Trends in forest management in the United States

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Abstract
Changes in forestry practices in the United States have been dramatic over the past decade. These changes have been brought about largely through government regulations promulgated in response to pressure from environmental and other groups at both federal and state levels. Historically, the federal government has taken leadership in forest stewardship, though some states have demonstrated strong initiatives over the years. Two separate, but intertwined, factors combined to alter the practice of forestry over much of the United States. There were the interactive consequences of obedience to national environmental laws, passed in the 1960s and 1970s, and a rising environmental consciousness among the majority of the minority of the citizenry who care about natural resource issues. Rising public concern was focussed in challenges in the federal courts to government forest management activities, and in terms of public relations campaigns using lobbying, demonstrations, and manipulation of the mass media. In July of 1993, President Clinton selected an option for management of federal forests in the Pacific Northwest section of the United States that dedicated 9.28 million acres (3.75 million hectares) of federal forests to reserves to be managed for late-successional/old-growth ecosystem function and riparian/fisheries protection. This reduced the anticipated timber sale levels from the 2.4 billion board feet (5.7 million m3) cut annually in 1990-1992, to 1.2 billion board feet (2.8 million m3) projected for 1994. There is an ongoing shift in management philosophy toward "ecosystem management" of forested lands with increasing attention to aesthetics and more benign environmental effects of timber management.

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