A Forest Stewardship Plan involves integrating the management, protection, and enhancement of the forest's resources, in a manner which meets a landowners's needs and objectives. One important concept for integrating management practices and objectives is the ecosystem approach to managing forest lands. This publication provides the landowner with an understanding of what is meant by the term "ecosystem management" (EM) and how it can be applied in their forests.
INTRODUCTION
Concepts of forest management have steadily evolved through the 1900s. Over the last decade or more, the most common shift in thinking and planning has been toward an "ecosystem-based" management approach. All public land management agencies have adopted some form of ecosystem management (EM). Private forest industry, through their Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), have incorporated aspects of EM into their practices. In fact, today it is common to consider many forestry situations in the context of EM. Given all this activity in EM by public and private forest owners, how can non-industrial private landowners apply EM on their forest land? To answer this question this paper first explains what EM means, and how it has become such an important topic of forest management. Thereafter, examples are shown of how forest landowners can incorporate aspects of EM on their lands.
WHAT IS EM?
Simply stated an ecosystem is a group of living things interacting with their environment. An ecosystem may encompass a small geographic area such as a pond, or it can be as large as a continent. Most commonly, when talking about ecosystems we mean a relatively large, contiguous land unit such as a forest, landscape, or watershed. Herein lies one of the difficulties in defining EM: what exactly are the boundaries of the ecosystem to be managed? However, the term is not meant to have a precise definition but to express a management philosophy and approach. Therefore, as one might expect, the term EM can be interpreted many ways. Table 1 shows examples of the numerous definitions of EM.
More important than a definition itself are the elements within a definition that provide guidance when it comes to applying EM on the ground. Key elements that are common to most EM definitions are listed in Table 2.
One way to understand the concept of EM is that it implies managing
your forest so that you simultaneously consider the ecological, economic
and social aspects. For a private forest landowner EM means that one tries
to balance each of these three aspects in their forest management. For
example, following the EM approach one would not maximize profits at the
expense of compromising the ecological integrity of the forest and its
capability to provide wildlife or clean water. In some forest situations
social aspects such as community involvement and awareness may be important
management considerations. Humans live in forest ecosystems and a stable,
strong economy goes hand in hand with a sustainable ecosystem. A good steward
of the land can be described as one who views economic or financial returns
from the land as important as sustaining its ecological health.
| Table 1. Ecosystem Management Definitions
" Ecosystem management focuses on the conditions of the ecosystem, with goals of maintaining soil productivity, gene conservation, biodiversity, landscape patterns, and the array of ecological processes." (Issued by the Society of American Foresters in 1993) "Ecosystem management integrates scientific knowledge of ecological relationships within a complex sociopolitical and values framework toward the general goal of protecting native ecosystem integrity over the long run." (From an article in the Journal of Conservation Biology in 1994) "Ecosystem management is the integration of ecologic, economic, and social principles to manage biological and physical systems in a manner that safeguards the ecological sustainability, natural diversity, and productivity of the landscape." (Issued by the Bureau of Land Management in 1994) "Ecosystem management is an approach to the management of natural resources that strives to maintain or restore the sustainability of ecosystems and to provide present and future generations continuous flow of multiple benefits in a manner harmonious with ecosystem sustainability." (Stated by David Unger, the associate chief of the USDA Forest Service, in 1994) "Ecosystem management is a resource management system designed to maintain or enhance ecosystem health and productivity while producing essential commodities and other values to meet human needs and desires within the limits of socially, biologically and economically acceptable risk." (Issued by the American Forest and Paper Association in 1994) |
| Table 2. Common Elements within Ecosystem Management (EM) definitions
EM is a process (a means to an end, not an end itself) EM means:
|
Merely discussing EM themes and definitions is unsatisfactory for practical use. Incorporating EM principles into land management is a process that must evolve over time. Part of the complexity is due to the scientific uncertainty about what comprises an EM plan. Even at the small individual forest unit (a stand) we arestill learning about the effect of different management practices on forest ecological processes and species. Given our limited knowledge at the stand level, how can we plan for cumulative effects at the larger landscape level? A famous ecologist once said that ecosystems are not only more complex than we think - they are more complex than we can think. Therefore, perhaps the most important aspect of EM is to view it as a learning process, where landowners and forest managers adapt their plans to changing information. Landowners should set clear goals about what they would like to achieve, and be flexible in addressing changing information and needs.
IS EM NEW?
The term EM has been in the scientific literature since the 1930's when it was recognized that we needed to protect ecosystems as well as individual species. However, in only a few situations was EM actually practiced. Early examples of EM efforts occurred in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, around the Great Lakes, and in the Everglades Ecosystem.
In forestry, EM has evolved as a result of new knowledge about forest ecology and the emerging needs of society for a broader management context. To illustrate, in the last century, forests were considered an obstacle to agricultural development. Early in this century, forests were viewed more broadly as a source of commodities to spur industrial development. Later, this view broadened to include multiple uses of forests, including recreation, water, wildlife, and special forest products. EM builds on these past practices but focuses on sustaining ecological and biological elements of the forest while simultaneously sustaining the production of commodities and other resource values for society's use.
Incorporating the need to balance production of goods and services with maintaining the ecological condition of the forest landscape spurred the discussion about EM. An example of this shift in focus was the revision of USDA Forest Service management practices. Pressure on the Forest Service came from some members of the public who believed that they were focusing too much on timber production and not enough on other forest components such as soils, water, insects, or fire. In response, the Forest Service started a program in 1989 called "New Perspectives" that called for finding new ways to manage the national forests. This program led to EM becoming official Forest Service policy on their lands.
But is EM really "new"? It represents a shift in thinking and a response to social and political changes, and can be considered a new way of managing forests. But many of the techniques used in EM are not new. Multiple-use forest management (the objective being to simultaneously manage for timber and other attributes such as water and wildlife) has been a formal policy of public lands since the 1960s. Even before that forests had been managed for uses other than timber. The first national forests were established primarily to protect water resources and long term timber supply. In fact, some landowners have been practicing EM all along--they just did not call it that. Careful harvest of timber products, consideration of watershed and wildlifeprotection, cooperative relationships with neighbors and forest managers, and long-term planning (all considered tools of ecosystem management) have been around for a long time. These practices have as a common goal the production of a healthy forest condition.
If foresters and private landowners have been carrying out aspects of EM, why the need for change? Change occurs as we learn more about how forests function and as society's objectives change. Traditional forestry is not to be abandoned, but the science of forest management is evolving to meet the expanding needs of society. Several factors discussed in the next section further explain aspects of EM that differentiate it from traditional forestry management.
CONSIDERATIONS FOR APPLYING EM Taking a landscape perspective
Foresters generally think about a forest as a collection of individual stands. This is suitable for prescribing timber harvests and regeneration plans. However, many attributes of a forest such as wildlife and water quality are components of the larger landscape, not just one forest stand. Managing at the forest or landscape level allows one to consider the complexities and linkages among the various attributes, ecological communities, and stands.
Cooperation across ownerships If taking a "big picture" view or landscape approach is central to EM, then individual landowners will be encouraged to be aware of the effect of their individual management objectives on the larger landscape. In some instances this may involve cooperation with neighbors. For example, cooperation may be valuable for management of environmentally sensitive areas or to manage for a specific habitat of a species that cuts across multiple ownerships. Cooperation may be formal or informal and may involve multiple parties or owners.
Taking a longer view
Managers, owners, and society as a whole must have a long-term perspective with respect to forestry. Creating the type of landscape desired may take many years. Rotation ages for certain species or stands may be lengthened to address wildlife or ecological issues. Property rights and landowner sovereignty
Private forest landowners have the right to manage their land as they wish, within the range of applicable laws and guidelines such as the Florida Silvicultural Best Management Practices (BMPs). Taking an EM approach may encourage them to adopt different practices than currently used. However, any decision by the landowner to practice EM should be voluntary and non-regulatory.
EXAMPLES OF EM PRACTICES
Using fire to restore longleaf pine forests or to maintain other forest ecosystems
Longleaf pines once dominated the landscape in the Southeast. The species distribution has been substantially reduced by conversion to agriculture and other land uses, and to some extent by the suppression of forest fires. Fire was an essential element in the original longleaf pine forests, as well as in most other Florida forest ecosystems. Each ecosystem contained particular combinations of plant and animal species adapted to the regular occurrence of fire. Today, there are many examples of private landowners in Florida who burn their pine woods to restore longleaf pine or maintain other forest ecosystems. Prescribed burning is a major factor in maintaining the ecological condition of their forest and the services it provides such as wildlife habitat and timber production.
Leaving buffer zones to protect water quality
Forests along rivers, streams and in wetlands provide a number of valuable goods and services. Management of these riparian forests in Florida includes the use of BMPs to prevent water quality degradation from forestry operations and to protect wildlife. BMPs include leaving a buffer zone of trees along watercourses, harvesting methods that protect residual trees, and maintaining water flow in natural channels. Rivers and streams that cross property boundaries are some of the most likely examples of EM in Florida today. As adjacent landowners follow BMPs and leave natural cover in the streamside zones they protect and maintain ecosystems across boundaries.
Harvesting techniques to enhance forest productivity and provide critical wildlife habitat
Harvesting methods that mimic natural occurrences such as fire, wind, and other disturbances promote the retention of structural diversity in the forest and providea landscape mosaic of stand sizes and ages. Tools to achieve structural diversity within stands include: partial cutting of stands, extending rotation ages, retaining more down wood, snags, and wildlife trees. Landscape diversity is enhanced by: reducing clear cut size, dispersing the areas to be cut, and reserving areas from logging. These tools may not work in every situation, but they allow landowners to extract commodities as well as accommodate desired ecological values.
GETTING STARTED WITH EM? If landowners want to try some EM approaches, where would they start? This section describes various mechanisms by which a landowner can initiate the process of EM. These mechanisms range from individual efforts to collaborative partnerships and landowner associations. Individual initiatives Private landowners may have already begun practicing EM if their management plans and practices include multiple objectives and long term sustainability of their forest landscapes. If not at this point, landowners can begin by thinking about how their management practices fit into the broader landscape, and by revising or preparing their management plans to include the types of considerations and practices mentioned above. Assistance with management plans can be obtained by contacting consulting foresters or Division of Forestry County Foresters. Additional information available through your county extension office includes publications such as "Environmentally Sound Forest Harvesting", "Forest Resource Information Available on the Internet," and Forest Regeneration Methods."
Collaborative partnerships
A number of public/private partnerships are implementing EM in the United States. These partnerships are usually administered by government agencies, large landowners, environmental groups such as The Nature Conservancy, or land trusts. Collaboration between public and private landowners is occurring around the country and is driven by issues such as protecting unique habitats or endangered species. Partnership efforts may include private landowners.
Stewardship through volunteering
Studies have found that friends and neighbors play an influential role in the management behavior of private landowners. A number of states are developing programs that train volunteers in stewardship principles. The volunteers then promote awareness of forest stewardship in their communities through informal contacts with their friends, neighbors and community groups. Classroom and field training is comprised of subjects related to forest stewardship and EM practices. The landowners use their knowledge in a number of ways, such as developing a EM plan for their lands and using that for demonstration. This neighbor-to-neighbor approach is helping develop community involvement and broader landscape management objectives so essential to the EM process. Good stewardship practices lead to goodwill and greater understanding of good forestry practices within a community.
Forming landowner associations The Florida Forestry Association is assisting in forming grassroots landowner associations at the county level for landowners to meet and share information. Such associations should facilitate the exchange of ideas among landowners and promote improved forest management. SUMMARY Ecosystem management is as varied as the definitions. It is a way of thinking about managing forest land that addresses economic, ecological and social aspects. It provides a framework for reaching the goal of forest stewardship. Stewardship of forests requires one to think about and manage for multiple attributes. EM provides an approach to achieve these multiple objectives. The concept of EM expresses the idea that forest management has changed in the past and continues to evolve as new tools and techniques become available. EM also lets the landowner think about how their land fits in the larger landscape. There is no one way to "do" EM. Many past practices landowners have carried on may be couched as EM practices. As more landowners manage using EM principles and practices, more forest land will be sustained for future generations.
1 .This document is a Draft, one of a series of theSchool of Forest Resources and Conservation, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, September, 1998 . Please visit the FAIRS Web site at http://hammock.ifas.ufl.edu .
2 .Michael Jacobson and Alan Long, Assistant Professors, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611.