Society of American Foresters (SAF) Task Force on Sustaining Long-Term Forest Health and Productivity
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Executive Summary of the Task Force Report
A basic tenet of the forestry profession is that forests are a renewable resource that can be managed to meet the needs of society, indefinitely. Historically, the practice of forestry focused on the timber resource, but foresters increasingly are expected to manage more explicitly for a broader array of forest uses, products, and services. An inescapable fact is that rapid population growth continues, and with it so will demand for all these values. Our responsibility as professionals is to sustain the long-term health and productivity of all these forest-related resources to ensure we will meet the long-term needs of society. The challenge to our profession is to do so with a high degree of certainty and with equity reflecting our nation's tradition of protecting both public values and private property rights.
The SAF Council appointed this Task Force to "assess the task of managing the nation's forests to sustain their health and the long-term productivity of all values, and suggest responses by the profession." The Task Force defines sustaining the health and long-term forest productivity to include all values and all forests, regardless of ownership, but with attention to private property rights. Further, we emphasize managing these forests cooperatively across ownership(s) in large landscapes so that goods and services for human use, and ecosystem conditions such as biological diversity and ecosystem integrity, are ensured in a multigenerational time frame. Intensive forest management is a necessary part of this framework. It can be achieved within the objective of maintaining ecosystem integrity in the broad forest landscape. The report provides examples of how this might be done.
Achieving this goal will require strategies that meet three criteria. Each strategy must:
a. maintain the structural and functional integrity of the forest as an ecosystem;
b. meet the diverse needs of the human community; and
c. commit the technological, financial, and human resources needed for implementation.
If any of these criteria are nor met, the strategy will fail or not meet expectations, and will be replaced by an alternative. Developing and implementing strategies that meet these tests will challenge the way forestry professionals think about forest resources and the institutions through which we manage them.
Concepts for Contemporary Forest Resources Management
Change in the emphasis of forest management is not new. In the last I 00 years exploitation, conservation, or multiple use sustained yield have predominated at different times. The forestry profession provided leadership for each change, building upon the past and responding to social, scientific, and economic forces. Movement into each period has been preceded by tension and debate. Today; change is merely a new chapter in a historic pattern, with its own tensions and debate.
Historically, we sought sustainability in the concept of sustained yield, expressed predominantly in terms of timber. This more narrowly focused, traditional sustained-yield management met our needs in the past, and foresters are justifiably proud of their accomplishments. These accomplishments reflected the needs of society and the knowledge available at the time. The Task Force finds, however, traditional sustained-yield management insufficient if we are to achieve the long-term productivity of all forest values at the landscape level (a size of 100,000-1,000,000 acres is suggested for perspective, but this point requires discussion and resolution within the profession).
Traditional sustained-yield management does not fully meet the three criteria outlined in the opening paragraphs of this summary. Specifically:
a. It does not ensure the integrity of the system is maintained; focusing on individual stands, with little attention to the landscape within which they exist, has led in some areas to degradation and fragmentation of critical wildlife habitat and failing forest health in some others.
b. It does not adequately meet the desires of people for more attention to non-commodity values; managing for these values often conflicts with the economic needs of rural communities and the rights of private landowners new policies are needed to meet these diverse needs in an equitable manner.
c. It is difficult to implement with the increased emphasis required today on non-timber values, as evidenced by increasing regulation, appeals, and other strategies initiated by individuals and groups with varying degrees of public support.
The Task Force finds that if we are to sustain all values of the forest we must take a more ecological approach, managing the forest as a complex system functioning as a whole, not as a collection of parts. Ecosystem management is proposed as a concept to achieve long-term forest health and productivity. Sustained yield is to be achieved within this framework.
The concepts of traditional sustained-yield management and ecosystem management are different. Traditional sustained-yield management focuses on continuing the flow of one or more products within constraints imposed by environmental and economic factors. Ecosystem management focuses on the condition of the forest, with goals of maintaining soil productivity, gene conservation, biodiversity, landscape patterns, and the array of ecological processes. Under this approach, actions and yield projections are determined within the goals established for the landscape as a whole, including those necessary to meet human needs.
Ecosystem management is not the replacement of the production of goods and services with preservation of some natural state. Rather, it recognizes that natural disturbance regimes and ecosystem processes provide the basic blueprint for a sustaining pattern and process across the landscape. Management practices are sought that reflect (not duplicate) these landscape patterns and ecosystem processes.
Ecosystem management does not mean all landowners must have the same objectives, but rather that ecosystem integrity is maintained in aggregate at the landscape level. Intensive forest management within the landscape is a necessary part of meeting the needs of people across the landscape. We believe ecosystem management will meet the broader goals of society, meet landowners objectives in an equitable manner and ensure forest health. We recognize that finding the balance among these will be difficult indeed.
Scientific Knowledge and Professional Skills
Significant investments in research have produced an effective base of knowledge about parts of the forest, especially with respect to growing trees. Much less is known about how human-related disturbance and natural disturbance affect ecosystem function and productivity. Because the concepts on which ecosystem management rest continue to be developed (and the knowledge base for it will continue to be refined), uncertainty remains about many practical aspects of its implementation and outputs. This can be accommodated through strategies that include adaptive management.
Forestry professionals will need a variety of specialized skills to achieve the sustainable long-term productivity we describe as a goal. New technical and scientific skills will be needed; equally important, however will be integrative approaches and synthesis skills needed for development of ecosystem management policies and practices. Implementation will require enhanced skills in communication and working with people.
Strategies to Sustain Long-Term Forest Health and Productivity
Strategies to achieve the goal of long-term forest productivity are needed in management, research, and education. A major challenge is the need for cooperative planning and coordination across ownerships to ensure that ecosystem productivity is addressed at the landscape level. New policies are needed that facilitate these goals with equity. Incentives for the private sector will be needed to fully implement ecosystem management.
Adaptive management is a strategy that is imperative as we move into ecosystem management. This means establishing measurable objectives, using the best knowledge to prescribe practices, monitoring the results, and adjusting practices as needed to meet objectives. Organizational structures that foster interdisciplinary integration will be needed.
Research has focused (with some exceptions) on the parts of systems, rather than on the integrated whole. This research approach is not wrong, but it is insufficient. It needs to be complemented by interdisciplinary, integrative research operating at various scales of time and space. The National Research Council report, Mandate for Change provides excellent direction for the new research approach.
New strategies are needed in professional and public education. While curricula have improved over time, a recent SAF-sponsored educational symposium identified significant issues. The narrow disciplinary and functional orientation of professional education needs to be replaced by an integrative orientation throughout the curriculum. Self-directed study and continuing education that incorporate ecosystem management are needed by forestry professionals to supplement the education received early in their careers.
Public education includes formal education for school children, and adult public education and involvement. Because formal education shapes the attitudes of the public, strategies to accelerate the incorporation of forest ecosystem management-related materials in school curricula is of high priority. This will also alert students early to forestry as a career choice.
Adult public education is a two-way street. Foresters need to provide the public with easily understood technical information; forestry professionals need to learn more from the public. Members of the public with deeply held beliefs about forestry are most effective in sharing them, but listening carefully and understanding all constituencies is essential. Bringing these divergent constituencies together so they can hear and learn from one another is equally important. New strategies involving learning and the use of education centers will play a strong role in public adult education.
Recommendations
The findings of the Task Force led to 26 specific recommendations for action in four broad areas listed below. We believe the recommendations are essential to SAF's national leadership role.
Advocate ecosystem management. A series of nine specific recommendations promote the understanding and adoption of ecosystem management as the principal vehicle for sustaining long-term forest productivity.
Integrate ecosystem management into educational programs. Five specific recommendations focus on ensuring that the public understands ecosystem management and that forestry professionals are able to use this concept to sustain long-term forest productivity.
Promote ecosystem management research. Specific recommendations in seven areas are intended to ensure that the knowledge needed for the full implementation of ecosystem management is attained. Key elements include endorsement of the recommendations of the 1990 report, Mandate for Change, of the National Research Council and the development of large programs of integrated research and management.
Coordination among landowners and the public. Attainment of sustainable long-term forest productivity will require a high degree of cooperation among landowners and with the public. Five specific recommendations identify several key leadership roles for SAF in this regard.
Adoption and implementation of these recommendations are essential to SAF's national leadership role in the forestry profession.