1 - Introduction to Forest Resource Management Flashcards
Forest Management
- Concerned with using the forest to best satisfy the goals and objectives of the landowner (public/private), within the current framework of society
OR - The practical application of biological, physical, and quantitative, managerial, economic, social, and policy principles to the regeneration, management, utilization, and conservation of forests to meet specific goals and objectives while maintaining the productivity of the forests (includes management of aesthetics, fish, recreation, urban values, water, wilderness, wildlife, wood products, and other forest resources values
Simple Forest
Stand scale
Complex Forest
Requires more sophisticated management tools
Major Focus of Forest Management
Planning
Forest Management can be…
Top-down or bottom-up
Two levels of planning in Forest Management are…
Strategic Planning & Tactical Planning
Strategic Planning
- Long-range planning
- The identification and selection of overall goals and objectives for the present and immediately foreseeable actions, using the best possible knowledge of future conditions and human needs to achieve desired results 10 or more years in the future
Relevant strategic planning questions are…
- Amount of land to allocate to timber production, or other uses
- Length of the rotation
- Types of intermediate stand treatments to be used
- How much land my company should own?
Midrange Planning
- Type of strategic planning
- Combines the results from early implementation of short-range plans with expected actions in the 5 to 10 year period to enhance the achievement of long term goals
Tactical Planning
- Deals with more specific, immediate, and detailed plans
Relevant tactical planning questions are…
- How will we get enough wood to the mill to make it through this rainy spell?
- How much will I bid on this tract of timber?
*In this course we will focus on the strategic side, while always keeping an eye on tactical issues
Short-range planning
- Type of tactical planning
- Planning and control for usually less than 5 years
Site planning
- Type of tactical planning
- The planning, organization, and disposition of objects and activities at a given location at the largest scale subject to unified control
Plan of attack
- A selected course of action and organization of personnel and equipment
Plan of operation
- Show the order and extent of all work to be carried out during one year or the next several years.
- NOTE: A plan of operation is commonly based on the prescriptions of a management plan, including financial provisions.
What is the planning process?
- Includes activities necessary to develop information, options, alternatives, and recommendations for decision making.
Planning Process Steps
- Identifying problems, opportunities, issues, goals, and objectives
- Collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data
- Formulating potential and appropriate alternative courses of action
- Evaluating the effects and consequences of the alternatives
- Selecting the plan
- Implementing the plan
- Monitoring and adjusting the plan
What is a forest management plan?
- A predetermined course of action and direction to achieve a set of results, usually specified as goals, objectives, and policies
- NOTE: A management plan is a working instrument that guides actions and that changes in response to feedback and changed conditions, goals, objectives, and policies
Components of a forest management plan:
- Brief statement of the owner goals and reasons for planning
- Assessment of the current state of the property
- Long-term projection of the expected activities, conditions, and outcomes from the total forest
- Description of the implementation plan that describes how, where and by whom will the plan be implemented
- Evaluation of how the scheduled plan implementation will impact known sensitive resources and how, if needed, negative impacts will be mitigated
- Description and schedule of the people, organizations, required documents, and other information for the plan implementation. Key contents include:
· Allocation of land classes or stands to management prescriptions
· A schedule giving the location of proposed activities, the stands involved, projected outcomes such as timber harvest volumes, and costs and revenue - Specific description of the monitoring program to determine if the plan is in fact being followed, if undesirable ecological impacts are being incurred and if timely corrections and mitigation measures are being made, with appendices that include more maps, definitions of prescriptions, sources of data, and details relevant to plan and subject forest.
Forest management plan components:
- Objectives and policies
- Forest description
· Forest organization and subdivision
· Forest inventory data
· Growth and yield functions
· Maps
- Subdivisions and compartments
- Roads
- Cover types
· Narrative Description
- Physiography
- Soils
- Cover types - Economic expectations
· Demand
- Timber products
- Recreation
- Hunting
- Water
- Other
· Supply
- Labor
- Capital
- Materials - Other external factors
· Legal restrictions
· Public policy - Analysis and synthesis
· Silvicultural analysis
· Harvest schedule
- Regulation analysis
- Cutting budget
· Multiple-use analysis and plans - Protections
· Fire
· Insect
· Disease
Minimum requirements for Dr. Munn’s Professional Practices…
- Summary of the landowner objectives
- Detailed description of the property
- Appraisal of the current market value of the property
- Narrative description of how the objectives can be met
- Detailed set of management prescriptions designed to achieve the objectives
- Financial analysis
- Control procedures
- Forest inventory projections for key points throughout the planning period based on the initial inventory and subsequent management practices
Management Prescriptions
- A planned series of treatments designed to change the current stand structure to one that meets management goals
- NOTE: the prescription normally considers ecological, economic, and societal constraints
- EX: “I will treat this parcel/type of land in this way, and expect that to happen”
Components of a Prescription
- Land type classification
- Schedule of activities
- Prediction of outcomes
Land-type classification
- Component of a prescription
- Describes parcels or types of land by location, timber size, stocking, species, soils, slope, and other land attributes
Schedule of activities
- Component of a prescription
- Management “schedule of activities” describing the timing, methods, and conditions by which the vegetation and other resources will be manipulated or disturbed to achieve desired outcomes, including:
· Logging rules
· A timber thinning and harvest schedule
· Regeneration techniques for the next tree crop
Prediction of outcomes
- Component of a prescription
- Numerically describes how much timber is expected for commercial harvest
- Specifically: volumes removed at each thinning and final harvest entry for both the existing and subsequently regenerated stands
Key Point for Prescriptions
- Prescriptions must also be adaptive to unforeseen changes that may arise
Horizon
- The overall time period considered in the planning process that spans all activities covered in the analysis or plan and all future conditions and effects of proposed actions that would influence the planning decisions
Level
- The scale of the planning effort, usually denoted by the size of the land area involved or by the level in the organization at which the planning is being done
Area
- An area for which a single management plan is developed and applied
Goal
- A broad, general statement, usually not quantifiable, that expresses a desired state or process to be achieved
- NOTE: Normally, a management goal is stated in terms of purpose, often not attainable in the short term, and provides the context for more specific objectives
Intensity
- A management practice or combination of management practices and associated costs designed to obtain a specific level of goods and services
Indicator
- A plant or animal species, community, or special habitat that is selected during the planning and monitored during implementation because the effects of management on its conditions and trend will suggest the condition and trend of the resource as a whole
Policy
- A definite course or method of action to guide present and future decisions or to specify in detail the ways and means to achieve goals and objectives
Planning Period
- The time interval within the planning horizon that is used to show incremental changes in yields, costs, effects, and benefits
Practice
- A specific activity, measure, course of action, or treatment undertaken on forest ownership
Prescription
- A set of management practices and intensities scheduled for application on a specific area to satisfy multiple uses or other goals and objectives
Unit
- A subdivision of a management area
What other issues are important to forest management?
- Anthropocentric vs. bio/eco-centric
- Framework of society – obvious for public lands, but also applies to areas where forestry occurs to a greater extent on private lands (through property rights)
- We like to think of land ownership as some inalienable right to do whatever we want on our land, but that is not the case
Land Ownership
- A “bundle of rights” granted by society
· Right of Acquisition
· Right of Use
· Right of Disposal of land and its products - Involves having the right to do certain things with “your” land
- Private owner holds exclusive, but not absolute rights
Governmental (Society’s) Powers Over Private Land Owners
- Police power – exercised to protect and promote public health, safety, morals, and general welfare by restricting how owners use their land (no compensation)
- Eminent Domain – property is taken for a public purpose and just compensation is paid
- Taxing Authority – extends to both the value of land and derived income
- BMPs
Changes in Land Ownership Rights
- What we’re allowed to do changes as society changes
- We can’t take society out of what we do
Forest Management - Take Home Message
- Plans must have objectives and descriptions of activities to achieve stated objectives
- Plans may vary in the comprehensiveness
- Knowing the type of planning and approach is important
- The planning process involves developing alternatives and monitoring plan implementation
- Management prescriptions can be very detailed and complex depending on the landowner objectives
- The amount of detail and thus the quantity, diversity, and complexity of numbers to predict can get very large
- Many different prescriptions are possible for the same stand