Restoration
Reinvesting in and Raising the Value of Our Southern Appalachian Forests
Background
Intensive resource extraction and short-sighted management have fundamentally altered much of America's forests, particularly in the east. Over the last few decades a rapid rate of development, especially in the southeast, has compounded these problems.
Despite the unhealthy status of many forests in the southeast, there are remaining forests that are in good condition. These tend to be the remote and relatively wild forests that were not affected by early logging. They include remaining old growth as well as areas that have begun to recover from earlier logging. These forests should be allowed to recover and remain to serve as benchmarks of forest health.
It is equally important to repair the damage from past mismanagement on forests that are in bad condition. Human communities depend on the natural environment. Preserving wild forests and investing in degraded landscapes through thoughtful, science-based restoration is necessary to ensure that the benefits of forests are available to both present and future generations.
There have been calls to increase logging in mature forests to address forest health issues. In many cases mature forests have the best forest structure, the best biological diversity, the fewest exotic species, and provide the most ecosystem services. We feel that this approach is simplistic and fails to address the underlying problems and health issues our forests face.
Many of the challenges we face today are a result of the devastating logging that occurred at the turn of the twentieth century and the lack of development of forest structure that has occurred in these even-aged forests. Many of the oldest forests are just starting to develop this structure. It would be a serious mistake to focus harvest on these recovering forests. It is the more recently harvested forests that suffer most from lack of species diversity, poor vertical structure, and overcrowding. These forests should be the primary focus for restoration efforts.
The decline of the health of forests has had devastating ecologic consequences and economic effects on rural communities and people across the Appalachians. However, it has also opened up an opportunity to restore ecosystem health while rebuilding local communities--by organizing resource management efforts so that their objectives include not only environmental health but also the creation of jobs and wealth and promotion of stronger local social institutions.
Program Overview
Over the last several years, SAFC has taken on the challenge of developing collaborative relationships and identifying key opportunities for forest-appropriate restoration projects in the region and to guide the Forest Service toward a higher standard of restoration and monitoring using science-based Restoration Principles (link to principles - pdf).
In November of 2005, SAFC held the Eastern Restoration Conference in partnership with the National Forest Restoration Collaborative. The conference focused on exploring the challenges, opportunities, and priorities for forest restoration on public and private lands in the southeastern U.S.
The conference convened a diverse group -- including the environmental community, researchers, private landowners, consulting foresters and Forest Service personnel -- to network, discuss current science, identify knowledge gaps, get into the field, and access new tools and resources related to restoration.
In follow-up to the Restoration Conference, we have initiated a series of workshops and discussions that facilitate increased participation in the design and implementation for on-the-ground restoration projects. The general goal is to encourage participants to take part in existing projects, proposing new opportunities, gaining a better understanding of the process and emerging restoration opportunities on the forests of the Southern Appalachian Region.
In support of these workshops, the Forest Coalition conducts outreach, facilitates meetings, provides technical assistance and carries out field trips to further the conversation that was started during the previous restoration conference and identify and address the needs of communities to undertake restoration work. We also work closely with communities in support of developing restoration projects and activities on their forests.
Through these activities, SAFC is attempting to continue to build relationships and networks directly, promoting cooperation and collaboration in work design and procurement, and the formation of community-based groups who have the capacity to engage in the management of their forests.
After decades of bitter conflict over national forest management, restoration could form a basis for a new collaborative consensus. Restoration work generally resonates with the public, because it delivers values and services that people want and cannot afford to lose, such as clean water or fire protection. By promoting community based stewardship, restoration can broaden public participation in national forest management.
As America has steadily urbanized, the nation's values have changed, and Americans are demanding a corresponding shift in the way their public lands are used and managed -- restoration and outdoor recreation are supplanting timber as the agency's main focus.
Focus on the Future
SAFC has found a new way to move conservation forward at a time when scientists and forest managers have recognized the importance of focusing on healthy ecosystems, and when the main things that Americans want from the national forests are clean air and water, habitat for wildlife and opportunities for outdoor recreation.
For a century or more, Americans have drawn down their natural capital on public and private lands alike. It is time to reverse that trend by investing in the forests that future generations will depend upon.
The key is ecological restoration. Today, the primary focus of the Forest Service needs to emphasize working with partners and local communities to restore healthy, resilient forest ecosystems ecosystems that can deliver a full range of goods, values, and services.