SNR 531: Sustainable Silviculture (1 credit)
Instructor: Rick Fletcher
Timeframe: 5 classroom sessions, plus portions of a 3-day field trip

Course Description

Establishing and verifying sustainable silviculture systems will be examined using classroom lectures, discussions of case studies, and field visits to public and private research and operational locations. Guest speakers will participate in both the classroom and field sessions. General topics to be covered include:

• Planning Tools for Sustainable Silviculture
• Silvicultural Options for Sustainable Forestry
• Monitoring and Adaptive Management
• Measuring and Verifying Environmental Performance

Desired Learning Outcomes:

• Students will be aware of information and tools available to integrate social, economic and ecological objectives into forest management strategies.
• Students will be familiar with sustainable Silviculture strategies being used by forest managers in western Oregon.
• Students experience the use of environmental performance indicators in forestry and wood products.

Lectures and Field Trips:

1. Sustainable Silviculture- Developing Strategies that Integrate Economic, Social and Ecological Goals. Lesson will draw upon several prominent case studies to examine how public and private land managers have put together silvicultural strategies that concurrently achieve ecological, social, and economic objectives. Subjects covered will include planning, inventory, forest practices, monitoring, and adaptive management. Public and private examples will be featured.
    
2. Using Silviculture to Maintain and Restore Landscapes, Species and Habitats. Lesson will examine various public and private efforts to use silvicultural practices such as thinning, regeneration cuts, prescribed burning, and other techniques to maintain and restore habitats at the stand to landscape level. Of particular emphasis will be actions designed to protect threatened and endangered species.
    
   Field Trip #1: Silvicultural Strategies for Sustainable Forestry. (4 hours) Field trip will visit public and private operational sites to view silvicultural strategies and interview the field foresters conducting them. Purpose of field trip is to understand how forest managers are meeting a widening diversity of objectives through their silvicultural choices.
    
3. Integrating Landscape Planning Tools and Silvicultural Strategies at Various Scales. Lesson will feature the CLAM landscape modeling Certificate Program and allow students to analyze the cumulative impacts of harvesting and other practices at the stand to landscape scale. Students will also be introduced to other stand and landscape models that are commonly in use.
    
   Field Trip #2: Sustainable Silviculture on McDonald Forest. (4 hours) Field trip will give students a close up look at integration of various silvicultural treatments into 3 different sustainable forestry landscape strategies on OSU’s 12,000-acre research forest near Corvallis. Visit will include examination of research studies and operational projects designed to test various even and uneven-aged forest management strategies.
    
4. Measuring Environmental Performance .Lesson will feature a history of the development of environmental performance indicators in forestry, as well as a look at current environmental monitoring systems such as: Montreal C&I’s, Forest Practices Laws, and Forest Certification.
    
   Field Trip #3: Environmental Performance Assessment. (8 hours) Field trip will feature opportunity for students to do a simplified field verification of a local private forest using two different forest certification systems. Students will be divided into teams, and each team will conduct an evaluation of environmental performance on McDonald Forest, using criteria from popular forest certification systems. At the end of the day groups of students will present the results of their field verifications and discuss similarities and differences in environmental rating systems.