Prologue and Introduction

Prologue

As hard as it may be to believe, mankind has been deforesting the planet for almost 4,700 years. The first record of trees being taken for purposes of creating civilization was in a city (Kingdom of Uruk) in southern Mesopotamia. As described in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the ruler Gilgamesh needed vast amounts of timber to build his city. To see southern Mesopotamia now as a barren land, it seems absurd to believe or suggest this area once had great forests (Perline, p. 35). It is also suspected the area was hit by a 300 year drought, which had a devastating impact on the regional population.

Starting in Uruk, between the Tigris and Euphrates northwest of the Persian Gulf, civilization grew and successfully expanded through Turkey, Cyprus, Crete, Greece, Sicily, Italy, north through France and finally Britain. Civilization needed timber in order to grow. It provided for large buildings, vast armadas of ships for military conquest, and charcoal for cooking and smelting. The Roman civilization originated in ancient forests. The Latin word silvia means forest dweller. The Romans over time came to love their baths and villas, which consumed vast amounts of fuel wood. It is estimated that it took 114 tons of wood per year to keep a small public bath's air temperature at 130°F (Perlin, p. 112).

Deforestation has been with us a very long time. . . . a very long time, whereas the idea of reforesting is relatively new. For centuries there were always more forests over the next mountain. There was always another forest over the next ocean.

North America proved to contain treasures of gold beyond the imagination. In time the sea of timber on land led the European appetite for naval stores and ships. As it had been before, there appeared to be timber as far as the eye could see; more timber than anyone could ever cut down.

In our current "modern" era we are now reaping the legacy of our forbearers. It isn't fair to moralize about this because trees proved so useful to so many purposes. This course is about reforestation and should help you to understand how to start new forests where once there were forests or to start new forests where none existed.

One word about the topic of forest regeneration. Forest regeneration is not a discipline in the sense that chemistry, physics, or botany are. Realistically forest regeneration is a sub-branch of silviculture that requires a considerable amount of knowledge of different subjects such as general forestry, botany, plant physiology, statistics, genetics, ecology, and horticulture... and, yes, history. There is a lot to know and all of it is useful. This particular course is the one that truly demonstrates how to renew our forest resources.

Introduction


Good reforestation requires:

  1. Good planting stock. Seedlings must be of the correct species for the area to be regenerated AND of the correct ecotype of that species. They must be of a good size with a well balanced shoot and root. They must be disease and damage free and, above all, must be properly conditioned to resist the stress inherent in the reforestation process.

  2. Good site preparation. Again, details of site preparation will vary from one tract to another, but have in common that competing and potentially competing plant species are managed so that the crop seedlings have the maximum opportunity to establish early dominance. In the context of this course, site preparation will include plantation release, which may be necessary in areas with rapidly growing competing vegetation, with heavy animal damage, or where less than vigorous seedlings have been planted. In general, post plantation maintenance may be minimized by emphasizing excellence in all phases of the regeneration effort.

  3. Good planting. This includes not just maintaining high standards in the physical placement of the seedling roots in soil, but an awareness of the fragile nature of planting stock and an effort at all stages of the post nursery handling of seedlings to avoid physical damage and to maintain a favorable environment.

Finally, establishment of a successful plantation not only includes the above, but is the result of careful planning to assure that all logistics of the reforestation project are as favorable to seedling growth and survival as possible. Generally, planning for reforestation should begin before the stand is cut and should: involve the choice of harvesting procedure as well as post-harvest site treatment.

Illustrations of the importance of the above to successful plantations come from recent data describing seedling survival in stressful situations in the western United States.

  1. Mean seedling survival for plantations in California in 1983 was 60% for Douglas-fir and 65% for ponderosa pine. Yet in the Tahoe district, characterized by long summer drought and high temperatures, the survival of a plantation resulting from careful planning and high operational standards are 99% for pine, 95% for fir.

  2. The FIR program in southwestern Oregon, which was established to develop the methodology for regenerating sites previously considered too difficult for successful plantations has consistently achieved survival rates of over 85% as a result of attention to detail and high standards throughout the reforestation process.

Although the increase in number of seedlings planted in British Columbia annually during the past twenty years has been dramatic, the forester should recognize that success of reforestation can not be measured by numbers of seedlings planted alone. These young trees are subject to stresses during the nursery-harvest-store-ship-outplant sequence and frequently to severe plant competition after planting. Experience in the western states of the U.S. noted above and in Canada demonstrates clearly that successful plantations are established only when foresters exercise extreme care to minimize adverse practices during all phases of the reforestation scenario.

The preceding is a brief history of the reforestation effort in North America. Until the very recent past, there was little reason for optimism, probably because neither industry nor the public had evidenced much concern for the future of what appeared to be a limitless resource. Fortunately, in the last two decades there have been laws enacted in several U.S. states, British Columbia and Alberta mandating reforestation. The public has become increasingly aware that forests can not be endlessly "mined", but that man must return a significant effort to the land if productivity is to be maintained.