The Sustainability Driver of Silvicultural Options: Highlights of the Oregon Assessment and Its Implications for Silviculture

K. Norman Johnson and Debora Johnson, Forest Resources, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

A team of scientists recently completed an assessment of the state of the environment in Oregon. They looked comprehensively across Oregon’s landscapes from high elevation forests to agricultural lands to urban areas to estuaries. The scientists found that Oregon has made great strides in resolving some of its critical environmental problems of the past, with Oregon’s land use laws and forest practice rules making major contributions to this progress. Also, recent changes in federal forest management to emphasize protection of late-successional forests have eased some environmental problems. Yet, the scientists found that Oregon still faces environmental challenges including poor water quality, especially in urban and agricultural areas; loss of wetlands; degraded riparian areas; invasions of exotics; and diminished biodiversity. With few exceptions these problems are most critical in the lowlands of major river basins—historically our wetlands, woodlands, and grasslands—that Oregonians have intensively developed for homes, cities, farms, and ranches. Thus, the greatest opportunity for improving Oregon’s environment in this generation occurs on lands that Oregonian’s control—on state, county, and private lands. Part of the attention will be focused on state and private forests. The likely increased demand for private forests to protect biodiversity at time of regeneration harvest, stand establishment, and stocking control will create significant silvicultural challenges that may require revision of our ideas on intensive management and of the forest practice rules that support this management.

Keywords: environmental challenges, biodiversity, intensive management.