Timber management views forests as a source of timber, unlike environment-based forestry practices. It emerged in the US in the late 19th century due to the realization that timber was a limited resource. The Sustainable Forestry Initiative provides guidelines for responsible timber management. A balance between environmental and commercial concerns is necessary for a successful program. Regeneration can be managed through natural seeding or instituting seeding, with both methods having their advantages and disadvantages.
Timber management is a type of forestry, which considers forests as timber resources. In this sense, it takes a different approach than more environment-based forestry practices, which may see forests more as whole ecosystems. While timber management may take into account the larger holistic ecosystem of which forests are a thriving part, at its core it considers forests as made up of trees which in turn are made up of timber. Of course, a healthy timber management program includes uncut land, for reserves, so often people who are part of a timber management program can find themselves allied with conservationists.
The discipline of timber management grew out of an understanding in the United States in the late 19th century that timber was a limited resource. When Europeans first arrived in North America, there were about a billion acres of forest, and they immediately began clearing those forests, both to clear the land for agriculture and to fuel the growing desire for housing. ships and fuel of a nation. By the mid-19th century some 19 million acres of forest had been cleared, and it began to become apparent that the rate of logging used up to the Civil War could not continue without ultimately stripping the continent of its sources of timber.
As a result, since the early 20th century, timber management has become a key part of both government land policy and private property. In the United States, the government owns approximately 20 million acres of forest and practices strict timber management on those acres, holding them in the public trust for future generations and as a reserve for the nation’s times of need. The remaining 325 million acres of timber in the United States are privately owned: individuals, families, small businesses, investment groups and lumber companies. These companies manage their timber management in different ways, depending on their objectives, the regulation that affects them and the need for a constant capital injection.
One timber management scheme used by many private companies is called the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, or SFI. The SFI provides all kinds of different rubrics against which companies and individuals can evaluate their timber management. It establishes guiding principles, basic rules of thumb and sets standards on how forests should regenerate during logging, which areas should be left clear of logging, and how different areas should be thinned out or managed responsibly.
Ultimately, the best timber management program balances both environmental concerns and commercial concerns. Allowing forests to regenerate at a steady rate ensures not only that the ecosystem can remain healthy, but that there will always be a constant source of commercial timber. Often, the protection of specific threatened areas or wildlife habitat can have direct commercial benefits as well, due to government easements that may exist for environmentally sensitive timber management programs.
Generally, regeneration is managed either by allowing natural seeding, or by instituting seeding. Although plantations are substantially more expensive than natural seeding, many people choose seeding in timber management because the growth time to maturity is often shorter, balancing out the additional cost. From an environmental point of view, however, natural seeding is preferable in some forests, forcing foresters to make a sometimes difficult decision.
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