SUSTAINED YIELD
SUSTAINED YIELD IS THE FUNDAMENTAL (BUT LARGELY UNACKNOWLEDGED) FOREST HEALTH AND
BIODIVERSITY THREATENING PROBLEM WITH PROFESSIONAL FORESTRY
WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON THE LIQUIDATION-CONVERSION PROJECT IN
BRITISH COLUMBIA
THIS SITE IS AN ATTEMPT TO MAKE SUSTAINED YIELD DEGRADATION OF FORESTS VISIBLE
Restricting human harvesting of forests to the annual increment or growth is a noble
goal but sustained yield rearranges forests in an illusory attempt to sustain timber
yields. Sustained yield (SY) forestry planning fragments forest ecosystems and radically
changes age classes and species composition. SY was an evolution from unregulated,
wasteful timber mining, but timber sustainability is the goal not ecological
sustainability.
"EM (ecosystem management) technology will
probably emerge as more important to people than either the technology of the
communications revolution or biotechnology because of its potential usefulness in
guaranteeing a livable environment. . . .
The major change in forestry thinking wrought by
EM has been the abandonment of the concept of a stable flow of wood from the land as a
universally dominant management objective."
John Gordon, Yale University
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