LINKS

Because we think that most of you can find your way to other forestry sites we are not at this time attempting a detailed links to other sites. And because sustained yield remains largely immune from criticism like most conventional wisdom , there are (in our limited experience) not a lot of pertinent sites on the net. (Please e-mail us if you want us to include a site that fits and would be of interest.)

Checking out SY terms such as annual allowable cut, clearcutting or timber resource planning can bring up indirect description of SY. Usually sustained yield as a keyword just gets you sustainability double speak from companies interested in munching on trees.

The following sites are worth your attention:

This speech to an IRM workshop totally ignores SY and it's legacy. I'm sure Mr. Bunnell does not consider SY as the fundamental problem with forestry. But this speech is so good and so full of import for the future of forestry that you should be familiar with the issues he brings to the table as an old hand with a head, a heart and courage. (Always search for perspectives that question your own particular view of forestry)

The Silva Forest Foundation is a pioneer and foremost practitioner of ecosystem based forestry in B.C. SFF's Herb Hammond has been THE leading advocate for an ecologically sustainable forestry in B.C. Silva redefines sustained yield forest planning. As you will discover exploring their diversely interesting and encyclopedic site, their use of SY is the exception that proves the rule. The prime goal is ecosystem health not timber yield. Safeguarding the health, function and integrity of the forest in the planning area FIRST necessarily restricts human use but, where applicable, Silva planning for a sustained yield of timber uses non-ecosystem liquidating selection harvesting systems and rotations based upon health and function criteria and not timber yield maximization.

(Silva's handsome site also contains a wealth of information on forestry topics such as using GIS technology, landscape ecology, ecological economics and info on courses and seminars given by Silva on these topics.)

SY is only one of many human modifications of the biosphere. The cumulative results of anthropogenic change and their implications are discussed in the Conservation Ecology article: An Overview of the Implications of Global Change for Natural and Managed Terrestrial Ecosystems

In the abstract the authors state: "Because of landuse change, the terrestrial biosphere of the 21st century will probably be further impoverished in species richness and substantially re-organized. More natural ecosystems will be in an early successional state or converted to production systems. The biosphere will be generally weedier and structurally simpler, with fewer areas in an ecologically complex old growth state."

What are we doing? Who is evaluating the long term costs and benefits of this redesign of nature? Do professional foresters and their organizations recognize the cumulative effects of SY planning in the global change context?

"BC is conducting a vast, province-wide experiment with its forests, converting them from wild, idiosyncratic, resilient ecosystems to less variable, more predictable (maybe), managed ecosystems."

Pojar, J. and K. Price, "Lessons from the Rainforest: Linking learning with Research." BC Forest Service

A conference on Structure, Process and Diversity In Successional Forests of coastal British Columbia was held in Victoria February 1998.

The papers presented to this conference, most commenting in some way about the effects of sustained yield planning in B.C. forests, can be downloaded using Adobe Acrobat.

Paul Senez is a long time (but still remarkably young and dynamic) B.C. environmental activist. His report of the conference for several B.C. publications is a good introduction to the unifying topics of these many and diverse forest science papers.

The Mud Report

MUD FIRST!

 

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