Diversity, diversity, diversity! It is accomplished by recognizing and managing individual forest communities and using techniques that rely on local natural seed sources! Silviculture is the application of harvesting treatments designed to keep forest communities healthy and vigorous. Carl Schenek went to work for George W. Vanderbilt about 1895, to manage the 120,000-acre, Biltmore Estate near Ashville, North Carolina. In 1898, he started the Biltmore Forestry School which offered a one year-course focused on silvicultural theory. Basically, each silvicultural treatment is humanities way of applying a harvesting technique to copy various ways nature might re-establish vegetation, as the tree stands mature and individuals begin to die. I have previously discussed how forestry has been considered an agricultural process since Gifford Pinchot defined forestry in the 1890’s, and later became the first Chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service in 1905. I have also presented my opinion that forestry is far more complex then a simple agricultural process, due to the complexity of the unique communities and the important elements provided by our natural world, which sustain life on our planet.
About 1963, the U.S. Forest Service research branch published a report suggesting that even-aged management, using clear-cut harvesting techniques, would increase productivity and help provide a sustained flow of products from the remaining forested lands. I personally, remember some very heated discussions over the scientific support for this conclusion. I can confirm that timber harvesting was the driving goal of the Agency at the time, and I can confirm the recommendations by the research division were fully accepted and implemented. Even complex central and northern hardwood stands were to be managed using even-age principles. It was a bitter pill to swallow, as I believe it seriously limited the scientist in meeting site-specific objectives for individual communities and worked to accelerate the destruction of bio-diversity. Educated professional forest scientists need to be able to read the land and developing management objectives and treatments for individual forest communities, and they need a full tool box to accomplish these objectives. We simply cannot dictate treatment methods prior to establishing management objectives. The development of site-specific management objectives is where the public participation process must start, and we must realize our public forested lands are going to play an increasing role in providing the required elements from the natural world in the future.
My life time of observation and experience has convinced me that even-aged management may be desirable in maximizing wood fiber production but, results in major destruction of critical bio-diversity and will have devastating effects on Earth’s life systems. Once again, I believe diversity is the single most important element that has been incorporated into the natural world and the complex story of “Creation”.
Even-age management, clear-cutting, tree plantations and efforts to maximize wood fiber production, I believe, are humanities efforts to dominate and manipulate the natural world, and will eventually lead to disastrous results for life on our planet! The management philosophy that I call “Nature’s Way”, relies on first reading the land to identify the physical features that define a forest community, followed by a scientist establishment, with the public, of management objectives for the individual forest community. Once these objectives are defined and accepted, the scientist must have the flexibility to prescribe the proper treatment to accomplish the objectives and must exercise close over-sight of the implementation process. The over-riding goal must be to maintain or improve diversity and health of the treatment area, which usually will involve natural regeneration by local seed sources. If Nature can do it, we can to! I have seen Nature’s Way and it is far better than Human’s Way!