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History-purpose-and-use-of-Silviculture

Learning Objectives:​

  • Define silviculture
  • Explain the importance of ecology to silviculture
  • Define the spacial scale of management

Early Silviculture​

Humans have always used the forest

  • Example: Swidden succession (Yanomami, Maya)
    • Burn down a patch of forest
      • All patch nutrients enter into soil; useful for farming
      • Once nutrients are depleted, peoples move on to new area
        • When people moved on, forests regrow and replete the nutrients

A story about mining:​

A mining director, Carl von Carlowitz, from Saxonny, Germany was silver mining for nobility; his mines did well and he hadn't much to do.

On a trip to France, he noticed that half the miners were just sitting around and not doing anything. Asking the miners why they weren't mining, the miners had replied that they had run out of timber to secure their mineshafts.

Worried the same fate would hit his mines, the mining director panicked and set out on a quest to learn all about best growing trees. He wrote his findings in a book entitled "Silvicultura oeconomica"

Modern silviculture roots

  • Resource need and exploitation in Europe
  • Quickly increasing population starting in 17th century
    • Wood based economy
      • Fuel
      • Construction
      • Agriculture
  • Almost complete deforestation by 1850

Timeline​

  • 1713: Written summary of silvicultural techniques directly aimed at sustainability
  • 1787: Structured research and education
    • What species?
    • Sowing?
    • Planting?
    • Thinning?
  • Stricter policy regulating resource use
  • 1790 - 1850: Forestry schools open throughout Europe
  • 1844: Establishment of the Indian Forest Service - model for US/CA
  • End of 19th Century: Forestry schools open in North America.

FRST 305/Definition of Silviculture

What is a Silviculture System?​

Planned program of treatments over the lifespan of a stand

Important factors in BC:

  • Public Land
  • Tenure system
  • Large land base - small population
  • Distance to markets
  • Focus on reforestation silviculture
    • Site preperation
    • Planting
    • Species and provenance selection
    • Tree breeding
    • Intial planting density
  • Preference for efficient harvesting (clearcutting systems)

Silvicultural Decision-Making Rewards vs. Risk

Investment with quantifiable outcomes, e.g.:

  • Volume or wood quality
  • When you invest in stand care, you want to be confident you'll be harvesting it