Ecological Forest Management

Can forest management based on natural disturbances maintain ecological resilience?

Given the increasingly global stresses on forests, many ecologists argue that managers must maintain ecological resilience: the capacity of ecosystems to absorb disturbances without undergoing fundamental change. In this review we ask: Can the emerging paradigm of natural-disturbance-based management (NDBM) maintain ecological resilience in managed forests? Applying resilience theory requires c...

Factors Affecting the Sustainable Forest Management

The major purpose of this study is to assess the perception of managers in the Forest, Range and WatershedOrganization. It is an applied study by using descriptive–correlative method. A questionnaire was developedand data collected from 105 respondents. The validity and reliability of questionnaires was verified. Theresults of study show that there was a relationship between educational level, ...

Ecological meltdown in predator-free forest fragments.

The manner in which terrestrial ecosystems are regulated is controversial. The "top-down" school holds that predators limit herbivores and thereby prevent them from overexploiting vegetation. "Bottom-up" proponents stress the role of plant chemical defenses in limiting plant depredation by herbivores. A set of predator-free islands created by a hydroelectric impoundment in Venezuela allows a te...

Invasive Forest Insects, Introduced Forest Trees, and Altered Ecosystems Ecological Pest Management in Global Forests of a Changing World

Ecological Foundations for Fire Management in North American Forest and Shrubland Ecosystems

This synthesis provides an ecological foundation for management of the diverse ecosystems and fire regimes of North America, based on scientific principles of fire interactions with vegetation, fuels, and biophysical processes. Although a large amount of scientific data on fire exists, most of those data have been collected at small spatial and temporal scales. Thus, it is challenging to develo...