) that they are brand new; 4) that social forces driving change will intensify at all scales; 5) that the emerging global concern over sustainability will become the central issue driving public debate over natural resource management, and that the South will become the stage on which the sustainability issue will play out most visibly in our Nation; 6) that ensuring sustainability vis-a-vis southern forests will require a dynamic blend of intensive management for commodity and certain experiential values; 7) that the never-to-return nature of southern forest dynamics presents conceptual challenges for ecosystem restoration; 8) that fire is perhaps the most important forest management tool for southern forests and smoke is the most critical barrier to its use; and 9) that conflicts among jurisdictional interests of independent Federal agencies pose the most pressing challenge for southern forests.

Citation

Roussopoulos, Peter J. 1998. Opening remarks; special session 4. Burning issues and smoke screens: heat and light in southern forests. Transactions of the 63rd North American Wildlife and Natural Resources conference; 1998 March 20-25; Orlando, FL. Washington, DC: Wildlife Management Institute: 305-308.