SILVICULTURE, PLANNING, & ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT

Transcription

1 SILVICULTURE, PLANNING, & ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT Ralph D. Nyland Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Syracuse, NY Nyland All rights reserved Use of all or parts of these class notes prohibited without express consent of Ralph D. Nyland Background reading: Chapter 1, in Nyland, R.D Silviculture: Concepts and Applications. Waveland Press. Long Grove, IL. 2ed. Sources cited: Assman, E The Principles of Forest Yield Studies. Transl. by. S.H. Gardiner. Pergamon Press Ltd. Oxford. Koten, D.E Lecture notes. Faculty of Forestry, SUNY Coll. Environ. Sci., and For., Syracuse, NY. Seymour, R.S., and M.L. Hunter, Jr New Forestry in eastern spruce-fir forests: Principles and applications in Maine. Univ. Me., Me. Agric. Expt. Stn., Misc. Publ Urban, D.L., R.V. O Neill, and H.H. Shugart Landscape ecology: A hierarcial perspective can help scientists understand spatial patterns. Biosci. 37(2):

2 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

3 Drawing on many disciplines for ideas and techniques... Silviculture SILVICULTURE a synthesis a process A process for solving problems... devising practical approaches for making a forest better with respect to a landowners objectives

4 Silviculture funnels knowledge into information for practical use... Nyland 1998 Silviculture causes acceptable and desirable ecologic changes to bring desirable economic benefits -financial - institutional - social... an important aspect of ecosystem management or sustainable forestry

5 ... 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 magnitudes of vegetation responses - that address well-defined objectives the economic / social part

6 ecologically viable and economically pertinent So what has changed through time... A more deliberate effort to focus more on the ecologic basis for sustainable management and use... and to integrate non-market factors Bringing together the... ecologic... social... financial

7 melding the alternatives to diversify the benefits Ecosystem management occurs at the convergence of these components

8 ... an idea not foreign to historic forestry Remember this? THE PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS: Ecologic and economic 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

9 Promoting convergence actively bringing these together All based on the OBJECTIVES from among the ecologically acceptable options... ones that make both ecologic and economic sense

10 And what economic factors influence decisions... Two types of administrative influences over silviculture Those influencing INITIAL PLANNING... and scheduled replanning 2. Those altering EXISTING programs... at unscheduled times each requiring deliberation and adaptive management

11 Some factors that influence INITIAL 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 direction for silviculture... these influence the intensity intensity of silviculture

12 Yet economic constraints may limit actions CONCEPT DRIVEN INPUTS SILVICULTURE MERE CUTTING ECOLOGICALLY IRREVERSIBLE... keeping you in a limited box defining the bounds for action on the silvicultural surface Through good judgment and creative thinking... oh, the wonder of it all

13 D. Koten lumps the planning factors into four groups 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 And how they come together makes a difference in serving diverse interests in an ecologically sound manner

14 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 and production efficiency in harvesting and use Simplifying the system and reducing the convergence

15 WITH OLD STYLES OF MANAGEMENT CONVERGENCE COULD BE ACCIDENTAL... sometimes enhancing a non-market value as a happenstance

16 MOST IMPORTANT With ecosystem management we change from emphasizing uses to maintaining healthy and stable ecosystems and serving human needs as an outcome of that management providing opportunities based on sound ecologic principles

17 Changing forestry from the practice of efficiently harvesting timber and capitalizing on other opportunities to the process of managing forested ecosystems knowing that ecologically viable forests serve human needs quite well sustained into the future

18 Where use becomes an inevitable outcome of creating and maintaining stable and diverse forests Where convergence should increase with experience...

19 In creative ways So the objectives shifted through time from dominance of economic factors... toward an eco-economic focus

20 ... ecologically sensitive economically attractive Ecosystem management has some other aspects... - it deals with ecosystem functions and balances at a landscape scale - it focuses on changes and development on an ecologic time scale - it tempers current uses and treatments to maintain an array of options for future times

21 thinking long in space and time... considering all the ecologic values

22 But getting it done ONE STAND AT A TIME through silviculture... balanced in time and space through appropriate action

23 through time And steadily extended to the multi-stand and landscape levels... V through silviculture to fit the situation In many ways broadening past strategies In the old days multiple-use use forests represented one way to diversify use at the forest level

24 BUT NOW... sustaining ecological systems rather than emphasizing uses and at a landscape scale With an approach like this one... Seymour and Hunter 1992

25 Dispersed in space in some meaningful fashion Seymour and Hunter integrated at a large scale

26 dealing creatively with the situation at hand And interspersed through time at a landscape scale Ecological reserve Ecosystem silviculture High-yield plantation

27 Adaptation by Nyland extending across the landscape based on thinking broadly and locally

28 Yet when all appears in order and going well something will often happen to bring change So what factors force a change in silviculture and press a landowner to abandon silviculture and liquidate assets... or change the kind and intensity of silviculture 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...

29 ... sometimes even stimulating activity... often due to improved markets or a windfall of funds to support an initiative

30 sometimes depressing it... even crushing long-held hopes for the future In response to economic factors and often financial ones Even ones threatening financial crisis

31 But keep ecologic principles in the forefront... deciding how to adapt Remembering that you can contribute... - a large toolkit of ideas and techniques - a capacity to make many different kinds and 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

32 So when all else fails THINK AND WHO SHALL DO IT? Good luck... Nissen 2010