PositionThe Intermountain Society of American Foresters promotes management of PinyonJuniper 1 (PJ) forests and woodlands for a variety of resource benefits. In some cases it will mean managing pinyon and juniper ecosystems for sustained woodland habitat and products where these species are the persistent and dominant vegetation type. In some cases this will mean removal of pinyon and juniper to favor other vegetation types where PJ has expanded into other ecotypes. In many cases it will mean managing for a mosaic of vegetation types and stand densities within the same watershed.Appropriate forest management and sound silvicultural tools should be used in PJ ecosystems to manage and sustain such systems in a healthy ecological condition while providing many values and benefits.Management goals for PJ forests and woodlands vary and are determined through a variety of land management planning processes for private, state and federally owned lands.Land managers are responsible for selecting appropriate, site-specific practices to accomplish the desired conditions. Professional foresters have experience and research to support effective use of silvicultural practices in PJ ecosystems. Skillful use of silvicultural practices, carefully attuned to the desires and needs of the landowner and to the ecology of the site, can more rapidly achieve and better maintain desired resource conditions with greater assurance of success than will acceptance of un-managed processes of change.Foresters must have the support of decision-makers to use silvicultural practices to improve ecological conditions and to manage vegetation for a variety of goals, including when hazardous fuel build-up poses risks to landscapes. Land managers are expected and encouraged to use professional knowledge, experience, and judgment to improve the health, productivity, and condition of PJ ecosystems for the benefit of humans, wildlife, and the health of the land for today and for future generations. 1 The PJ cover type, its distribution, and the species that compose it are described by Larson, Forest Cover Type 239, Pinyon-Juniper, pages 116-117 in Eyre, 1980.
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