Jack Ward Thomas: Sustaining forests

[California] A new age of forestry is needed in the United States. Recent dramatic declines in forest management have brought some undesirable consequences for forest health and wildlife. A total preservationist approach to management — standing back and letting nature take its course — has become increasingly prevalent. A return to a totally economic-driven forestry is also not viable. Public backlash to forestry practices of 1950-1975 resulted in a plethora of federal and state laws and regulations that set forest management on course toward sustainability. Unfortunately, the pendulum of attitudes toward forest management has swung too far to the side of constraint. Jack Ward Thomas was chief of the Forest Service under President Clinton. He wrote this for the California Forest Products Commission

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www.southernsustainableforests.org