Forest Management - A Necessity in the 21st Century

Forest Management is the interactive process of making plans and implementing practices for the conservation (i.e., wise use and management) of forests to meet specific environmental, financial, social, and cultural goals. It is a broad field of administrative, monetary, social and technical factors relative to creating, growing, and tending groups of trees- ‘stands’. Forest management may involve varying degrees of deliberate human intervention in global forest ecosystems. These deliberate and planned interventions may include preservation (i.e., actions to sustain an ecosystem in a permanent and static state), and conservation (i.e., efforts to apply science and manipulate the forest environment in ways that perpetuate not only the forest ecosystem but the human environment as well). All forests on this planet can be managed sustainably by harvesting no more than can be grown in perpetuity. Indeed, ‘sustainable forest management’ is defined globally as a dynamic and evolving concept. The goal of which is to maintain and enhance the economic, social, and environmental values of all types of forests for the benefit of present and future generations. Contemplating the importance of forests, Global Forest Resources promotes sustainable forestry with a variety of management practices. We also believe the key to adapting forests to climate change is to build complexity into their species composition and structure. Our practices offer a holistic approach to management of global forest ecosystems for the welfare of present and future generations. 

Forest inventory evaluates the forests’ assets and provides qualitative and quantitative information critical for the planning and implementation of prescriptive treatments necessary for near-term and long-term management. These assets include commodity products- timber for lumber and pulp for paper products, carbon reservoirs in the above and below ground live biomass in the trees and roots, soils, and carbon stored in the standing dead. Quantifying and managing soils carbon, or carbon farming’ is a significant component of carbon asset management. We believe forest inventory must also measure non-commodity forest assets like filtered, fresh water, carbon- above and below ground, wildlife habitat and primary vs. net ecosystem productivity. 

Forests cover nearly one-third of the earth’s land mass and play a vital role in balancing global gases, stabilizing global climatic, greatly influencing the water cycle and the carbon cycle, protect soils, provide habitat for flora and fauna, produce food, and provide oxygen through their own respiration. Without sustainable global forestry, these non-commodity assets may be lost. They cannot be replaced or rebuilt even with our best efforts in the brief amount of time we have.  

Meanwhile, forest managers must maintain or improve the health, condition, and esthetics of the landscape, reduce the risk of catastrophic fires, and maintain canopy structure and diversity to fulfill various forest practices goals and objectives. To meet these demands, we often use technology and software tools. Computer technology has revolutionized land management decision analyses. Global Position System (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), relational databases, mapping technologies, visualization software, and growth and yield simulators are among the many tools currently available, and other software products are being rapidly developed. The USDA Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) is one of the products currently available to aid forest managers in making sound biological and economical management decisions with its projection and planning capabilities. Software allows forest managers to model climate change and develop dynamic forest adaptations to it as we move through this era of increased climate risk.