Florida's Silviculture Best Management Practices
Florida's Best Management Practices (BMPs) for silviculture operations are the minimum standards necessary for protecting and maintaining the State's water quality as well as some wildlife habitat values while conducting forestry activities. They represent a balance between overall natural resource protection and use.
BMPs were developed by the Florida Division of Forestry (DOF) specifically for silviculture and are intended to be applied on all such operations. These practices are not intended for use during tree removal or land clearing operations associated with residential or commercial development, or other activities with non-forestry objectives.
The BMPs were first established in the mid 1970s in response to the Federal Clean Water Act of 1972. The original BMPs were designed exclusively to protect Florida's streams and lakes from potential sources of pollution associated with forestry activities.
The latest version of Florida's BMPs (2003) has retained the goal of: maintaining water quality standards and water resource features such as sinkholes, smaller lakes, canals, and wetlands; and accounting for general ecological considerations and wildlife habitat values. This revision incorporates newly quantified relationships between silvicultural activities and impacts to natural resources and is now available on-line on the DOF Web site: Florida's Silviculture Best Management Practices.