''Optimum productivity'': a silviculturist's view

The various characteristics that will distinguish the forest of the future have both short-term and long-term significance. In the short term the growth rate of newly established forests influences the rate at which existing forests can be felled. But the assortment of products the forest yields will also be influenced in the longer term. The man-made forests of the future will not supply such good saw timber as those of today unless thinning and pruning are applied on a large scale. Greatly increased demands on silviculture can be anticipated in many parts of the world, especially with respect to resources for establishment of new forests. Silviculture needs administrative instuments of guidance and control to ensure that available resources are properly allocated among different treatments and among production sites in the forest. New forests must be established with the right density and the right genetic constitution; they must be tended in the right way and the right times. In most of the world's coniferous forest regions there will have to be radical changes toward more advanced mechanization. There will be a need in the 1980s to develop planting machines capable of operating on hilly terrain and stony soils. This mechanization willmore » lead to wider use of containerized seedlings, so major reorganizations will be needed in nursery management, if they have not already taken place. Tending of young forests is another problem area. This type of work is very difficult to justify economically except through use of chemical vegetation control, yet if neglected will create a pressing need for thinning instead, which will be an even greater drain on available labor and financial resources.« less