The issue of genetic diversity raises the issue about "scale". If GD is a goal, then at what scale? GD may not exist if looking at a small forest, but if considering a county, it may be very good.
My questioning of the scientific validity of the concept continues until there is a way to quantify "forest health". How healthy is any given forest, at whatever scale? I'm not sure what Lee meant by "productive"- productive in what way? Certainly "species richness" is also based on scale. I have no idea how academia currently views this concept but I've seen too much use of the term in ways that seem bogus. Perhaps more discussion can result in developing a solid, scientific definition which will be useful for research and management purposes. I'd like to see the concept of "forest health" but without the term "health"- which seems relevant to individual organism, not collections of organisms. Life on Earth will survive no matter what we do- in that sense it will always be healthy- if health has to do with survival. A new word is needed to replace it. Joe Forestry videos: http://vimeo.com/1993866 "A Tale of Two Clearcuts" http://vimeo.com/2090043 "Uneven vs. Even aged silviculture" ----- Original Message ----- From: "Beluzo Gary A." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 9:19 AM Subject: [ENTS] Re: Rendezvous Report > Lee, > > I appreciate your clear and concise definition and I would suggest an > amendment; that the definition explicitly include GENETIC DIVERSITY. > I know that genetic diversity is implicit in your definition but for > others this is often poorly understood and understated. There may be > species richness but without genetic diversity (species complexity) > how long could this be maintained into the future? > > Gary > On Nov 4, 2008, at 5:24 PM, Lee Frelich wrote: > > Bob: > > Excellent report. I just arrived home in MN after stopping in PA > Sunday evening and at my brothers house in WI Monday night. This is > not exactly the frigid land you mention--it was over 70 degrees here > today and yesterday. We are in an unusual November heat wave, and have > not had snow like that I drove through in PA on the way out to MA. > > Here is my definition of forest health that you requested: > > A forest is healthy as long as it maintains the productivity and > species richness (all taxonomic groups) of the pre-European settlement > forest over time. > > Lee > > > >> >> >> Introduction >> >> >> >> The time has arrived for the 2008 western Mass ENTS >> rendezvous to be entered into the ENTS record book. Let it be noted >> that the rendezvous officially commenced on Oct 30, 2008 and ended >> at the close of November 2nd. We had an informal, if not subdued, >> gathering, but the event produced some highly significant results. >> The report below covers the details of the 2008 rendezvous. However, >> before discussing the particulars, let me note that for October >> 2009, we are considering switching to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 >> ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Cook Forest >> State Park for our ENTS fall gathering. Details will be forthcoming. >> >> >> > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org You are subscribed to the Google Groups "ENTSTrees" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
