Forest Conservation: Principles and Practices

Catalog description

Forest conservation is the promotion and maintenance of healthy, resilient, and functioning forest ecosystems that ensure the continued provision of high-quality ecosystem services and socio-economic benefits. To achieve desired conservation outcomes, on-the-ground forest practices must comply with minimum standards detailed in regulatory and/or voluntary management guidelines (i.e., Best Management Practices, BMPs) to not be harmful to the environment or local people. Further, many private and public forest management entities follow voluntary global and national third-party forest certification schemes that promote environmentally responsible management of the world's forests. Compliance with certification standards is evaluated through annual field audits as the central element to verify that forest operations meet sustainability criteria. Because timber harvesting now constitutes the predominant disturbance regime in northeastern forests, poorly planned, timed, and executed logging operations constitute the most serious threat to forest conservation and sustainability in managed forests and thus receive particular scrutiny in field audits. Foresters must therefore ensure that forest practices do not injure advance tree regeneration and ground flora, damage structural legacies such as residual trees and deadwood, reduce the potential to sequester carbon, undermine biodiversity and wildlife goals (e.g., breeding success), or adversely affect soil structure and site productivity (e.g., compaction and soil erosion), water quality, wetlands, riparian areas, visual quality, and cultural and spiritual values. This course traces the evolution of forest conservation and sustainability and introduces students to modern, low impact timber harvest systems and a variety of other forest practices intended to safeguard biodiversity, maintain the productive capacity of forests, and protect soil and water resources. Students will become familiar with BMPs and principles, criteria, and sustainability indicators of common certification schemes. These indicators are the basis for planning and conducting field audits following harvesting operations that evaluate to what extent the intent various BMPs and certification standards have been met.