Swanson WHAT CAN HISTORY TELL US ABOUT FOREST LANDSCAPE DYNAMICS ?

Historical forest landscape dynamics include consideration of spatial and temporal distributions of forest conditions over recent history and also historical disturbance regimes. Understanding of historical landscape dynamics in these senses is relevant to planning future management of federal forest lands on both policy and ecological grounds. Although some particular elements of our policy framework are in flux, the codified commitment to sustain native species is well accepted. The term “native” carries many implications about consideration of history and procedures for planning habitat management to sustain those species using an understanding of history. Recent guidance for management of Forest Service lands explicitly directs use of history to plan future management (the enacted Healthy Forest Restoration and the drafted rules to enact the new planning regulations under the National Forest Management Act). This policy direction reflects that ecosystem history embodied in properties of the biota and soil determines the capacity of a site to meet policy objectives.