Forestry, Forest Science, and the Management of Forests for Conservation and Development
The Forest and Forestry faculty group embraces a new, more holistic, and more practical concept of forest management. The group recognizes that forests worldwide produce multiple products and services from timber supply to water to wildlife habitat. Forestry seeks to manage these ecosystems to yield equitable social, environmental, and economic outputs across the landscape. Moving from a focus on timber to a more encompassing perspective requires many changes in the ways forestry is practiced and how forested ecosystems are managed.
This approach requires a thorough understanding of the entire forest ecosystem and how each component relates to the rest of the system. Science must not only predict outcomes in terms of future timber supplies but also in terms of effects on aquatic systems, wildlife, endangered species, recreation quality, and non-timber forest products. In particular, a better understanding must be gained of the temporal and spatial scale and intensity of perturbations and natural fluctuations and the effects of anthropogenic change on natural systems. Because many of these relationships are poorly understood, forestry must adopt adaptive management techniques to test outcomes in the field and improve our understanding over time. New tools need to be developed that recognize the complex spatial and dynamic relationships across this system. These tools need to describe what is possible across different landscapes, how alternative outcomes can be produced, and over what time frame. This means modeling scenarios for better forest management assessments and the development of more refined decision support systems for generating management options and outcomes.
Foresters must learn how society weighs these alternative outcomes. How valuable are these different products and services? Which choice is socially preferred? Foresters must examine existing institutions and laws to understand whether they encourage optimal outcomes in forests across the world. Because various outcomes benefit different people, conflict is inherent in forest management. Conflict resolution, respect of property rights, and recognition of equity concerns must all become forestry skills.
Our view of forestry goes well beyond more traditional forms of management to embrace the very foundations of the social, ecological, and economical values of forests worldwide. This suggests a host of individual research projects for our faculty. Ecologists and silviculturalists need to explore natural regeneration, trophic food webs and community ecology, forest dynamics at stand and landscape levels, and the effectiveness of management. Statisticians need to expand traditional mensuration techniques focused on timber resources to quantify a broader array of relationships including effects on wildlife, water, and non-timber forest products. Modelers need to incorporate all these quantified relationships across space and across time for the entire ecosystem. Economists must expand valuation from what is currently understood to include this new broader array of goods and services. Social ecologists must engage in creative ways of integrating local knowledge into management, and in ways to empower local communities for managing forests for conservation and development. Managers must develop techniques to integrate all of this information so that socially preferred alternatives can be identified over time and space. Policy scientists and lawyers must propose new institutions and rights for forest governance and use and encourage preferred choices to be adopted across the landscape on both a domestic and an international scale. The Forests and Forestry faculty group at the School is on the cutting edge of this interdisciplinary research and the shift to holistic forestry. Not only are we conducting vital research in these areas now; we are also training the leaders of forestry for the future.
Faculty Mark S. Ashton (Coordinator), Graeme P. Berlyn, Mark A. Bradford, Ann E. Camp, Benjamin Cashore, Susan G. Clark, Lisa M. Curran, Michael R. Dove, Paul A. Draghi, Bradford S. Gentry, Timothy G. Gregoire, Lloyd Irland, Xuhui Lee, Robert Mendelsohn, Florencia Montagnini, Chadwick D. Oliver, Oswald J. Schmitz, Thomas G. Siccama
This approach requires a thorough understanding of the entire forest ecosystem and how each component relates to the rest of the system. Science must not only predict outcomes in terms of future timber supplies but also in terms of effects on aquatic systems, wildlife, endangered species, recreation quality, and non-timber forest products. In particular, a better understanding must be gained of the temporal and spatial scale and intensity of perturbations and natural fluctuations and the effects of anthropogenic change on natural systems. Because many of these relationships are poorly understood, forestry must adopt adaptive management techniques to test outcomes in the field and improve our understanding over time. New tools need to be developed that recognize the complex spatial and dynamic relationships across this system. These tools need to describe what is possible across different landscapes, how alternative outcomes can be produced, and over what time frame. This means modeling scenarios for better forest management assessments and the development of more refined decision support systems for generating management options and outcomes.
Foresters must learn how society weighs these alternative outcomes. How valuable are these different products and services? Which choice is socially preferred? Foresters must examine existing institutions and laws to understand whether they encourage optimal outcomes in forests across the world. Because various outcomes benefit different people, conflict is inherent in forest management. Conflict resolution, respect of property rights, and recognition of equity concerns must all become forestry skills.
Our view of forestry goes well beyond more traditional forms of management to embrace the very foundations of the social, ecological, and economical values of forests worldwide. This suggests a host of individual research projects for our faculty. Ecologists and silviculturalists need to explore natural regeneration, trophic food webs and community ecology, forest dynamics at stand and landscape levels, and the effectiveness of management. Statisticians need to expand traditional mensuration techniques focused on timber resources to quantify a broader array of relationships including effects on wildlife, water, and non-timber forest products. Modelers need to incorporate all these quantified relationships across space and across time for the entire ecosystem. Economists must expand valuation from what is currently understood to include this new broader array of goods and services. Social ecologists must engage in creative ways of integrating local knowledge into management, and in ways to empower local communities for managing forests for conservation and development. Managers must develop techniques to integrate all of this information so that socially preferred alternatives can be identified over time and space. Policy scientists and lawyers must propose new institutions and rights for forest governance and use and encourage preferred choices to be adopted across the landscape on both a domestic and an international scale. The Forests and Forestry faculty group at the School is on the cutting edge of this interdisciplinary research and the shift to holistic forestry. Not only are we conducting vital research in these areas now; we are also training the leaders of forestry for the future.
Faculty Mark S. Ashton (Coordinator), Graeme P. Berlyn, Mark A. Bradford, Ann E. Camp, Benjamin Cashore, Susan G. Clark, Lisa M. Curran, Michael R. Dove, Paul A. Draghi, Bradford S. Gentry, Timothy G. Gregoire, Lloyd Irland, Xuhui Lee, Robert Mendelsohn, Florencia Montagnini, Chadwick D. Oliver, Oswald J. Schmitz, Thomas G. Siccama
Associated Centers & Programs
Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry
Tropical Resources Institute
Urban Resources Initiative
Center for Biodiversity Conservation
