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Implications for Ongoing Programs

Monitoring—The crux of sustainability is to understand change and respond to it. It is, therefore, imperative to have timely data with which to gauge changes in forest conditions. As the pace of change has quickened in the South, so has the standard for timeliness. Forest surveys were originally designed to track variables that changed relatively slowly. Development has quickened, harvests have doubled over the past 30 years, and planted forests have grown rapidly. More timely data, therefore, are needed. When fully implemented, ongoing changes from periodic to continuous forest inventories conducted by the Forest Service in partnership with Southern States will address this issue.

More timely, consistent, and comprehensive data at appropriate scales also are needed for monitoring water quality, wetland modification and loss, and wetland restoration.

Delivery of forestry assistance—The changing demographics of forest landowners suggest changing preferences and management objectives for private forests. Many private tracts are in the wildland-urban interface. It seems clear that nonindustrial private forest landowners, especially in the urbanizing eastern portion of the region, will need a broad range of silvicultural options and assistance now and in the future.

It is also likely that with increasingly intensive management necessary to meet expected timber demands in an increasingly regulatory climate, landowner assistance will need to increase the focus on protecting and enhancing nontimber forest resources such as water quality and terrestrial and aquatic habitats.

Public land—Demands for forest-based recreation opportunities are expanding rapidly. Private land is becoming less accessible for these kinds of activities, so public land is coming under increasing pressure to supply a broad variety of recreation opportunities. Innovative management is needed to deal with increased recreation, to reduce competition between recreation groups, and to mitigate resource damages.

In some parts of the South, public land provides islands of interior forest habitat. These habitats have very high and increasing ecological value as refuges for rare species.