The Ecology and Silviculture of Oaks

The Ecology and Silviculture of Oaks

by P S Johnson, US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service North Central Research Station, Columbia, Missouri, USA; S R Shifley, US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service North Central Research Station, Columbia, Missouri, USA; R Rogers, College of Natural Resources, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA

Pub Date: February 2002
Hardback
528 pages

Readership
Forestry and wildlife management, ecology, silviculture and environmental science.

Main Description
The current trend in managing forests and forested landscapes is away from a narrow focus on sustaining timber and other commodity outputs and toward a broader philosophy of sustaining desired ecosystems. This shift has been wrought by and is consistent with changing social values, scientific advances in ecology, and society’s increasing awareness of environmental problems.
This book is therefore designed and intended as a source of ideas on how to think about oak forests as responsive ecosystems. Divided into two sections, the book focuses on oak ecosystems in the United States as well as providing much application to other regions such as Europe and the Mediterranean. The first section includes chapters on the ecological characteristics and distribution of oak species and the various kinds of oak forests in the United States, differences among them and how they have been classified. The second section includes chapters on site productivity, stand development, silviculture, and growth and yield.

Reviews
• "Paul Johnson, Stephen Shifley and Robert Rogers have performed a tremendous service to the forestry community, and the hardwood forestry community in particular. The authors present concepts in a way that managers can immediately recognize and relate to a particular situation or event in their professional experience. The book sparked in me questions and observations that I quickly noted, sending me down further paths of query and answer. All books should be so inspiring! I certainly recommend the book for managers and researchs as an essential part of their library."
Forest Science, October 2003
• "This book accompanies the current trend in managing forests which is away from a narrow focus on timber production and towards a broader philosophy of sustaining ecosystems, and is to be welcomed."
Agroforestry News, July 2002

Main Contents
Part I: Ecology
• Oak-dominated ecosystems
• Regeneration ecology I. Flowering, fruiting and reproduction characteristics
• Regeneration ecology II. Population dynamics
Part II: Site productivity and stand development
• Site productivity
• Development of natural stands
• Self-thinning and stand density
Part III: Silviculture, growth and yield
• Even-aged silvicultural methods
• Uneven-aged silvicultural methods
• Silvicultural methods for multi-resource management
• Growth and yield