Silviculture

Silviculture is one of the oldest professions in human history.¹ If you want to know more about silviculture, you’ve come to the right place. 

What is silviculture?

Silviculture is the art and science of managing a woodland for the right purpose.² This could involve creating a wildlife habitat, a recreational and hiking forest or even a timber plantation. It focuses on better managing a forest’s growth, health and composition.³

Silviculture treatments are different types of cuttings applied throughout a forest’s lifetime. There are also systems, which are the outcome of the treatments applied to forests. Treatments include tree thinning, harvesting, planting, pruning, prescribed burning and site preparation.⁴

Silviculturists must also have some knowledge in fields such as botany, economics, engineering, geography, meteorology, soil science and wildlife biology. That gives them a more rounded view when trying to manage forests, individual trees or groups of trees.⁵

‌What are the benefits of forest management?

It is important to remember that forests and woodlands are complicated and interconnected ecosystems. A natural old forest can, and should, be left undisturbed, but a new forest requires care and close attention. Thus, silviculture helps us to understand how to create an improved forest ecosystem that benefits woodlands as well as society. For example, ensuring a healthy forest with more biodiversity would improve the soil, reduce flooding and sustain more life. The world needs a better understanding of how to create biodiverse forests.⁶

‌More trees and forests also reduce carbon and other pollutants in the air, and they produce the vital oxygen we need to survive. Without forests, life on this planet would come close to extinction.⁷

Site preparation

The challenge of silviculture is ensuring that a healthy and diverse forest grows as expected, whether it may consist of even-aged or uneven-aged trees. For example, to create a forest with tall trees, it requires a different treatment and system than one where we aim to sustain a healthy undergrowth. Factors such as climate change, desertification, diseases and human activity all make it more challenging to protect and manage healthy forests and species. ⁸

‌As we become a more crowded planet with rising carbon emissions, the biggest challenge is to ensure we have enough forests to create oxygen. For that, we need to invest even more in silviculture.

1. Powers, R. and Aunel, P. (n.d.). Communicating Silviculture: Values and Benefits for the New Millennium. [online] . Available at: https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/gtr/gtr_ne238/gtr_ne238_003.pdf [Accessed 1 Feb. 2021].
2. Socratic.org. (n.d.). What is silviculture? | Socratic. [online] Available at: https://socratic.org/questions/what-is-silviculture [Accessed 1 Feb. 2021].
3. maine-forestry. (n.d.). What is Silviculture? [online] Available at: https://www.maineforestry.net/what-is-silviculture [Accessed 1 Feb. 2021].
4. www.fs.fed.us. (n.d.). Silviculture. [online] Available at: https://www.fs.fed.us/forestmanagement/vegetation-management/silviculture/index.shtml.
5. Powers, R. and Aunel, P. (n.d.). Communicating Silviculture: Values and Benefits for the New Millennium. [online] . Available at: https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/gtr/gtr_ne238/gtr_ne238_003.pdf [Accessed 1 Feb. 2021].
6. Panda.org. (2015). WWF – The Importance of Forests. [online] Available at: https://wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/forests_practice/importance_forests/.
7. Usda.gov. (2017). The Power of One Tree – The Very Air We Breathe. [online] Available at: https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2015/03/17/power-one-tree-very-air-we-breathe.
8. Forest Research. (2018). Continuous cover silviculture – What is a silvicultural system? [online] Available at: https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/resources-on-managing-resilient-forests/continuous-cover-silviculture-what-is-a-silvicultural-system/.