Foresters, Ecologists, etc.: Wade Harrison recently objected to David Orr's call for a narrower definition to the term 'forest harvesting' on the fmdss-l (forest management decision support systems) list. He suggests that the term 'harvesting' be restricted to plantations or other second-growth timber(?) and that the old, simple, though politically-incorrect term of 'logging' be used when referring to the commercial removal of timber from wild or previously unlogged forests. Frankly, i agree with David: we have all too many euphemisms in forestry which we have borrowed from agriculture, and which imply the same degree of control as is possible with annual crop systems: 'harvest' 'crop' 'rotation' 'weeding' 'total crop planning' calling all replanted areas 'plantations' etc. Where land is dedicated solely to fibre production, this may be fine, but remains presumptious until we have actually managed an entire rotation on a piece of ground at least once. Many (most?) forest management decisions today still center around (1) the logging (read exploitation) of wild forests, and (2) the protection of non-timber values. These are not of paramount concern in most agricultural models. In closing, i think it is important to recognize the power of language and terminology. Silviculture is not perfectly analogous to agriculture, and the concerns involved in growing fibre while conserving semi-natural ecological values are considerably more complex than growing a field of wheat or maize. It is a diservice to ourselves and to the public to imply some sort of equivalence here. Awaiting the rebuff of many traditional foresters, Phil Burton. (p.s. i will not see any replies posted to ecolog-l or agric-l, to which i do not currently subscribe) ========================================================================= burton@unixg.ubc.ca /* "It's not that I just work here; */ Philip J. Burton, Assistant Professor /* here is just where I work." */ University of British Columbia Department of Forest Sciences tel. 604-822-6020 #270 - 2357 Main Mall fax. 604-822-5744 Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6T 1Z4 =========================================================================
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