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Silviculture for restoration of degraded temperate and boreal forests

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Throughout the temperate and boreal zones, human intervention has influenced landscapes and forests for millennia. The degree of human disturbance has only been constrained by the technology and resources available to different cultures and by time since initial habitation. Humans have influenced forests by regulating populations of browsers, clearing for agriculture, keeping domestic livestock, cutting trees for fuel, building material, and fibre, introducing new species, using fire and suppressing fire. Today's forests are the result of all these disturbances, along with climatic change and species migration into postglacial landscapes. The ability of humans to affect forest ecosystems increased dramatically after the Industrial Revolution. Management has been extended to native forests over larger areas; at the same time, the switch from biomass to fossil fuels changed traditional forest management. Combustion emissions affect forests directly and through climate change.

Citation

Stanturf, John A.; Madsen, Palle; Gardiner, Emile S. 2004. Silviculture for restoration of degraded temperate and boreal forests. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Natural Disturbances and Ecosystem-Based Forest Management, May 27-29, Tartu, Estonia, eds. Kangur, Ahto; Kivastik, Sulev, p. 1-3
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/20530