Topic 13.1: Establish Landscape-Level Objectives

Given the diversity of silvicultural options discussed earlier in this course, each with its own inherent tradeoffs, as well as the diversity of forest conditions and objectives, a landscape approach seems appropriate as a way to maximize the benefits and minimize the undesired outcomes of management overall. As a first step in landscape planning, there needs to be clarity about the values of the land-use decision-makers. Making this complicated is that there are often conflicts among values. For example, maximizing short-term income from timber sales is seldom compatible with ensuring that incomes will be sustained over the long-run. Similarly, the maximization of timber yields is unavoidably in conflict with the maintenance of biological diversity, at least at the stand level. Such conflicts and inconsistencies notwithstanding, it behooves the silviculturalist to assess, to the extent possible, the expectations of the land-use decision makers and to inform their decisions. Typical values to be considered are financial, both short and long-term, as well as those related to biodiversity, hydrology, carbon sequestration, fire risk, and worker safety.