Making forests work better - Forest Service

American Forests, March-April, 1995 by Jack Ward Thomas

I was a scientist with the Forest Service (USFS) for about 30 years before taking on the administrative role as chief of the agency in 1993. Most of my professional energy has been directed toward the study of forest ecosystems. Most of my time was spent in rural forests, but earlier in my career I researched urban forestry. In 1972, as a research scientist in Amherst, Massachusetts, I helped design one of the agency's first urban forestry research projects. The study established a real-estate value for urban trees, showing that homes with trees sold for 6 to 12 percent more than those without. Homebuyers could not articulate the actual ecological contribution the trees made to their property, but they instinctively knew trees were valuable, so they paid more for the property.

A few years ago, my scientific endeavors involving the old-growth forest ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest attracted a lot of attention. The usually quiet scientific study was thrown into a high-profile public policy debate about managing the nation's public forest land. Scientific investigation uncovered information about the forest ecosystem that changed the way the public policy-makers viewed forest-management goals.

A new national forest-management philosophy emerged from that debate, and the USFS was commended for creating the first ecosystem-management program in the world. Since I was on the hotseat with the old-growth issue, I was selected to come to Washington, DC, to lead the agency into a new management era. We have to turn the ecosystem-management philosophy into effective practices that provide resources for people while sustaining the system that produces those resources. In an effort to bring science and public policy closer together, we are promoting biodiversity and the interests of many people and organizations.

Understanding ecosystems is a complex challenge. Our long-term plan will allow incremental changes and improvements in management as knowledge of the science grows. The agency will spend much of its energy over the next few years building the long-term ecosystem-management program. With new information, we will have a clearer picture of what the national forest ecosystems look like, how they function, and what the management strategies should be.

As a scientist, I feel good about our direction and progress. But as an administrator, I realize we will not have the luxury to carefully plan everything we do. There are many emergencies that need immediate action. The old-growth timber issue is one example where action was needed fast. The forest-fire problem in the Inland West is another good example - we've tested some new management techniques that work. The structure of that ecosystem needs to be changed, but bringing it back to a self-sustaining one will take 20 to 30 years - once we start.

Urban ecosystems, too, need both long-and-short term actions. Many of us have experienced ecological disasters in urban areas. When Dutch elm disease ripped through towns and cities east of the Mississippi in the 1960s and '70s, the dominant tree canopy disappeared in just a few years. People were not prepared and therefore did not take the actions needed.

Urban sprawl and rural and urban intermix land uses present additional problems that we must face. Some are urgent, and some we can gather information and plan for. The work the Forest Service is doing today will, I hope, build the foundation for addressing these issues. There will be bumps in the road, but we are headed in the right direction.

Jack Ward Thomas is Chief of the USDA Forest Service.