SILVICULTURE, PLANNING, & ECOSYSTEM SILVICULTURE, PLANNING, & ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENTMANAGEMENT

Ralph D. NylandDepartment of Forest and Natural Resources Management

SUNY College of Environmental Scienceand Forestry

Syracuse, NY 13210

Nyland - 2010 All rights reservedUse of all or parts of these class notes prohibited

without express consent of Ralph D. Nyland

Background reading:

Chapter 1, in Nyland, R.D. 2002. Silviculture: Concepts and Applications.Waveland Press. Long Grove, IL. 2ed.

Sources cited:

Assman, E. 1970. The Principles of Forest Yield Studies. Transl. by. S.H. Gardiner. Pergamon Press Ltd. Oxford.

Koten, D.E. 1994 Lecture notes. Faculty of Forestry, SUNY Coll. Environ. Sci., and For., Syracuse, NY.

Seymour, R.S., and M.L. Hunter, Jr. 1992. New Forestry in eastern spruce-fir forests: Principles and applications in Maine. Univ. Me., Me. Agric. Expt. Stn., Misc. Publ. 716.

Urban, D.L., R.V. O’Neill, and H.H. Shugart. 1987. Landscape ecology: A hierarcial perspective can help scientists understand spatial patterns. Biosci. 37(2):119-127.

SILVICULTURE ...

... the art of producing and tending forest stands

... by applying scientifically acquired knowledge

... to control establishment, composition, and growth

Positive control …

... to make the forest more useful

... based on the objectives

Silviculture

Drawing on many disciplines for ideas and techniques ...

A process for solving problems ...

… devising practical approaches for makinga forest better

… with respect to a landowners objectives

SILVICULTURE ...

... a synthesis

… a process

Silviculture funnels knowledge into information for practical use ...Nyland 1998

Silviculture causes acceptable and desirableecologic changes ...

... to bring desirable economic benefits

- financial- institutional- social

... an important aspect of ecosystem management

… or sustainable forestry

... enhancing many values through deliberate management

ECOLOGICALLY…

Silviculture alters vegetation to change the physical environment, community structure, and community composition ...

- to cause various kinds and magnitudeskinds and magnitudes ofvegetation responses

- that address well-defined objectives… the economic / social part

… ecologically viable and economically pertinent

A more deliberate effort to focus more on the ecologic basisfor sustainable management and use …

... and to integrate non-market factors

Bringing together the …

... ecologic

... social

... financial

So what has changed through time ...

… melding the alternativesto diversify the benefits

... at the convergenceconvergence of these components

Ecosystem management occurs ...

Remember this ?

... an idea not foreign to historic forestry

THE PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS:

1. Determine the landowner’s objectives

2. Evaluate existing stand conditions

3. Identify the options

4. Quantify the likely outcome of each one

5. Drop unsuitable options

6. Explain the viable alternatives

7. Help the landowner decide

8. Implement the prescription

9. Evaluate the results

Ecologicand

economic

... actively bringing these together

Promoting convergenceconvergence ...

All based on the OBJECTIVES ...

... from among the ecologically acceptable options

... ones that make both ecologic and economic sense

Two types of administrative influences oversilviculture ...

1. Those influencing INITIAL PLANNING

... and scheduled replanning

2. Those altering EXISTING programs

... at unscheduled times

And what economic factors influence decisions ...

… each requiring deliberationand adaptive management

Some factors that influence INITIAL PLANNINGINITIAL PLANNING ...

- markets

- accessibility

- taxes

- overhead and operating costs

- interest on borrowed money

- rules and regulations

- ownership desires

- competition from other firms

- etc.

... these reveal a directiondirection for silviculture

... these influence the intensity intensityintensity of silviculture

… defining the bounds for action on the silvicultural surface

CONCEPT

DRIVEN

INP

UT

S

SILVICULTURE MERECUTTING ECOLOGICALLYIRREVERSIBLE

Yet economic constraints may limit actions …

.... keeping you in a limited box

... oh, the wonder of it all

Through good judgment …

… and creative thinking

D. Koten lumps the planning factors into four groups ...

1. OWNERSHIP OBJECTIVES(economically stable)

2. BIO-PHYSICAL CONCERNS(ecologically appropriate)

3. ECONOMIC / BUSINESS ASPECTS(financially attractive)

4. POLICY AND LEGAL REQUIREMENTS(politically/socially proper)

After Koten 1994

... in serving diverse interests in an ecologically sound manner

And how they come together makes a difference ...

Historic approaches ...

- simplify conditions at the stand level

- create uniformity, consistency, and homogeneity at multiple scales

A logical outgrowth of our agricultural heritage ...

... and our common interests in financial andproduction efficiency in harvesting and use

Simplifying the system andreducing the convergence …

WITH OLD STYLES OF MANAGEMENT

CONVERGENCECONVERGENCE COULD BE ACCIDENTAL

... sometimes enhancing a non-market value as a happenstance

With ecosystem management we change fromemphasizing uses …

… to maintainingmaintaining healthy and stable ecosystems

… and serving human needs as an outcomeas an outcome

of that management

MOST IMPORTANTMOST IMPORTANT …

… providing opportunities based on sound ecologic principles

Changing forestry from the practice of efficiently harvesting timber …

…and capitalizing on other opportunities

… to the process of managing forested ecosystems

…knowing that ecologicallyviable forests serve humanneeds quite well

… sustained into the future

Where useuse becomes an inevitable outcomeinevitable outcome ...

... of creating and maintaining stable and diverse forests

Where convergence should increase with experience ...

In creative ways …

So the objectives shifted through time from ...

... dominance of economic factors

... toward an eco-economic focus

... ecologically sensitive

… economicallyattractive

Ecosystem management has some other aspects ...

- it deals with ecosystem functions and balances at a landscape scale

- it focuses on changes and development on anecologic time scale

- it tempers current uses and treatments to maintainan array of options for future times

… thinking long in space and time

... considering all the ecologic values

... through silviculture

But getting it done ONE STAND AT A TIME ...ONE STAND AT A TIME ...

... balanced in time and space through appropriate action

And steadily extended to the multi-stand and landscape levels ...through time

V

… through silviculture to fit the situation

In many ways broadening past strategies …

In the old days multiplemultiple--useuse forests represented...

... one way to diversify use at the forest level

BUT NOW ...

… sustaining ecological systems rather than emphasizing uses

… and at a landscape scale

With an approach like this one ...

Seymour and Hunter 1992

Dispersed in space in some meaningful fashion …

Seymour and Hunter 1992

... integrated at a large scale

… dealing creatively with the situation at hand

Ecological reserve

Ecosystem silviculture

High-yield plantation

And interspersed through timeat a landscape scale …

Adaptation by Nyland 1993

... extending across the landscape

… based on thinking broadly and locally

So what factors force a change in silviculture ...

... and press a landowner to abandon silvicultureand liquidate assets

... or change the kind and intensity of silviculture

Yet when all appears in order and going well ...

... something will often happen to bring change

FACTORS LIKE ...

- taxes

- fiscal crisis

- natural disaster

- new product opportunities

- sale of an ownership

- new rules and regulations

- new technology

- decline in demand

- change in price

- etc ...

... often due to improved markets

... sometimes even stimulating activity

… or a windfall of funds to support an initiative

... even crushing long-held hopes for the future

… sometimes depressing it

Even ones threatening financial crisis …

In response to economic factors …

… and often financial ones

... deciding how to adapt

But keep ecologic principles in the forefront …

Remembering that you can contribute ...

- a large toolkit of ideas and techniques

- a capacity to make many different kindsand magnitudes of changes

- a skill for making sound judgments based on facts and information

... all useful in initial planning and later adaptive management

... all essential to appropriate action

AND WHO SHALL DO IT ?AND WHO SHALL DO IT ?

So when all else fails ...

... THINKTHINK

Nis

sen

2010Good luck ...

Good luck ...