forestry

/fawr"euh stree, for"-/, n.

1. the science of planting and taking care of trees and forests.

2. the process of establishing and managing forests; forestation.

3. forestland.

[1685-95; < MF foresterie. See FOREST, -RY]

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Management of forested land (see forest), together with associated waters and wasteland, primarily for harvesting timber but also for conservation and recreation purposes.

The science of forestry is built around the principle of multiple-use land management, though the harvesting and replanting of timber are the primary activities. The main objective is to maintain a continuous supply of timber through carefully planned harvest and replacement. The forest manager is also responsible for the application of other land controls, including the protection of wildlife and the implementation of programs to protect the forest from weeds, insects, fungal diseases (see fungus), erosion, and fire. The planned management of forests originated in early medieval Europe, where laws regulated the felling of timber and the use of forests for hunting. In the 19th century private forestry schools were established in Europe; and in 1891 the U.S. government authorized its first reserves of forested land. During the 20th century many nations have undertaken reforestation or afforestation programs.

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Introduction

      the management of forested land, together with associated waters and wasteland, primarily for harvesting timber. To a large degree, modern forestry has evolved in parallel with the movement to conserve natural resources. As a consequence, professional foresters have increasingly become involved in activities related to the conservation of soil, water, and wildlife resources and to recreation.

      This article traces the history of forestry from its origin in ancient practices to its development as a scientific profession in the modern world, and it discusses the kinds and distribution of forests as well as the principal techniques and methods of modern forest management in detail.

History

The ancient world

      It is believed that Homo erectus used wood for fire at least 750,000 years ago. The oldest evidence of the use of wood for construction, found at the Kalambo Falls site in Tanzania, dates from some 60,000 years ago. Early organized communities were located along waterways that flowed through the arid regions of India, Pakistan, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, where scattered trees along riverbanks (river) were used much as they are today—for fuel, construction, and handles for tools. Writers of the Old Testament make frequent reference to the use of wood. Pictures in Egyptian tombs show the use of the wooden plow and other wooden tools to prepare the land for sowing. Carpenters and shipwrights fabricated wooden boats as early as 2700 BC. Theophrastus, Varro, Pliny, Cato, and Virgil wrote extensively on the subject of trees, their classification, manner of growth, and the environmental characteristics that affect them.

      The Romans took a keen interest in trees and imported tree seedlings throughout the Mediterranean region and Germany, establishing groves comparable to those in Carthage, Lebanon, and elsewhere. The fall of the Roman Empire signaled an end to conservation works throughout the Mediterranean and a renewal of unregulated cutting, fire, and grazing of sheep and goats, which resulted in the destruction of the forests. This, in turn, caused serious soil loss, silting of streams and harbours, and the conversion of forest to a scrubby brush cover known as maquis.

Medieval Europe

      In medieval Europe, forest laws were aimed initially at protecting game and defining rights and responsibilities. Hunting rights were vested in the feudal lord who owned the property and who had the sole right to cut trees and export timber. Peasants were permitted to gather fuel, timber, and litter for use on their own properties and to pasture defined numbers of animals. By 1165, however, land clearing for agriculture had gone so far that Germany forbade further forest removal. The systematic management of forests had its true beginnings, however, in the German states during the 16th century. Each forest property was divided into sections for timber harvesting and regeneration to ensure a sustainable yield of timber for the entire property. This working plan called for accurate maps and assessments of timber volume and expected growth rates.

      Trees have been raised from seed or cuttings since biblical times, but the earliest record of a planned forest nursery is that of William Blair, cellarer to the Abbey of Coupar Angus in Scotland, who raised trees to grow in the Highland Forest of Ferter as early as 1460. After the dissolution of the monasteries, many newly rich landowners in Scotland and England found a profitable long-term investment in artificial plantations established on poor land. John Evelyn (Evelyn, John), a courtier in the reign of Charles II, published his classic textbook Sylva in 1664, exhorting them to do so, and today virtually all of Britain's 2,100,000 hectares (5,200,000 acres) of woodland consists of artificial plantations. Other countries had managed their natural forests better and had little need, until recently, to afforest bare land. The 20th century, however, has seen a tremendous expansion of artificial plantations in all the continents, planned to meet the ever-growing needs for wood and paper as essential materials in modern civilization.

Modern developments

      Formal education in forestry began about 1825 when private forestry schools were established. These were the outgrowth of the old master schools such as Cotta Master School, which developed into the forestry college at Tharandt—one of the leading forestry schools in Germany. The National School of Forestry was established in Nancy, Fr., in 1825.

      During the 19th century the reputation of German foresters stood so high that they were employed in most continental European countries. Early American foresters, including the great conservation pioneer Gifford Pinchot (Pinchot, Gifford), gained their training at European centres. But the doctrine of responsible control had to fight a hard battle against timber merchants who sought quick profits.

      The 20th century has seen the steady growth of national forest laws and policies designed to protect woodlands as enduring assets. Beginning in the 1940s vast land reclamation was undertaken by Greece, Israel, Italy, Spain, and the Maghrib countries of North Africa to restore forests to the slopes laid bare by past abuse. The main objective of the tree planting is to save what remains of the soil and to protect the watersheds. In China, where forests once extended over 30 percent of the land, centuries of overcutting, overgrazing, and fires reduced this proportion to approximately 7 percent. China has taken major steps to improve land use, including construction of reservoirs and a huge forest planting program, which reported the planting of 15,750,000 hectares between 1950 and 1957 alone.

      The character of forest policies around the world reflects national political philosophies. In Communist countries all forests are owned by the state. In the United States both the federal and the state governments have deemed it prudent to hold substantial areas of natural forest, while allowing commercial companies and private individuals to own other areas outright. Similar patterns of ownership are found throughout most of Asia, western Europe, and the Commonwealth countries. In Japan the extensive forests are largely state owned. Tribal ownership is found in many African countries and proves a serious obstacle to effective modern management. International cooperation is effected by the Forestry Department of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, with headquarters in Rome.

Development of U.S. policies

      The history of forestry in the United States followed the same path as forestry in Europe—land clearing, repeated burning, overcutting, and overgrazing—until a bill was passed by Congress in 1891 authorizing the president to set apart from the public domain reserves of forested land. In 1905 an act of Congress, with strong encouragement from President Theodore Roosevelt, transferred the Bureau of Forestry from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture. Gifford Pinchot, who had been chief of the bureau, was made chief of the newly named Forest Service. Pinchot developed the U.S. Forest Service into a federal agency that today is recognized worldwide for its research, education, and land and forest management expertise. On the state level the Morrill Act of 1862 provided for federal–state cooperative programs in which the federal government granted first land, then money, to the states for the establishment of technical agricultural colleges. The Weeks Act of 1911 authorized the federal government to assist the states in protecting forests from fire, and the Clark–McNary Act of 1924 extended the provisions of the Weeks Act to include cooperation in forest extension, planting, and assistance to forest owners. During the Great Depression of the 1930s the interests of forestry were served most imaginatively and thoroughly by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which planted trees, fought forest fires, and improved access to woodlands across the United States. The CCC, rooted in the system of public works initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, continued until 1942, acquainting many people with forestry as a major government activity.

      The complete mobilization of resources for the U.S. involvement in World Wars I and II and the pent-up demand for consumer goods made heavy demands on forest resources and industries. As a result, forestry on a national basis entered a period of the most rapid advance since the turn of the century. This time the advance was stimulated by the need for forest products and by the conviction on the part of the major timber companies that they must protect their raw material supply. To protect the forests from growing pressure from single-interest groups, Congress passed the Multiple Use–Sustained Yield Act of 1960. This act directed that the national forests be managed under principles of multiple use so as to produce a sustained yield of products and services. The Bureau of Outdoor Recreation was established shortly thereafter in the Department of the Interior. The Land and Water Conservation Fund, established in 1964, launched a comprehensive program for planning and developing outdoor recreation facilities. State forestry programs had their beginnings in the United States during colonial times, but it was the Weeks and Clark–McNary laws that provided the impetus to develop recognized state forestry departments. The Smith–Lever Act of 1914 allotted funds through the state agricultural colleges for extension work in forestry. Initial programs emphasized tree planting and demonstrations, but today all aspects of forestry and natural and related resources are included.

      Industrial forestry began around 1912 when Finch, Pruyn, and Company started a forestry program on its Adirondack holding in New York. Trees to be cut were marked by foresters, and the cutting budget was projected on a sustained-yield basis. A rapid expansion of company forestry programs in the northeastern United States began in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Following World War II, paper companies expanded rapidly throughout the South and West and to a lesser extent in the Northeast. Pulp and paper companies were quick to recognize the benefits to be realized from research financed by the Forest Service and by universities in such fields as tree physiology, entomology, genetics, and tree improvement. A few companies established their own experimental forests and research teams.

      The cause of forestry in the United States also has been advanced by citizens' organizations. These vary from lay and youth organizations, such as the Boy Scouts and garden clubs, to the nation's most prestigious scientific societies. The American Association for the Advancement of Science stimulated Congress in 1876 to embark on a sustained federal forestry program. The National Academy of Sciences 1896 report on forest reserves began its long involvement in forest conservation. The Society of American Foresters, founded in 1900, together with its sister societies in Canada and Mexico, represents the profession of forestry in North America.

Classification and distribution of forests

      Botanical classification places forest trees into two main groups, Gymnospermae (gymnosperm) and Angiospermae. The gymnosperms consist exclusively of trees and woody shrubs, whereas the angiosperms are a diverse group of plants that include trees and shrubs as well as grasses and herbaceous plants. The gymnosperms probably gave rise to the angiosperms, although the manner in which this took place is disputed.

Gymnosperms

      The gymnosperms are of very ancient lineage and include the earliest trees on the evolutionary scale. With certain exceptions, the seeds (seed and fruit) of gymnosperms are borne in cones (cone), where they develop naked or exposed on the upper surface of the cone scales. The wood of these trees has a simple structure. Many species are extinct, such as the tree ferns of the Carboniferous Period (280,000,000 to 345,000,000 years ago), and are known only as fossils. The ginkgo, or maidenhair tree, is the sole survivor of an entire order of gymnosperms, the Ginkgoales. Among the gymnosperms, the most important and numerous forest trees are the conifers (conifer), also known as softwoods. This group includes the well-known pines, spruces, firs, cedars, junipers, hemlocks, and sequoias. These species are so dominant in the gymnosperm class that forests of gymnosperm trees are typically called coniferous forests. Except for the ginkgo, larches, and bald cypress, all gymnosperms are evergreen.

Angiosperms (angiosperm)

      The angiosperms constitute the dominant plant life of the present geologic era. They are the products of a long line of evolutionary development that has culminated in the highly specialized organ of reproduction known as the flower, in which seed development occurs within an ovary. This group includes a large variety of broad-leaved trees, most with a deciduous leaf habit but some that are evergreen. The angiosperms are further divided into monocots and dicots. Trees are represented in both groups.

Monocots

      The monocots include principally the palms (palm) and bamboos. Palm trees form extensive savannas in certain tropical and subtropical zones but are more usually seen along watersides or in plantations.

      Palm trees have no growth rings, being made up of spirally arranged bundles of fibres, giving a light, spongy wood. Palms are valuable, however, for their various fruits (coconuts, dates, and palm kernels) and leaf products (carnauba wax, raffia, and thatching and walling materials for houses in the tropics).

      Another form of tropical monocotyledonous forest is the bamboo thicket, common in Asia, composed of giant woody grasses. One of the most versatile plants in the world, bamboo is valuable as a construction material, as well as for hundreds of other applications. Its young shoots are eaten as vegetables and are a valuable source of certain enzymes.

Dicots (dicotyledon)

      Finally, a more highly evolved group of forest trees is the dicots, or broad-leaved trees, also called hardwoods. Their wood structure is complex, and each sort of broad-leaved lumber has characteristic properties that fit it for particular uses.

Occurrence and distribution

       Distribution of the world's forest landApproximately 4,000,000,000 hectares, or about one-third of the total land area in the world, is covered with closed forests of broad-leaved and coniferous species and open forests or savannas (Table 1 (Distribution of the world's forest land)). Because of the varying characteristics of individual tree species, the kind and distribution of the world's forests are largely determined by local conditions. Each combination of temperature, rainfall, and soil has a peculiar association of trees and other vegetation that are best equipped to compete with other plants for that site. The open forest is characteristically a tropical grassland, often disturbed by fire, with forest along streams and scattered individual trees or small groves. Closed thorn forests usually appear adjacent to the savannas. In general, coniferous forests are found in the cooler, drier areas, and the broad-leaved species are predominant in the warmer, usually moister parts of the world. Tropical forests consist almost exclusively of broad-leaved species. Mixed broad-leaved and coniferous forests are found near the boundaries between these two climatic zones.

      Coniferous forests are largely found in the temperate climate of the Northern Hemisphere, where they cover approximately 1,100,000,000 hectares; some 85 percent of them are in North America and the erstwhile Soviet Union. The northern coniferous forest, or taiga (boreal forest), extends across North America from the Pacific to the Atlantic, across northern Europe through Scandinavia and Russia, and across Asia through Siberia to Mongolia, northern China, and northern Japan. It has outliers along all the temperate mountain ranges, including the Rockies, the Appalachians, the Alps, the Urals, and the Himalayas. Its principal trees are spruces (spruce) (of the genus Picea), northern pines (pine) (Pinus), silver firs (fir) (Abies), Douglas firs (Douglas fir) (Pseudotsuga), hemlocks (hemlock) (Tsuga), and larches (larch) (Larix). Together these northern softwood forests form a world resource of tremendous importance, yielding the bulk of the lumber and pulpwood handled commercially. Northern conifers from many lands are extensively planted in Europe, including the British Isles.

      The southern coniferous forest has a discontinuous spread through the southern part of the Northern Hemisphere, including California, the southeastern states of the United States, the Mediterranean lands of southern Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, parts of the Asian mainland, and southern Japan. Pines are the principal trees, along with cypresses (cypress) (Cupressus and Chamaecyparis), cedars (cedar) (Cedrus), and redwoods (redwood) and mammoth trees ( Sequoia and Sequoiadendron). Certain southern pines such as the California Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) grow poorly in their native habitat but exceptionally fast when planted in subtropical Europe, Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.

      In addition to the plantations of introduced pines, small areas of coniferous forest are found in the Southern Hemisphere, notably the Chile pine, Araucaria araucana, in the Andes; hoop pine, or bunyabunya, Araucaria bidwillii, in Australia; and kauri pine, Agathis australis, in New Zealand.

      The dicotyledonous broad-leaved species form three characteristic types of forests: temperate deciduous, subtropical evergreen, and tropical evergreen.

      Temperate deciduous broad-leaved forests are made up of the summer-green trees of North America, northern Europe, and the temperate regions of Asia and South America. Characteristic trees are oaks (oak) (Quercus species), beeches (beech) (Fagus and Nothofagus), ash trees (Fraxinus), birches (birch) (Betula), elms (elm) (Ulmus), alders (alder) (Alnus), and sweet chestnuts (Castanea). Temperate broad-leaved trees expand their foliage in spring, grow rapidly in summer, and shed all their leaves each fall.

      Subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests grow largely in countries with a Mediterranean type of climate—i.e., hot, dry summers and cool, moist winters. Their trees have characteristic thick, hard-surfaced, leathery-textured leaves with waxy coatings that enable them to resist water loss during summer droughts. Their evergreen habit enables them to make use of moist winters. Typical trees are the evergreen oaks, species of Quercus, and the madrone, or Arbutus, while in Australia most evergreen broadleaf trees are species of Eucalyptus. Few evergreen broadleaf trees have high timber value, and many are little more than scrub, highly inflammable during hot, dry summers. Their world distribution embraces California; the southeastern states of the United States; Mexico; parts of Chile and Argentina; the Mediterranean shores of Europe, Asia, and North Africa; South Africa; and most of Australia.

      Tropical evergreen broad-leaved forests, or tropical rain forests (tropical rainforest), grow in the hot, humid belt of high rainfall that follows the Equator around the globe. They occur in West and Central Africa, South Asia, the northern zone of Australia, and in Central and South America. Where they extend into regions of seasonal rainfall, such as monsoon zones, they become less truly evergreen, holding many trees that stand leafless during the short dry seasons. Tropical rain forests hold a great variety of tree species. A few of the timbers, such as teak, Tectona grandis, in India, and mahogany, Swietenia macrophylla, in Central America, have uniquely useful properties or ornamental appearance and hence a high commercial value. balsa, Ochroma pyramidale, from Central America, is the lightest timber known; it is used for rafts, aircraft construction, and insulation against noise, heat, and cold.

      Trees outside areas classified as forestland, such as those in windbreaks, along rights-of-way, or around farm fields, are also important resources, especially in densely populated areas. For example, some 20 percent of Rwanda's farmland is maintained by farmers as woodlots and wooded pastures. These roughly 200,000 hectares of dispersed trees exceed the combined area of the country's natural forests and state and communal plantations. In the Kakamega District of Kenya more than 90 percent of the farms have scattered trees maintained for animal fodder and fuelwood. Of the 7,200,000,000 trees planted in the densely settled plains region of China, 5,800,000,000 have been planted around homes and in villages, with each household tending an average of 74 trees. Even in France, where trees are not used much for fuelwood, trees outside the forests occupy 883,000 hectares. There are no good estimates of the worldwide totals of such scattered trees, but their existence provides many locally useful products and extends the resources in the forested areas.

Purposes and techniques of forest management

Multiple-use concept

      The forests of the world provide numerous amenities in addition to being a source of wood products. The various public, industrial, and private owners of forestland may have quite different objectives for the forest resources they control. Industrial and private owners may be most interested in producing a harvestable product for a processing mill. However, they also may want other benefits, such as forage for grazing animals, watershed protection, recreational use, and wildlife habitat. On public lands the multiple-use land management concept has become the guiding principle for enlightened foresters. This is a complex ecological and sociological concept in contrast to the single-use principle of the past. The challenge, in the words of Gifford Pinchot, is to “ensure the greatest good for the most people over the long run.” Thus timber production may have top priority in some areas, but in others, such as those near large population centres, recreational values may have high priority. Multiple use calls for exceptional skill on the part of forest managers.

Sustained yield

      Forest management originated in the desire of the large central European landowners to secure dependable income to maintain their castles and retinues of servants. Today forest management is still primarily economic in essence, because modern forest industries, mainly sawmilling and paper manufacture, can be efficient only on a continuous-operation basis.

      Foresters think in long time scales, in line with the long life of their renewable crop. However, it is possible that a forest can be managed in such a way that a modest timber crop may be harvested indefinitely year after year if annual harvest and the losses due to fire, insects, diseases (plant disease), and other destructive agents are counterbalanced by annual growth. This is the sustained-yield concept. An important element is the rotation, or age to which each crop can be grown before it is succeeded by the next one. Examples of short rotation periods in the subtropics are seven years for leucaena for fuelwood, 10 years for eucalyptus, and 20 years for pine for pulpwood. Here a sustained yield could in theory be obtained simply by felling one-tenth of the eucalyptus forest each year and replanting it. Rotation periods for pulpwood in northern Europe and North America extend to 50 years. Softwood sawlogs often need 100 years to reach an economic size, while rotation periods for broad-leaved trees, such as oak and beech, in central Europe, may extend to two centuries. Over so long a growing spell only part of the lumber yield is obtained by the clear-cutting of a small fraction of the forest each year. The rest is secured by systematically thinning out the whole forest periodically.

      Sustained-yield principles are likewise applied to minor forest produce. turpentine and pitch, also known as naval stores, are obtained by the systematic tapping of the lower trunk of certain subtropical pines. Successive cuts with a chisellike tool every few days during a succession of summers eventually kill the trees. To ensure continued yields, crops of young pines are raised rotationally to replace those felled. A similar system is followed for Para rubber, Hevea brasiliensis, grown in plantations.

Forest products

      The culture of trees in natural forests and plantations for the yield of lumber, pulp, chips, and specialty products is a principal management objective. In many parts of the world the harvest of wood for firewood and charcoal is the dominant use, and these products are often in short supply. Timber stands must be felled and regenerated in an orderly sequence to meet continuing industrial demands.

Silviculture

      Silviculture is the branch of forestry concerned with the theory and practice of controlling forest establishment, composition, and growth. Like forestry itself, silviculture is an applied science that rests ultimately upon the more fundamental natural and social sciences. The immediate foundation of silviculture in the natural sciences is the field of silvics, which deals with the laws underlying the growth and development of single trees and of the forest as a biologic unit. Growth, in turn, depends on local soils and climate, competition from other vegetation, and interrelations with animals, insects, and other organisms, both beneficial and destructive. The efficient practice of silviculture demands knowledge of such fields as ecology, plant physiology, entomology, and soil science and is concerned with the economic as well as the biologic aspects of forestry. The implicit objective of forestry is to make the forest useful to man.

      The practice of silviculture is divided into three areas: methods of reproduction, intermediate cuttings, and protection. In every forest the time comes when it is desirable to harvest a portion of the timber and to replace the trees removed with others of a new generation. The act of replacing old trees, either naturally or artificially, is called regeneration or reproduction, and these two terms also refer to the new growth that develops. The period of regeneration begins when preparatory measures are initiated and does not end until young trees have become established in acceptable numbers and are fully adjusted to the new environment. The rotation is the period during which a single crop or generation is allowed to grow.

      Intermediate cuttings are various types of cuttings made during the development of the forest—i.e., from the reproduction stage to maturity. These cuttings or thinnings are made to improve the existing stand of trees, to regulate growth, and to provide early financial returns, without any effort directed at regeneration. Intermediate cuttings are aimed primarily at controlling growth through adjustments in stand density, the regulation of species composition, and selection of individuals that will make up the harvest trees. Protection of the stand against fire, insects, fungi, animals, and atmospheric disturbances is as much a part of silviculture as is harvesting, regenerating, and tending the forest crop.

      Silvicultural systems are divided into those employing natural regeneration, whereby tree crops are renewed by natural seeding or occasionally sprout regrowth, and those involving artificial regeneration, whereby trees are raised from seed or cuttings. Natural regeneration is easier but may be slow and irregular; it can only renew existing forests with the same sorts of tree that grew before. Artificial regeneration needs more effort, yet can prove quicker, more even, and in the long run more economical. It permits the introduction of new sorts of trees or better strains of the preexisting ones.

Natural regeneration

      In established forests the selective cutting of marketable timber, taking either one tree at a time (single-tree selection) or a number of trees in a cluster (group selection) and leaving gaps in which replacements can grow up from natural seedlings, can prove economical and also ensure the best possible use of available soil, light, and growing space. The best examples of single-tree-selection forests are found in Switzerland, on slopes where any clear felling could lead quickly to soil erosion and avalanches.

      Alternative methods of natural regeneration deal with areas of land as units, rather than with single trees. One highly effective example is employed in the Douglas fir forests along the Pacific slope of Canada and the western United States. logging by powerful yarding machines, using overhead cables, creates wedge-shaped gaps of cleared ground. The surrounding forest is left standing for many years in order to provide shelter and seed. Abundant seed is carried by wind on to the cleared land and gives rise, in a few years, to a full crop of seedling firs. After these have reached seed-bearing age, the areas previously left standing may be removed in their turn. Similar systems using a pattern of strips cut across the forest, or circular plots gradually extended until they meet and coalesce, are employed in France and Germany.

      A silvicultural system employing practices of short rotation (five to 10 years) and intensive culture (fertilization, weed, and insect and disease control) with superior genotypes relies on coppice, or regeneration from sprouts arising from stumps of felled trees, as the method of regeneration of the new crop and is characterized by high productivity.

Artificial regeneration

      Artificial regeneration is accomplished by the planting of seedlings (the most common method) or by the direct planting of seeds. Direct seeding is reserved for remote or inaccessible areas where seedling planting (plant breeding) is not cost-effective. A few tree species, such as poplars (Populus species) and willows (Salix species), are artificially reproduced from cuttings. Most forest planting in North America involves the conifers, especially the pines, spruces, and Douglas fir, because of the prospects of successful establishment and high financial yield. The amount of hardwood planted worldwide has increased from earlier periods, with major gains in tropical hardwoods (Eucalyptus species, Gmelina species) and high value temperate species.

      Artificial regeneration offers greater opportunity than natural regeneration to modify the genetic constitution of stands. The most important decision made in artificial regeneration is the selection of the species used in each new stand. The species chosen should be adapted to the site. The most successful introductions are obtained by moving species to the same latitude and position on the continent that they occupied in their native habitat. For example, many conifers of the western coasts of North America have been successful at the same latitudes in western Europe. The forest economy of many countries in the Southern Hemisphere is dependent on pines introduced from localities of comparable climate in the southern United States, California, and Mexico.

      The variability of seed quantity and quality and the demand for superior genotypes has led to the creation of seed orchards, stands of trees selected for superior genetic characteristics, which are cultivated to produce large quantities of seed. Most kinds of seed can be stored in sealed containers in refrigerators at temperatures near freezing for several years without a significant loss in viability. For some species, a brief period of cold storage may be necessary for the seeds to germinate; this stratification treatment is needed to satisfy the dormancy requirement of some temperate-zone species.

      Direct sowing of harvested seed in the forest or on open land is not a common practice because of forest seed-eaters (mice, squirrels, birds) and the problem of weed growth. Tree seedlings are therefore raised in forest nurseries, where effective protection is possible. These seedlings almost invariably come from seed, although vegetative propagation from rooted cuttings is a useful technique of perpetuating valuable strains of certain species. Seedlings grown in raised seedbeds are removed from the nursery soil when large enough and are bare-rooted when planted in the field. Seedlings grown in individual containers have an intact root system encapsulated in a soil plug for planting. In either case, the system can be highly mechanized. To enhance seedling quality, the seedbeds or container media are inoculated with specific microorganisms that form symbiotic relationships with the seedlings. These microorganisms include certain fungi, which form mycorrhizae with the roots and improve nutrient and water uptake, and nitrogen-fixing organisms such as Rhizobium species and Frankia species, which contribute nutrients. Selective herbicides (herbicide), insecticides (insecticide), and fungicides (fungicide) are applied before or after seedling emergence to keep the developing seedlings free of weeds, insects, and disease.

      Many tree seedlings are suitable for field planting after a few months in a containerized seedling nursery or after one to two years in a seedbed. Slow-growing species are transplanted (transplant) by hand or machine during the dormant season to transplant beds where they are root-pruned and fertilized to stimulate top growth and the development of a bushy root system, characteristics essential for survival in field planting. The mechanized operation is highly efficient. One machine and four workers can transplant 30,000–40,000 seedlings each working day. Weeds are controlled during the transplant stage by chemical herbicides that inhibit weed seed germination or growth or by mechanical harrows drawn between the rows.

      In preparation for field planting, dormant nursery-grown seedlings are undercut with a sharpened steel blade and removed from the bed by hand or by a mechanized vibrating lifter and conveyor belt system. Roots of seedlings lifted in autumn are packed with moistened sphagnum moss, and the bundles are stored in refrigerated coolers. Alternatively, seedlings may be placed in a trench, or heeling-in bed, and covered with soil and mulch until spring. At the time of lifting, seedlings should be culled to eliminate those that will not survive after planting—i.e., seedlings infested with insects or disease, badly damaged in lifting and handling, having distinctly poor root systems, or falling below minimum size standards. It is imperative that the seedlings be kept cool and the root systems moist in all phases of the lifting, storage, transport, and planting processes.

      Container-grown seedlings are culled in a manner similar to the bare-rooted stock and in most cases are shipped in the containers in which they were produced. The container method, which has traditionally been used in the tropics or in locations that are hot and dry, has become the principal method of seedling production in Canada, Scandinavia, and portions of continental Europe, Japan, and China.

      Planting tree seedlings is one of the most costly investments in the production of a forest crop. The success of a whole rotation is often determined by the soundness of decisions made about planting. These decisions concern the selection of the planting stock, the density of the planting, the use of mixed plantings, the season of planting, preparation of the site prior to planting, and even the method of planting. In temperate climates planting is generally conducted from late winter to late spring, but the use of container-grown seedlings extends the planting season into the early summer and includes a period in early autumn.

      On level ground, machine planting is preferred over hand planting. A planting machine forms a groove in the soil in which seedlings are placed at specified intervals; a set of blades then cuts into the soil around the planted seedling, and a set of packing wheels firms the soil around it. A planting machine pulled behind a single tractor on prepared level ground can set 8,000–10,000 seedlings per day. On steep slopes, broken or rocky ground, or amid tree stumps and tops, planting is done by hand. The planter uses a spade, planting bar, or mattock (or a variation of one of these) to cut a notch, or dig a pit, into which the seedling roots are inserted. Soil is then replaced and stamped firmly around the base of the seedling.

      During the following growing season, and possibly two to three years thereafter, weed control may be essential for the survival and early growth of the planted seedling. Weeds may be removed by hand with a sharp tool or hoe or by other mechanical means such as mowing or cultivating between the planted rows. Herbicides may offer a more effective and efficient means of weed control. While care must be exercised to shield the tree from many chemicals, compounds are available that kill unwanted vegetation but do not harm the tree seedling. In some regions the lower branches of conifers and certain highly valued hardwoods are pruned from saplings and young trees to improve the quality and value of the main stem and improve access into the plantation. Otherwise, the artificially established plantation needs, and receives, no more attention than does the naturally regenerated crop.

      Until the 20th century foresters usually accepted the land much as they found it. Their reaction to infertile soil was to plant aggressive species of trees, regardless of their potential market value, and to accept lower returns in plant production. Development of modern machines and a growing understanding of plant nutrition and soil chemistry now enable foresters to improve sites much as a farmer does and thereby to increase output substantially. Mechanical draining, using tractor-drawn plows to create deep open drains and so aerate the soil, is now usual on the peaty swamps of Europe, especially in Finland. On the hard heathlands of Great Britain, 120,000 hectares of new afforestation land were broken up after 1940 with sturdy plows designed to turn over firmly compacted soil layers. Plowing facilitates penetration of air, water, and tree roots, checks weed growth, and lessens fire hazard. So far it has usually been confined to strips for each row of trees, but full plowing as done on a farm promises further advantages.

      In the poorly drained Great Lakes states and in coastal areas in the southeastern and southern United States, sites are prepared by a bedding plow, which creates an alternative ridge and valley surface that improves soil drainage, aeration, and nutrient availability. Subsequent to bedding, seedlings are planted on the ridge or bed. Because forest crops are rarely irrigated (returns are too low for the capital cost invested), forest plantings on droughty sites require a careful selection of the species and the time for planting and an effective weed control program.

      The fundamental relationship between mineral nutrition and growth is the same for trees as for other plants. An understanding of forest tree nutrition requires recognition of factors distinctive to forests: (1) The nutrient demands of the plantation vary from season to season and with the developmental stage of the stand. During the life of a forest tree crop, large quantities of nutrients are returned to the soil in organic matter, which is, in turn, mineralized and made available for reuse by the same or the following crop. (2) Retranslocation of absorbed nutrients is highly developed in trees; i.e., nutrients in leaves move back into stems prior to fall leaf drop and then move into new leaves in the spring. (3) Except for the first year after planting, trees start the growing season with a developed framework for photosynthesis and an established root system for nutrient and water uptake. (4) The use of soil resources such as water and nutrients by trees may often be strongly influenced by mechanisms involved in adaptations for survival from one season to another, rather than in growth.

      Judicious management of nutrition ensures not only increased productivity of existing forests but also sustained productivity over many rotations. In southern Australia, for example, declines in yield of 25–30 percent in second rotation radiata pine (Pinus radiata) plantations have been corrected by a number of means, including intensive silviculture (site preparation, weed control, fertilization) during the early stages, retention and management of forest debris (leaves, branches, etc.) to conserve nutrients, and intercropping with annual legumes, which supply nitrogen and other nutrients.

Range and forage

      Important among the broad spectrum of forest resources are the understory plants that can provide forage for grazing animals, both domestic and wild. Grazing livestock are useful to the forest manager. Dense old-growth forest or vigorous second-growth stands with closed canopies generally have sparse, low-quality forage. Large forest management units, however, generally contain extensive logged or burned areas where understory forage plants temporarily dominate the site. These areas are transitory since the tree canopies close in 10 to 20 years, but they can provide good forage until canopy closure. Cutting cycles in the managed forest and even wildfires provide a continuing grazing resource that shifts from one location to another. In addition, open meadows occurring in valley bottoms, open forests on shallow soils, and grassland balds on windswept ridge tops greatly enrich the grazing potential of the forest. Grazing fees offset the long-term investments that must be carried in renewing the forest.

      Hardwood forests are more susceptible than coniferous forests to grazing damage. The current year's growth on broad-leaved trees provides palatable forage during most seasons of the year, whereas coniferous needles are much less palatable. Uncontrolled livestock-grazing in some parts of the world has been particularly devastating to forests and is a serious problem.

Recreation and wildlife

      From the earliest times human beings have looked to the forests for recreation. Today, recreation in forests assumes ever-growing importance with the growth of cities whose inhabitants need a change of scene, fresh air, and freedom to wander, as a relief to the stresses of industrial and commercial life. Imaginative planning is essential to ensure that people actually find what they are seeking without damage to the forest environment or conflict with the pleasures of others. The most popular outdoor recreation activities utilize forestland and include hunting and fishing, picnicking and camping, hiking, mountain climbing, driving for pleasure, boating and other water sports, winter sports, photography, and nature study. The challenge is to balance the varied demands for recreational use with the other forest uses.

      For many recreationists the main attraction of the woods is the abundance of animal and plant life. The forest manager must attempt to satisfy the diverse needs of hunters and sportsmen, outdoorsmen, and preservationists. This requires a broad expertise drawing on principles from the social sciences, natural history, wildlife management, landscape design, law, and public administration, among other disciplines.

      Recreation management includes visitor management as well as resource management. Reasonably accurate assessments of the type and amount of use that areas receive are important to allow for efficient allocation of budgets and employee time and to ensure that the degree of use does not cause excessive impacts on resources and thus destroy the recreational value of the site. Skillful location of roads, picnic points, parking lots, and campgrounds ensures that the great majority of visitors congregate in relatively small portions of a large forest. Visitor management for some situations can be aided by use of computer-generated simulation models.

      Some types of recreation require intensive management and special amenities. Vehicular camping facilities, for example, are designed for intensive use by large numbers of people and typically provide electrical hookups, toilets, showers, picnic tables, fireplaces, garbage receptacles, directional and interpretive signs, and play areas. These features must be durable and easily maintained. Downhill ski areas are most popular when well equipped with various runs, lifts, restaurants, and lodges. Other types of recreation, such as trail hiking and cross-country skiing, demand larger tracts of land but fewer improvements. Wilderness areas afford the personal challenge and serenity of backpacking, tent camping, and canoeing.

      The interpretation of what visitors see in the forests has become a growing activity of most forest services. Nature trails, guidebooks, signposts, interpretive museums, and information stations assist visitors who come to learn as well as to enjoy.

      Forests contain natural habitats for a wide range of wildlife, from the elks, wolves, lynxes, and bears of northern coniferous forests to the antelopes, giraffes, elephants, lions, and tigers of tropical savannas and jungles. Certain birds, such as pheasants, wood grouse, and quail, have high sporting value, while others are cherished for attractive song, appearance, or rarity. Many endangered species depend on forest habitats that are carefully protected by national and international laws.

      Forest managers must attend to the interrelated, and sometimes directly opposed, wildlife interests of hunters, conservationists, and farmers. Obviously the same animal can present a different aspect to each group. A Bengal tiger, for example, provides a biologist with a classic example of a carnivorous beast living in harmony with a jungle environment and restraining its main prey, deer, from undue increase in numbers. But to a village peasant it is a menace to his cows and goats and a threat to the safety of himself and his family, while a game hunter regards it as a magnificent quarry demanding all his skill. The needs of the forest itself require the numbers of grazing and browsing animals to be kept to a tolerable level. Otherwise renewal of tree crops becomes impossible.

      Virtually every change that occurs in a forest benefits some wildlife species and harms others. Some species require a diversity of conditions; one type for feeding, another for nesting, and yet another for cover. Some have very specific requirements essential to their existence, whereas others have a broad range of tolerance. In any case, the life history characteristics of the species must be known in order for the resource manager to plan and implement practices necessary for the well-being of the species. Sometimes the best management involves increasing the forest edge habitat, frequented by many kinds of wildlife. Forest edge improvement may be integrated with timber harvesting and the construction of fire lanes and logging roads. Because food and cover for wildlife are often more plentiful in the early stages of forest development, retardation of succession by prescribed burning may be beneficial to wildlife. Food crops may be planted in certain areas to improve the wildlife-carrying capacity. Adjustments are often made by foresters in cutting procedures, rotation age, regeneration methods, and other practices to accommodate the food and cover needs of wildlife and fish. Certain areas may be managed exclusively for wildlife, particularly in situations where habitat for endangered species must be protected.

      In virtually every country the sporting aspect of woodland wildlife management is controlled, to some degree, by general game laws, which also apply outside the forests. These prescribe licenses for firearms and the taking of specified birds and beasts; they usually lay down closed seasons during which certain game may not be shot and also set limits to the sportsman's bag of rare species. In the United States a peculiar situation exists whereby the game legislation of the separate states applies unchanged over most publicly owned forests. In other countries the forest managers are in a stronger position, since local game laws are adjusted to their particular requirements.

Watershed management and erosion control

      Not only is the presence of water in soils essential to the growth of forests, but improved water yield and quality are becoming increasingly important management objectives on many forested lands. Forests and their associated soils and litter layers are excellent filters as well as sponges, and water that passes through this system is relatively pure. Forest disturbances of various kinds can speed up the movement of water from the system and, in effect, reduce the filtering action. While disturbances are inevitable, in most instances they need not contribute to poor water quality.

      In mountainous territory the value of forests for watershed and erosion protection commonly exceeds their value as sources of lumber or places of recreation. The classic example is found in Switzerland and the neighbouring Alpine regions where the existence of pastoral settlements in the valley is wholly dependent on the maintenance of continuous forest cover on the foothills of the great peaks. This is combined skillfully with limited lumbering and widespread recreational use by tourists.

      The guiding principle of management where erosion threatens is therefore the maintenance of continual cover. Ideally, this is achieved by single-stem harvesting; only one tree is felled at any one point, and the small gap so created is soon closed by the outward growth of its neighbours.

      The progress of water, from the time of precipitation until it is returned to the atmosphere and is again ready to be precipitated, is called the hydrologic cycle. The properties of the soil plant system provide mechanisms that regulate interception, flow, and storage of water in the cycle. The water that moves downward into the soil, or infiltrates, is the difference between precipitation and the losses due to canopy interception, forest floor interception, and runoff. The amount of water stored in the soil is largely dependent on the physical properties of the soil, its depth, and the amount of water lost due to evaporation from the soil surface and transpiration from plants (evapotranspiration). Transpiration is the water absorbed by plant roots that is subsequently evaporated from their leaf surfaces. Deep forest soils have a high water-storage capacity. Unless they are very porous and drain freely, they have a water table below which the subsoil is saturated. The depth of the water table varies seasonally and is higher during periods of low evapotranspiration. Removal of the forest canopy in wet areas also raises the water table. Most tree roots need air to survive and cannot exploit soil below the water table. The drainage of land having a high water table usually increases the productivity of the forest.

      When incoming precipitation exceeds the soil's water-storage capacity, the excess water flows from the soil and can be measured as streamflow. The water yield of a forest is a measure of the balance between incoming precipitation and outflow of water as streamflow. The amount of increase in water yield depends on annual precipitation as well as the type and amount of overstory vegetation removed. As forests regrow following cutting, increases in streamflow decline as a result of increased transpirational losses. Streamflow declines are greater in areas that are restocked with conifers than in those restocked with hardwoods. This results from greater transpiration losses during the winter months from coniferous species.

      Despite the uncertain balance of water gain and loss, forests offer the most desirable cover for water management strategies. Water yields are gradual, reliable, and uniform, as contrasted to the rapid flows of short duration characteristic of sparsely vegetated land. Unforested land sheds water swiftly, causing sudden rises in the rivers below. Over a large river system, such as that of the Mississippi, forests are a definite advantage since they lessen the risk of floods. They also provide conditions more favourable to fishing and navigation than does unforested land. All natural streams contain varying amounts of dissolved and suspended matter, although streams issuing from undisturbed watersheds are ordinarily of high quality. Waters from forested areas are not only low in foreign substances, but they also are relatively high in oxygen and low in temperature. Nonetheless, some deterioration of stream quality can be noted during and immediately after clear-cut harvesting, even under the best logging conditions. The potential for water-quality degradation following timber harvest may involve turbidity (suspended solids) as well as increases in temperature and nutrient content. Sediment arising from logging roads is the major water-quality problem related to forest activities in many areas.

      The belief that forests increase rainfall has not been substantiated by scientific inquiry. Local effects can, however, prove substantial, particularly in semiarid regions where every millimetre of rain counts. The air above a forest, as contrasted with grassland, remains relatively cool and humid on hot days, so that showers are more frequent. fog belts, such as those found along the Pacific seaboard of North America and around the peaks of the Canary Islands, give significant water yields through the interception of water vapour by tree foliage. The vapour condenses and falls in a process described as fog drip.

fire prevention and control

      A forest (forest fire) fire is unenclosed and freely spreading combustion that consumes the natural fuels of a forest; i.e., duff, grass, weeds, brush, and trees. Forest fires occur in three principal forms, the distinctions depending essentially on their mode of spread and their position in relation to the ground surface. Surface fires burn surface litter, other loose debris of the forest floor, and small vegetation; a surface fire may, and often does, burn taller vegetation and tree crowns as it progresses. Crown fires advance through the tops of trees or shrubs more or less independently of the surface fire and are the fastest spreading of all forest fires. Ground fires consume the organic material beneath the surface litter of the forest floor; ground fires are the least spectacular and the slowest-moving, but they are often the most destructive of all forest fires and also the most difficult to control.

      A forest fire does a number of specific things. First, and perhaps most obviously, it consumes woody material. Second, the heat it creates may kill vegetation and animal life. In most fires, much more is killed, injured, or changed through heat than is consumed by fire. Third, it produces residual mineral products that may cause chemical effects, mostly in relation to the soil. The lethal temperatures for the living tissues of a tree (i.e., the phloem and cambium, which are located under the bark) begin at 49° C (120° F) if exposure is prolonged for one hour. At 64° C (147° F) death is almost instantaneous. The ignition temperature for woody material is approximately 343° C (650° F), with a flame temperature of 870°–980° C (1600°–1800° F).

      Forest fires seldom occur in tropical rain forests or in the deciduous broad-leaved forests of the temperate zones. But all coniferous forests, and the evergreen broadleaf trees of hot, dry zones, frequently develop conditions ideally suited to the spread of fire through standing trees. For this, both the air and the fuel must be dry, and the fuel must form an open matrix through which air, smoke, and the gases arising from combustion can quickly pass. Hot, sunny days with low air humidity and steady or strong breezes favour rapid fire spread. In coniferous forests the resinous needles, both living and dead, and fallen branch wood make an ideal fuel bed. The leaves of evergreen broadleaf trees, such as hollies, madrone, evergreen oaks, and eucalyptus, are coated in inflammable wax and blaze fiercely even when green. Once started, fire may travel at speeds of up to 15 kilometres (10 miles) per hour downwind, spreading slowly outward in other directions, until the weather changes or the fuel runs out.

      Well over 95 percent of all forest fires are caused by people, while lightning strikes are responsible for 1–2 percent. In some countries the setting of fires for clearing cropland is an integral technique of agriculture. In other areas forest fire prevention, including public education, hazard reduction, and law enforcement, consumes a considerable amount of time and money. The two basic steps in preventing forest fires are reducing risk and reducing hazard. Risk is the chance of a fire's starting as determined by the presence of activity of causal agents, most likely human beings. Hazard is reduced by compartmentalizing a forest with firebreaks (alleyways in which all vegetation is removed) and reducing the buildup of fuel (litter, branches, fallen trees, etc.) by controlled burning. In the United States the Forest Service devised a National Fire-Danger Rating System, which is the resultant of both constant and variable fire danger factors that affect the inception, spread, and difficulty of control of fires and the damage they cause.

      Effective fire control begins with a field survey and map to identify the areas at risk, delineate them, and define and improve the barriers or firebreaks that may limit fire spread. Natural barriers include rivers, lakes, ridge tops, and tracts of bare land. Artificial barriers can be roads, railways, canals, and power-line tracks, but usually extra firebreaks must be cut to link these and provide wider gaps that fire cannot readily jump. Belts of land from 10 to 20 metres wide are cut clear of trees or left unplanted when a new forest is formed. Sometimes the soil is left bare and cultivated only at intervals to check invasion by weeds. Usually it is sown with an even crop of low perennial grasses or clovers and kept short by mowing or grazing. This checks soil erosion, provides an evergreen fireproof surface, and allows access on foot, by car, or in an emergency by fire-fighting trucks. Surfaced roads, serving also for lumber haulage and access for recreation, are of critical importance in fire fighting. Signposts are needed to guide fire crews unfamiliar with the woods and to mark water supplies and rendezvous points.

      Detection is the first step in fire suppression. Many countries have organizations of trained professionals to detect and fight fires; others rely on volunteers or a combination of the two. Tower lookouts are the mainstay of nearly all detection systems, although the use of aircraft and satellites has modified this view in countries with an advanced fire control program. Fire surveillance is essential during seasons of high risk. Towers are set on hilltops where observers equipped with binoculars, maps, and a direction scale determine the compass direction of smoke and notify the fire control base via telephone or radio. If a fire can be seen from two or more towers, its precise position is quickly determined by mapping the intersection of cross bearings. Aircraft are used to detect fires and to carry out reconnaissance of known fires. Aerial surveillance has probably been most successful in detecting lightning-caused fires and is most often employed in areas of relatively low-value lands and inaccessible areas. An aircraft is essentially a moving fire tower, and the problems of detection that apply to a tower also apply to an aircraft; however, new developments in remote-control television, high-resolution photography, heat-sensing devices, film, and radar make fire detection by aircraft and satellite more efficient and location more accurate. Satellites provide a rapid means of collecting and communicating highly precise information in fire detection, location, and appraisal.

      Once a fire has been detected, the next step is fire suppression. The first job is to stop or slow the rate of spread of the fire, and the second job is to put it out. The aim of suppression is to minimize damage at a reasonable cost. This does not necessarily mean the same thing as minimizing the area burned, but it is a major goal. Suppression is accomplished by breaking the “fire triangle” of fuel, temperature, and oxygen by robbing the fire of its fuel (by physically removing the combustible material or by making it less flammable through application of dirt, water, or chemicals); by reducing its temperature (through application of dirt, water, or chemicals and partial removal or separation of fuels); and by reducing the available oxygen (by smothering fuels with dirt, water, fog, or chemical substances).

      The great majority of all forest fires are contained by professional fire fighters equipped with numerous hand tools (spades, beaters, axes, rakes, power saws, and backpack water pumps). Trained fire crews with light, hand equipment can be carried quickly to a fire by truck, delivered by helicopter, or even dropped by parachute. When necessary, large machines (bulldozers or plows) are used to clear openings, or firebreaks, which stop the spread of the fire. This requires clearing surface and sometimes aerial fuels from a strip of land and then digging down to mineral soil to stop a creeping or surface fire. A control line can also be established by directly extinguishing the fire along the edge or by making fuels nonflammable. In some cases a backfire may be deliberately set between the control line and the oncoming fire to burn out or reduce the fuel supply before the main fire, or head fire, reaches the control line.

      Water is the most obvious, efficient, and universal fire extinguisher, but large-scale use of water in fire fighting is limited because it is usually in short supply and application methods are not adequate. For these reasons other materials have been tested for persistence and efficiency in putting out fires. Wetting agents change the physical characteristics of water to increase its penetrating and spreading abilities. Retardants, such as sodium calcium borate, reduce the flammability of wood and therefore its rate of burning. Foaming agents in powder or liquid form can greatly increase the mixture volume and thereby cool, moisten, and insulate the fuel.

      Aircraft can quickly carry in water and other chemicals to be dropped or sprayed on the fire. A method developed on Canadian lakes is to fill the floats of a seaplane with water, which is done as it skims the lake on takeoff, and to discharge this through nozzles over the fire.

      The prescribed use of fire in forestland management is approached with understandable reluctance by many foresters and wildland managers. Yet, fire has a place in the management of particular ecosystems. The decision to use fire is usually based on a balancing of pros and cons; i.e., damage, possible or expected, must be weighed against benefits. Under proper circumstances, prescribed burning can be used to prepare seedbeds for natural germination of most tree species, to control insect and disease infestations, to reduce weed competition, to reduce fire hazard, and to manipulate forest cover type.

Insect and disease control

      Enormous numbers and varieties of insects, fungi, bacteria, and viruses occur in forests and are adapted to live on or around trees. Many of these are beneficial, and even the destructive ones are usually held in check by their natural enemies or an unfavourable environment. The normal population levels of pest organisms result in limited reduction in tree growth or the total destruction of only a small number of trees in the forest. The losses are generally accepted by foresters as unavoidable and are tolerated as long as the annual destruction does not seriously affect the net annual increase in wood production.

      Every part of a growing tree—root, trunk, bark, leaf, flowers, and seeds—is potentially subject throughout every stage of its life to attack by some harmful insect or fungus. Insects actually destroy more standing timber than does any other agent. Bark beetles (bark beetle), including species of Dendroctonus and Ips, are among the most destructive insects. They bore into the tree and feed just below the bark, where they create tiny channels that disrupt the flow of food to the roots, often killing the tree. Diseases frequently retard growth of trees and are less of a factor in mortality. A particularly destructive disease is caused by fungi that decay the wood of trees. The heartrot fungi gain entrance through any wound resulting from fire scars, broken limbs, or anything else that damages the tree's protective tissue. Were it not for heartrot, a large number of conifers and broad-leaved trees could be left to grow for many more years.

      Insect and disease organisms accidentally introduced to forests from other parts of the world often develop serious epidemic conditions because of the lack of any natural control. Because of rapid global transportation, insects and fungal spores can be spread easily throughout the world and arrive in a healthy condition. The seriousness of the situation cannot be overestimated, and the enforcement and improvement of plant quarantine laws is essential. Typically disasters have arisen where quarantine has failed or has been imposed too late. The American chestnut, Castanea dentata, has been virtually wiped out by the chestnut blight fungus, Endothia parasitica, which does little harm to related trees in its native China. Elms have suffered severely, both in Europe and in the United States, from the elm disease fungus, Ceratocystis ulmi, which was first detected in The Netherlands and is carried from tree to tree by flying beetles. Minute aphids (aphid), probably introduced on living plants from Asia, now make it impossible to raise commercial crops of two conifers once valued in Britain, namely, the white pine, Pinus strobus, from New England, and the European silver fir, Abies alba, native to Switzerland.

      Generally the healthier the forest, the more resistant it is to widespread pest attack. Overmature, weak, wind-thrown, and lightning- or fire-killed trees have little or no defense against infestation and are a factor in the buildup of pest populations. Selective cutting of susceptible trees, thinning that accelerates growth, and other similar long-range forest management practices that stimulate vigorous tree growth are good methods for indirect control of insects and diseases. These practices reduce the host material and breeding grounds of pests that may spread to healthy trees. In regions with a high incidence of a known pest, foresters attempt to avoid serious trouble by planting only trees known to resist existing pests in the regions where the trees are grown. Many forest genetic programs have as a major goal the selection and breeding of trees with insect and disease resistances.

      Occasionally the natural conditions that suppress the population of pest organisms change, and outbreaks in forests may reach epidemic proportions. Even-aged stands and plantations with trees of the same species and of uniform size and age often create perfect conditions for the rapid spread of insects and diseases. Even the more complex uneven-aged forests with their inherent check-and-balance systems can develop devastating populations of pests. At this point the forester must consider direct control measures.

      Because effective direct control of insects and diseases of standing timber is generally expensive, it is employed only when the potential mortality or loss in growth is extreme. Routine monitoring of insects and diseases allows foresters to schedule timely harvests of infested trees and to limit the spread of the problem to uninfested trees or areas. These sanitation and salvage harvests, coupled with piling and burning the limbs and branches left after logging, reduce the material and conditions that allow pest populations to develop. Traps baited with sex-attractant chemicals, or pheromones, are a promising method to reduce breeding populations of certain insects. Application of insecticidal or fungicidal sprays from the ground or from low-flying aircraft offer a short-term measure to check sudden plagues of insects or outbreaks of fungal diseases. Action has most frequently been taken against exceptional outbreaks of defoliating caterpillars (caterpillar), including those of the gypsy moth in the United States, the nun moth in central Europe, and the pine looper moth in England. At the time of year when feeding caterpillars are most vulnerable, light aircraft fly across the forest on carefully planned courses, distributing pesticides.

      A disadvantage of these blanket treatments by potent, broad-spectrum chemicals is that they also eliminate parasitic and predatory insects that serve as natural controls on the pest's numbers; they may also adversely affect birdlife. In practice, large-scale chemical treatments of forests are infrequent and are restricted to a small proportion of the areas at risk. Generally, natural control through predatory organisms, which also cycle opportunistically in a slightly delayed sequence with the pest populations, combined with physical factors like cold winters, provides adequate checks. Biological control involving the release of predators or diseases of pests is promising in some situations.

      Less spectacular preventive measures are commonly taken as routine steps in practical forestry to lessen anticipated losses. Nursery stock, easily reached and handled, may be grown in fumigated seedbeds and sprayed during production so that uninfested and vigorous seedlings are planted in the forests. Prompt removal of logs from the forest to distant processing mills transfers beetles that may emerge from beneath the bark to areas where they can do no harm. Stumps of freshly felled conifers can be easily and cheaply treated by brushing on a fungicide to check the white root-rot fungus, Fomes annosus. This is a serious agent of decay that spreads underground through root grafts after gaining entry via the exposed surface of a felled stump.

Agroforestry

      Agroforestry is a practice that has been utilized for many years, particularly in developing countries, and is now widely promoted as a land-use approach that yields both wood products and crops. Trees and crops may be grown together on the same tract of land in various patterns and cycles. The trees may be planted around the perimeter of a small farm to provide fuelwood and to serve as a windbreak. The limbs and foliage may be removed periodically for livestock fodder. Trees also may be planted in rows that alternate with crops or they may be planted more densely with interplanting of crops until crown closure of the trees precludes further crop production. These practices are most extensively used as a part of subsistence agriculture, but their use in large-scale production systems is becoming more common.

Urban forestry

      Urban forestry, which is the management of publicly and privately owned trees in and adjacent to urban areas, has emerged as an important branch of forestry. Urban forests include many different environments such as city greenbelts; street and utility rights-of-way; forested watersheds of municipal reservoirs; and residential, commercial, and industrial property. An important distinction between urban and rural forestry is that urban trees are more highly valued than rural trees and often receive expensive individual care and attention. Many professional foresters are trained to handle the special problems of urban trees and to foster the diverse benefits they provide.

William R. Chaney Phillip E. Pope Herbert Leeson Edlin

Additional Reading

Forestry textbooks usually deal with a specialized aspect of the science, often in one geographic region. William M. Harlow, Ellwood S. Harrar, and Fred M. White, Textbook of Dendrology, Covering Important Forest Trees of the United States and Canada, 6th ed. (1979), provides descriptions of major tree species in the region. Forest ecology is the subject of K.A. Longman and J. Jeník, Tropical Forest and Its Environment, 2nd ed. (1987); J.J. Landsberg, Physiological Ecology of Forest Production (1986); and Herman H. Shugart, A Theory of Forest Dynamics: The Ecological Implications of Forest Succession Models (1984). For a general historical overview of forestry and related fields, see Richard C. Davis (ed.), Encyclopedia of American Forest and Conservation History, 2 vol. (1983).Principles of forest management, worldwide in application, are systematically outlined by William A. Leuschner, Introduction to Forest Resource Management (1984); and Joseph Buongiorno and J. Keith Gilless, Forest Management and Economics: A Primer in Quantitative Methods (1987). Karl F. Wenger (ed.), Forestry Handbook, 2nd ed. (1984), is a reference book of data and methods in all aspects of forestry and allied fields. Grant W. Sharpe, Clare W. Hendee, and Wenonah F. Sharpe, Introduction to Forestry, 5th ed. (1986); and Charles H. Stoddard and Glenn M. Stoddard, Essentials of Forestry Practice, 4th ed. (1987), give a complete overview of modern multiple-use forestry. The requisite elements of forest inventory are detailed in Bertram Husch, Charles I. Miller, and Thomas W. Beers, Forest Mensuration, 3rd ed. (1982). Financial implications are studied in G. Robinson Gregory, Resource Economics for Foresters (1987). The leading international sources of statistics on forestry and timber output are the publications of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: World Forest Inventory (irregular), FAO Forestry and Forest Product Studies (irregular); and the special reports Forest Resources of Tropical Africa, 2 vol. (1981), Forest Resources of Tropical Asia (1981), and Forestry in China (1982). Fundamental studies of the physical bases of forest distribution and yield are given in World Resources 1986 (1986), a report prepared by the World Resources Institute and the International Institute for Environment and Development.The theory and practice of raising and tending tree crops are treated in such manuals as Theodore W. Daniel, John A. Helms, and Frederick S. Baker, Principles of Silviculture, 2nd ed. (1979); and David M. Smith, The Practice of Silviculture, 8th ed. (1986), discussing temperate-zone forests. Details of handling seed and young stock are treated in R.L. Willan (comp.), A Guide to Forest Seed Handling: With Special Reference to the Tropics (1985); U.S. Department of Agriculture, Woody-Plant Seed Manual (1948); and Mary L. Duryea and Thomas D. Landis (eds.), Forest Nursery Manual: Production of Bareroot Seedlings (1984). Genetic improvement is discussed in Klaus Stern and Laurence Roche, Genetics of Forest Ecosystems (1974); and M.N. Christiansen and Charles F. Lewis (eds.), Breeding Plants for Less Favorable Environments (1982). The intensive culture of forest plantations is discussed in Bruce J. Zobel, Gerrit Van Wyk, and Per Stahl, Growing Exotic Forests (1987); and W.E. Hillis and A.G. Brown (eds.), Eucalypts for Wood Production (1978, reprinted 1984). Management of forest soils, a primary concern in intensive silviculture, is described in William L. Pritchett and Richard F. Fisher, Properties and Management of Forest Soils, 2nd ed. (1987); and Pedro A. Sanchez, Properties and Management of Soils in the Tropics (1976). Manipulation of soil fertility and study of soil microorganisms are presented in G.D. Bowen and E.K.S. Nambiar (eds.), Nutrition of Plantation Forests (1984); Robert L. Tate, III, and Donald A. Klein (eds.), Soil Reclamation Process: Microbiological Analyses and Applications (1985); and J.C. Gordon and C.T. Wheeler (eds.), Biological Nitrogen Fixation in Forest Ecosystems: Foundations and Applications (1983). The care of tree crops in tropical jungles of both hemispheres is outlined in I.T. Haig, M.A. Huberman, and U. Aung Din, Tropical Silviculture (1958). A wide range of Asiatic conditions is discussed in Harry G. Champion and S.K. Seth, General Silviculture for India (1968).The management of forests as watersheds and the impact of forestry activities on water quantity and quality are discussed in William E. Sopper and Howard W. Lull (eds.), Forest Hydrology: Proceedings of a National Science Foundation Advanced Science Seminar (1967); H.C. Pereira, Land Use and Water Resources in Temperate and Tropical Climates (1973); and K.W.G. Valentine, Soil Resource Surveys for Forestry (1986). Nutrient losses from disturbed watersheds and the potential for accelerated loss attributable to acid deposition are examined in F.E. Clark and T. Rosswall (eds.), Terrestrial Nitrogen Cycles: Processes, Ecosystem Strategies, and Management Impacts (1981); and S. Beilke and A.J. Elshout (eds.), Acid Deposition (1983).Forest protection is treated in textbooks discussing specific hazards. Arthur A. Brown and Kenneth P. Davis, Forest Fire: Control and Use, 2nd ed. (1973), outlines fire dangers and methods of control. T.T. Kozlowski and C.E. Ahlgren (eds.), Fire and Ecosystems (1974); and Henry A. Wright and Arthur W. Bailey, Fire Ecology, United States and Southern Canada (1982), discuss the environmental interactions associated with fire. John S. Boyce, Forest Pathology, 3rd ed. (1961); and Robert O. Blanchard and Terry A. Tattar, Field and Laboratory Guide to Tree Pathology (1981), give details of fungal diseases, climatic dangers, and airborne fume and salt damage. See also Carl F. Jordan (ed.), Amazonian Rain Forests: Ecosystem Disturbance and Recovery (1987). Insect pests are described in Alan A. Berryman, Forest Insects: Principles and Practice of Population Management (1986).

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