Forest Policy for the Future

Conflict, Compromise, Consensus

Marion Clawson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781317339977
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

The use and management of forests in the United States, especially the public owned ones, have been the focus of considerable controversy. First published in 1974, this volume, a collection of papers originally delivered at the RFF Forest Policy Forum, explores alternative forest management programmes to see what is biologically, economically, socially and politically possible. This title is a valuable resource for students interested in environmental studies, as well as for policy makers.

Conflicts, Strategies, and Possibilities for Consensus in Forest Land Use and Management

by
Marion Clawson
Resources for the Future

Contents

Some Basic Characteristics of Forests

Forest Uses, In General

Interrelationships Among Forest Uses and Between Forest Uses and Forest Characteristic

Basic Data on Commercial Forests in the United State

Present Wood Production from American Forests

Potential Wood Production from Intensively Managed American Forests

Production Possibilities for Other Forest Outputs

Potential Forest Land Management Programs

List of Tables

Table 1. Degree of Compatibility Among Various Forest Uses

Table 2. Interrelations of Forest Characteristics and Forest Uses

Table 3. Present and Potential Units of the National Wilderness Preservation System

Table 4. Area, Vol. of Standing Timber, Annual Growth, and Removals, Commercial Forests, 1970, by Ownership Class

Table 5. Area, Vol. of Growing Stock in Stand, and Annual Growth and Removals, for Major Forest Types, 1970

Table 6. Area of Commercial Forest Land by Ownership Classes and Site Quality

Table 7. Area and Productive Capacity, by Site Class, for Forests of Different Ownership Classes

Table 8. Average Annual Productive Capacity Per Acre, Commercial Forests, by Region and by Ownership, 1970

Table 9. Net Growth Per Acre, Growing Stock, Commercial Forests, by Ownership, 1970

Table 10. Net Annual Growth, Commercial Forests, as Percentage of Productive Capacity, by Ownership,

Table 11. Volume of Growing Stock Per Acre, Commercial Forests, by Ownership, 1970

Table 12. Net Annual Growth, Commercial Forests, as Percentage of Volume Standing Growing Stock, by Ownership, 1970

Table 13. Removals as a Percentage of Net Growth, Commercial Forests, by Ownership, 1970

Table 14. Removals as Percentage of Productive Capacity, by Ownership, Commercial Forests, 1970

Table 15. Actual and Potential Annual Wood Growth, by Different Management Intensities, by Site Classes

Table 16. Marginal Costs and Yields to Management Alternatives on Sites I-IV, Coastal Pacific Northwest

Table 17. Marginal Costs and Yields to Management Alternatives in the South

Table 18. Acreage and Growth by Site Class and Ownership Group, Under a Program Designed to Maximize Wood Output From Best Forest Sites and to Maximize Deferment or Reservation of Harvest on Less Productive Forest Sites

List of Figures

Figure 1. Proportion of Area of Commercial Forests and of Productive Capacity in Site Class V, 1970

Figure 2. Annual Stumpage Supply Curve for Western Washington and Oregon

Figure 3. Annual Stumpage Supply Curve for Southern U.S.

List of Appendix Tables

Appendix Table 1. Northeast: Area and Productive Capacity, Commercial Forests, by Site Class and Ownership, 1970

Appendix Table 2. North Central: Area and Productive Capacity, Commercial Forests, by Site Class and Ownership, 1970

Appendix Table 3. Southeast: Area and Productive Capacity, Commercial Forests, by Site Class and Ownership, 1970

Appendix Table 4. South Central: Area and Productive Capacity, Commercial Forests, by Site Class and Ownership, 1970

Appendix Table 5. Pacific Northwest Douglas Fir: Area and Productive Capacity, Commercial Forests, by Site Class and Ownership, 1970

Appendix Table 6. Pacific Northwest Ponderosa Pine: Area and Productive Capacity, Commercial Forests, by Site Class and Ownership, 1970

Appendix Table 7. Coastal Alaska: Area and Productive Capacity, Commercial Forests, by Site Class and Ownership, 1970

Appendix Table 8. California and Hawaii: Area and Productive Capacity, Commercial Forests, by Site Class and Ownership, 1970

Appendix Table 9. Northern Rocky Mountains: Area and Productive Capacity, Commercial Forests, by Site Class and Ownership, 1970

Appendix Table 10. Southern Rocky Mountains: Area and Productive Capacity, Commercial Forests, by Site Class and Ownership, 1970

Conflicts, Strategies, and Possibilities for Consensus in Forest Land Use and Management

by
Marion Clawson*
Resources for the Future

A background paper prepared for the RFF Forum on FOREST POLICY FOR THE FUTURE: CONFLICT, COMPROIMISE, CONSENSUS, Washington, D.C. May 8-9, 1974.

A forest is a dynamic complex ecosystem, with many and highly varied characteristics. The dominant appearance of the forest is trees, but other plant species such as shrubs, grasses, and weeds, various animal, bird, insect, and reptile species, and -- above all -- numerous kinds of microbiological life also inhabit the forest. There are complex interrelationships among these various forms of life; some provide food for others, or shelter, and in numerous cases there exists a state of constant warfare, as between the insect which attacks trees and the trees which defend themselves by manufacturing various chemicals.

Forests utilize the energy received from the sun, in the production of wood fiber, other plant material, and thus indirectly of animal life. There is often intense competition for the sun’s energy; indeed, it is the upward growth of the tree to secure its maximum share of the sun’s energy which often shapes its trunk in ways beneficial to man when he cuts it. When a gap appears in the forest canopy, as a tree is cut, or is blown down, or dies, other forms of plant growth, including neighboring trees, expand to utilize the energy no longer taken by the tree. The plant cover on a forest site will, except briefly after the removal of major trees, expand to utilize the same potential exposure to the sun which the mature forest had utilized.

But forests also depend upon water, primarily that which falls as rain or snow; and in many situations, availability of water limits tree and other plant growth as much as does energy supply. Competition among plants for water is often acute; trees, with their deep rooting system, have many advantages in that competition; but shallow rooted plants have the advantage of intercepting much of the near-surface moisture.

In addition to the competition for light and water, there are numerous and complex nutrient flows within the forest -- a nitrogen cycle, a phosphate cycle, and others. We are learning that many plants are most ingenious chemical factories, manufacturing chemicals which repel or injure their predators or competitors.

But a forest is also dynamic and changing. To the uninformed person who sees a forest at perhaps annual intervals, the forest may seem relatively constant or even fixed in form. It is true that change may take place gradually for some years, as a mature man may change relatively little each year; but change may also be rapid, even cataclysmic, as storms blow trees down, fires burn or kill them, or as man cuts them -- just as change among men may be cataclysmic as old age brings sudden change. The forest at any date reflects its history, including the history of man’s activities in or to the forest; above all, fire has been used by man and nature for many centuries and has caused major changes in many forests in the United States and elsewhere in the world. The forest at any given moment does not embody a complete adjustment to the past forces which have impinged upon it; changes take time, and some adjustments to past forces have not yet been made. Meanwhile, new forces will impinge upon the forest. Thus a forest may be described as an ecosystem constantly striving for, but never fully attaining, adjustment to the external or exogenous forces which impinge upon it. The forest of today will change to the forest of tomorrow; we would find it impossible to preserve the forest of today, unchanged, even if we should try.

Spurr has put all this very well, even eloquently:

“The terms ‘virgin forest’ and Longfellow’s ‘forest primeval’ conjure up an image of great and old trees standing undisturbed and changeless for centuries. Specifically, any disturbance by man is ruled out. They must be uncut and unharmed by man-set fires and the under story must be ungrazed by domestic stock. In other words, we conceive of the virgin forest as being simply an unharmed old-growth forest.

Such stands simply do not exist. We have already seen that forests of any age are in a constant state of change, arising from the growth and senescence of the trees themselves, from consequent changes in the micro-climate and edaphic site, from normal forest succession, and from regional climatic and geologic changes. Interferences with normal growth and development are common, and it is meaningless semanticism to try to distinguish between ‘natural’ disturbances and ‘artificial’ disturbances caused by man. To the tree, it makes little difference if a fire is set by lightning or by a human incendiary, if the soil is upturned by a plough or by a tree uprooted in a storm, if a leaf is eaten by an insect who came by wind or one that came by airplane, or if cellulose is consumed by a fungus bred on the roots of the neighboring tree or one introduced on a piece of lumber from overseas. Disturbances to tree development and growth are normal, instability of the forest is inevitable, and the changeless virgin forest is a myth.”¹

It has become apparent in relatively recent years how little we really know about the forests of the United States -- their present characteristics, their rates and directions of change, their capacity to respond to different treatments, their capability to supply the goods and services we seek from them, and other factors. Man uses forests for many purposes: to grow wood for various uses, to protect valuable watersheds, to serve as places for outdoor recreation, including the type of private and personal recreation we call wilderness use, as homes for wildlife which provide him with enjoyment, and others. Our knowledge about the forest is best for its capacity to grow wood, although even here there are serious deficiencies to our knowledge; we know vastly less about its capacities to provide the other services, including its capacity to withstand use from various groups of users. In this paper, as in all writings about American forests, wood growth, production, and utilization will receive comparatively the most emphasis simply because information about it is so much better than information about the other aspects of forest growth and use.

Some Basic Characteristics of Forests

Forests in general have four major characteristics or attributes or relationships, which are basic to any consideration of their use and management.

1. Forests occupy land; land is basic for tree growth, both as a physical support for the roots, trunk, and branches, but also as a storage reservoir for moisture and as a source of plant nutrients, and as an opportunity for exposure to sunlight. Land is equally basic for the plant growth other than trees; and hence land is also basic to all other forms of life within the forest. Land includes its climate, its geological origin, its soil type and depth, its slope or topography, and many other observable and measurable aspects, which often differ greatly, sometimes within short distances. Man can affect these characteristics but little; he can take actions which accelerate erosion, or he can add fertilizer materials to supplement limited supplies within the soil, but mostly the land is there; he can adjust to it.

2. Stand of trees and other vegetation. For trees, this includes species, age, volume, wood defect, presence or absence of insect or disease infestations, and other characteristics. Much inventorying of timber been concerned with such information. Similar information can be, but often has not been, assembled for other plant growth -- amount, kind, and vigor of shrubs or grasses, their ability to compete with or to outcompete trees, their usability for various purposes, etc. The volume of plant growth on a site may vary enormously, depending in large part upon the history of the site, from near zero immediately after a hot fire, to the maximum volume of plant material the site will support. The volume of plant materials on a forest site is to some degree dependent upon man’s actions but to a significant degree is also beyond his control. That is, he may harvest or bum the plant material on the site; or he may, to some degree, influence the kinds of vegetation which returns after some cataclysmic clearing (natural or human) of the site; but man can influence the rate of tree growth only to a modest degree, since this is so much a function of energy, climate, soil, etc. The volume of plant material on a site typically changes by often small increments from year to year, but greatly over a considerable period of years.

3. Annual growth of wood and other vegetative material is another basic characteristic or attribute of forests. The rate of wood growth depends in large measure upon the site or the land, ranging from relatively rapid to very slow; it also depends upon the characteristics of the present stand of trees. If there are few trees, so that much of the energy and moisture of the site are absorbed by plants other than trees, then rate of wood growth is slow; likewise, if the trees on the site are all or mostly at full biological maturity, then net growth is small, may be zero, or may even be negative, as mortality takes out as much as, or more than, growth adds. The rate of wood growth is to some extent within man’s control, in the sense that he is largely responsible for the stand of trees on which the growth is taking place; but it is also largely outside his control, since it reflects differences in energy supply, moisture availability, soil fertility and depth, and other factors inherent in the site. Man can exert some effect upon tree diseases and insect infestations, and thus affect annual wood growth. An individual tree has a typical age-growth curve, generally similar to such curves for other species of life; and a forest may have a more or less typical growth curve also.

4. Harvest is the fourth major characteristic or attribute of the forest. Generally, we think of harvest in terms of cutting and using trees and indeed this is often the major form of harvest, and the one which provides the economic return which makes forest management possible. But harvest can equally well take place for other forest uses -- game is harvested, but so is recreation opportunity, as people use a site for this purpose. The time dimension of harvest varies enormously; trees may be cut at considerable intervals, and the tree not cut this year may be cut next year, although the tree whose cutting is too long postponed may die and rot before harvest occurs; in contrast, harvest of the recreation or wilderness opportunity must occur each year -- indeed, each da...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Contents
• Resources for the Future, Inc.
• Editor's Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Future Demand for U. S. Forest Resources
• Commentary on Fischman Paper, Future Demand for U.S. Forest Resources
• Commentary on Fischman Paper, Future Demand for U.S. Forest Resources
• Summary of Informal Discussion on Fischman Paper, Future Demand for U.S. Forest Resources
• Conflicts, Strategies, and Possibilities for Consensus in Forest Land Use and Management
• Commentary on Clawson Paper, Conflicts, Strategies, and Possibilities for Consensus in Forest Land Use and Management
• Comments on Clawson Paper, Conflicts, Strategies, and Possibilities for Consensus in Forest Land Use and Management
• Comments on Clawson Paper, Conflicts, Strategies, and Possibilities for Consensus in Forest Land Use and Management
• Summary of Informal Discussion on Clawson Paper, Conflicts, Strategies, and Possibilities for Consensus in Forest Land Use and Management
• Forestry Investments for Multiple Uses among Multiple Ownership Types*
• Commentary on Zivnuska Paper, Forestry Investments for Multiple Uses among Multiple Ownership Types
• Commentary on Zivnuska Paper, Forestry Investments for Multiple Uses among Multiple Ownership Types
• Commentary on Zivnuska Paper, Forestry Investments for Multiple Uses among Multiple Ownership Types
• Commentary on Zivnuska Paper, Forestry Investments for Multiple Uses among Multiple Ownership Types
• Summary of Informal Discussion on Zivnuska Paper, Forestry Investments for Multiple Uses among Multiple Ownership Types
• A Search for Consensus
• Commentary on Fisher Paper, A Search for Consensus
• A Search for Consensus
• Summary of Informal Discussion on Fisher Paper, a Search for Consensus
• So What? What Happens Next?