![]() ![]() ![]() However, despite the use of modern techniques (e.g., radio communications, rapid helicopter transport, and new types of chemical firefighting apparatus) some 7 million acres of forest are still burned annually on average. ![]() Because of the extremely rapid spreading and customary inaccessibility of fires once started, the chief aim of this work has long been prevention. The management of forest fires has developed into an independent and complex science costing exceeding $2 billion annually at times in the United States. Extermination of diseases and insect pests is standard forestry practice. Planting trees of different sizes (either because of species or of age) prevents crowding and insures maximal growth for the given area. ![]() The Douglas fir of Western forests is encouraged because it is more valuable than the climax vegetation of mixed conifers that tends to establish itself in the absence of human intervention. The basic rule of timber management is sustained yield that is, to cut each year a volume of timber no greater than the volume of wood that grew during that year on standing trees.ĭesirable timber species are usually those of the native climax vegetation (see ecology) that can perpetuate themselves by natural succession, although at times (intentionally or unintentionally) a forest may not represent the climax vegetation-such as the pine of the SE United States, which grows faster than, and has replaced, the hardwoods destroyed by fire and logging. It is the chief goal of forestry to devise methods for felling trees that provide for the growth of a new forest crop and to ensure that adequate seed of desirable species is shed onto the ground and that conditions are optimal for seed germination and the survival of saplings. Silviculture is the name usually given to this manipulation of the forest for human purposes. Because the major economic importance of the forest lies in wood and wood products, forestry has been chiefly concerned with timber management, especially reforestation, maintenance of the extant forest stands at prime condition, and fire control. Forestry, the management of forest lands for wood, water, wildlife, forage, and recreation. ![]()
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