MDC

Forests for the Future

Forests for the Future

It was not so many years ago that the public did not give much thought to forests and forestry. In the post-World War II era, we rebuilt the world with science and technology. Economic growth and commodity production were the measures of our success. For foresters, that meant increasing lumber production. For other industries, it meant increasing mechanization and automation and the beginning of the computer age.

View from the trail, Three Creeks State Forest, Boone County.

As we have become a more urbanized, affluent society, our concern with producing commodities from our natural resources has lessened. Now we think about other values, those without price tags. Clean air, clean water, wildlife food and cover, recreation and scenery--these are the forest products we now consider important, in addition to commodities.

The next few years will be controversial for the forestry profession. Foresters are being challenged to show a concerned and skeptical public that they can provide for the public's needs while maintaining and protecting the resource. Foresters nationwide are caught in the crossfire between widely divergent interests and demands from the public.

Climate change, ecosystem management, forest stress and social considerations in forest management will be important issues in forestry in the future. One scientist predicts that society's needs from our nation's forests in the futures will be in order of importance:

1. climate protection and modification
2. reduction in carbon dioxide,
3. water quality,
4. preservation of plant and animal diversity,
5. recreation and scenic values, and
6. timber production

Timber production will likely diminish on public lands across the nation as more emphasis is given to other forest values. More forest protection laws and stiffer regulations will probably reduce the options available to manage the federal forests. Less timber production from public land will place more demand on private landowners to supply industry with raw materials.

Forestry in general is becoming more ecosystem-minded. Emphasis is shifting from the management of the forest for sustained production of commodities to management for multiple values and maintenance of the entire forest ecosystem. Some indications of this shift are :

• Foresters are beginning to include new concepts, such as conservation biology and landscape ecology, in a forest land management. These two concepts are a combination of several disciplines, including forestry, ecology, biology and geology. "Forestry as an applied science" will be expanded from a single tree or stand perspective to a forest-wide orientation. Foresters will combine biological, physical, social and political sciences into future forest ecosystem science.
• There has been some talk in forestry circles about the concept of "New Forestry." In simple terms, new forestry strives to maintain various elements of the natural forest. It includes practices such as perpetuating plant species diversity, avoiding fragmentation of wildlife habitats, and allowing some stands of trees to reach old growth conditions. It also includes retaining dead wood, both standing snags and won logs, after a harvest and leaving live trees uncut in clearcuts.
• The Forest Service is embarking on a philosophy called "New Perspectives." New Perspectives is not clearly defined by design. The individual national forests are to apply their knowledge of the local forest and its history, public use and demands to formulate a scientifically sound and socially acceptable plan for managing that forest.

The goal toward which these changes are leading is sustainable ecosystem management. This type of management goes beyond the old concepts of multiple use and sustained-yield. Sustainable ecosystem management is managing a forest ecosystem for all of it's values and uses, not just the commercially valuable products. It includes protecting sensitive areas in the forest and rare and endangered species. Foresters will be managing for all plant and animal communities, not just the overstory trees and the game animals.

Put very simply, future forest management will emphasize what is being left on the land. management in the past has concentrated on extracting products from the forest--the board foot volume logged or the number of deer harvested In the future, foresters will select what is left behind as carefully as what is being removed.

This is not to say that the way foresters managed land in the past was wrong. The old way was appropriate for what was known about forest ecology, and for the needs and demands society placed on the forest at the time. However, times have changed. Research is continually updating our knowledge about forest ecosystems. Society now has different things it wants from the forest.

In some circumstances, these ideas are departures from the way forestry in Missouri has been practiced in the past. But forestry must keep pace with technology and the needs of society. Fifty years ago, controlling forest fires in the Ozarks was a radical idea. Through the continued cooperation of public and private foresters, private landowners, and government agencies, generations of Missourians can be guaranteed healthy and productive "Forests for the Future."