Silviculture in the United States: An Amazing Period of Change over the Past 30 Years

Abstract

The practice of silviculture is continually evolving in response to a multitude of social, economic, and ecological factors. In 1986, the Journal of Forestry published a series of papers that reflected on changes in silviculture in the United States from the 1950s to 1980s and predicted how silviculture might develop in the next 30 years. We revisit the fundamental changes influencing the practice of silviculture since 1986; we explore how contemporary silviculture may evolve in the coming years in response to changing ownership structures on industry lands, declining research investments, and an increasing suite of stressors affecting forests, including invasive species and climate change. Many of the changes in management context and forest conditions occurring over the last 30 years were not anticipated and have resulted in an increase in silvicultural systems that integrate ecological and noneconomic social values on public lands. Many advances reflect a legacy of investment in silvicultural research and development in the 1970s and 1980s.Keywords: forest history, forest industry, variable retention, megafires, invasive species I n 1986, a series of six papers were published in the Journal of Forestry on the practice of silviculture in the United States. The series, "Silviculture: The next 30 years, the past 30 years," was initiated with an overview article (Oliver 1986) and included five additional papers focusing on the major forest regions of the United States (Benzie et al. 1986, Boyce et al. 1986, Long et al. 1986, Seymour et al. 1986, Tappeiner et al. 1986). Each article included reflections on changes in the practice of silviculture from the 1950s, its status in the mid-1980s, and changes the authors thought might occur in the subsequent 30 years in each region. Collectively, this series provided an important body of knowledge on the maturation of the practice of silviculture in the United States and the various economic, social, and ecological drivers expected to affect the nature of silviculture applications in the future.Many of the predictions from this series regarding the future of silviculture were reflective of changes in social and ecological conditions and technology manifesting in the 1980s. For example, the increasing influence of public involvement and forest regulations over forest management and the growing importance of nontimber benefits were identified as future drivers of a shift from clearcutting-based systems in several regions, including the Pacific Northwest and Lake States (Benzie et al. 1986, Tappeiner et al. 1986). The continued maturation of forest conditions in the northeastern United States was expected to increase the need for future regeneration harvests and young stand tending treatments (Seymour et al. 1986), whereas predicted increases in the area of overstocked conditions in the Intermountain West would place a greater emphasis on density management to reduce associated forest health issues (Long et al. 1986). Future productivity gains in plantation silviculture were...

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