We review 12 large-scale silviculture experiments (LSSEs) in western Washington and Oregon with which the Pacific Northwest Research Station of the USDA Forest Service is substantially involved. We compiled and arrayed information about the LSSEs as a series of matrices in a relational database, which is included on the compact disc published with this report and available online at http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/research/lsse. The LSSEs are both spatially and temporally large scale, with experimental treatment units between 5 and 100 acres and proposed study durations of 20 to 200 years. A defining characteristic of the LSSEs is that a broad range of response variables are measured to characterize the response of forest ecosystems to experimental treatments. We discuss the general value and limitations of the LSSEs and highlight some possible roles that can be played by the LSSEs in addressing management issues emerging at the beginning of the 21st century.

"A primary mission of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service is multiple resource management, and one of the emerging themes is forest restoration. The National Silviculture Workshop, a biennial event co-sponsored by the Forest Service, was held May 7-10, 2007, in Ketchikan, Alaska, with the theme of "Integrated Restoration of Forested Ecosystems to Achieve Multiresource Benefits." This proceedings presents a compilation of state-of-the-art silvicultural research and forestry management papers that demonstrates integrated restoration to yield multiple resource benefits. These papers highlight national perspectives on ecosystem services, forest restoration and climate change, and regional perspectives on forest restoration and silvicultural practices to achieve multiple resource benefits from researchers and forest practitioners working in a broad array of forest types in the United States."

The discipline of silviculture is at a crossroads. Silviculturists are under increasing pressure to develop practices that sustain the full function and dynamics of forested ecosystems and maintain ecosystem diversity and resilience while still providing needed wood products. A Critique of Silviculture offers a penetrating look at the current state of the field and provides suggestions for its future development. The book includes an overview of the historical developments of silvicultural techniques and describes how these developments are best understood in their contemporary philosophical, social, and ecological contexts. It also explains how the traditional strengths of silviculture are becoming limitations as society demands a varied set of benefits from forests and as we learn more about the importance of diversity on ecosystem functions and processes. The authors go on to explain how other fields, specifically ecology and complexity science, have developed in attempts to understand the diversity of nature and the variability and heterogeneity of ecosystems. The authors suggest that ideas and approaches from these fields could offer a road map to a new philosophical and practical approach that endorses managing forests as complex adaptive systems. A Critique of Silviculture bridges a gap between silviculture and ecology that has long hindered the adoption of new ideas. It breaks the mold of disciplinary thinking by directly linking new ideas and findings in ecology and complexity science to the field of silviculture. This is a critically important book that is essential reading for anyone involved with forest ecology, forestry, silviculture, or the management of forested ecosystems.

Public debate has stimulated interest in finding greater compatibility among forest management regimes. The debate has often portrayed management choices as tradeoffs between biophysical and socioeconomic components of ecosystems. Here we focus on specific management strategies and emphasize broad goals such as biodiversity, wood production and habitat conservation while maintaining other values from forestlands desired by the public. We examine the following proposition: Commodity production (timber, nontimber forest products) and the other forest values (biodiversity, fish and wildlife habitat) can be simultaneously produced from the same area in a socially acceptable manner. Based on recent research in the Pacific Northwest, we show there are alternatives for managing forest ecosystems that avoid the divisive arena of 'either-or' choices. Much of the work discussed in this book addresses two aspects of the compatibility issue. First, how are various forest management practices related to an array of associated goods and services? Second, how do different approaches to forest management affect relatively large and complex ecosystems?

Forests throughout the world are undergoing rapid, far-reaching change as a result of natural and anthropogenic disturbances. The challenge is to manage these forests in ways that avoid formulaic approaches to complex issues. This book takes on the challenge of balancing local economies, wood products, and biodiversity by proposing diverse new approaches to forest management using new research from the moist coniferous forests of the Pacific Northwest. --