Controls and Reference Conditions in Forestry: The Role of Old-Growth and Retrospective Studies
Authors: Frelich, Lee E.1; Cornett, Meredith W.2; White, Mark A.3
Source: Journal of Forestry, Volume 103, Number 7, October/November 2005 , pp. 339-344(6)
Abstract:
Forest stands that experience only natural disturbance can serve as controls to provide a scientific basis for comparison with harvested forests to help determine when harvesting has been done in a sustainable manner. Primary stands can serve as references for silvicultural trials that attempt to mimic the primary forest structural attributes on shorter time scales of a few decades. At the landscape scale, retrospective techniques can be used to examine proportion and variation in proportion of stands among structural and successional stages expected under the natural disturbance regime. These analyses are referred to as range of natural variation and serve as landscape-scale reference conditions for comparison with the managed forest landscape.Keywords: Minnesota; northern hardwoods; spruce-fir-birch; environmental management; forest; forest management; forest resources; forestry; forestry research; forestry science; natural resources; natural resource management
Document Type: Regular article
Affiliations: 1: Director Department of Forest Resources University of Minnesota Center for Hardwood Ecology 1530 Cleveland Avenue N St. Paul MN 55108, Email: freli001@umn.edu 2: Director of Conservation Science The Nature Conservancy in Minnesota and the Dakotas 1101 West River Parkway Minneapolis MN 55415, Email: mcornett@tnc.org 3: Forest Ecologist The Nature Conservancy in Minnesota 394 Lake Avenue S Duluth MN 55802 mark_, Email: white@tnc.org
