The Story of Pencils Lesson Plan: Activity 5 - What is a Sustained Yield Forest?

Careful sustained-yield management of our forests has enabled the United States to meet our needs for wood and paper, while maintaining the forests for use by future generations.

The proffesional foresters who manage timberlands around the United States develop timber harvest and management plans that consider many important aspects of the forests. This includes the growing conditions and tree growth rates related to climate, terrain and soils in addition to preservation of wildlife habitat and of watersheds represented by streams, rivers and lakes. These management plans also consider the mix of different species of trees, the most appropriate harvesting methods to be used, which trees to harvest from which area of the forest and when each area should be harvested. Finally, a very important part of a management plan is the reforestation plan to guide the planting of new trees.

A forest management plan that balances well the growth and harvest rates throughout a forest is said to be managed on a sustained-yield basis. Such a forest is called a sustained-yield forestⁱ. Most forests in the United States and other developed countries with a long history of forestry are sustained-yield forests as is the case with Incense-cedarⁱ.

In many poor and less developed regions of the world, particularly those with tropical rainforests, there has been a substantial level of destruction of forests due to overharvesting. These forests have not been managed on a sustained-yield basis. There are many reasons for this overharvesting. Some is becasue of the need to generate income and jobs in these countries which are very poor so they cut trees down faster than they can grow. Some is because forests are burned and converted to other agricultural uses to plant food. Most countries have put in regulations and laws similar to our own to protect forests for the long term, however many people break the law due to the failure of these governments to enforce their own rules. Some of these tropical woods are produced into pencils as well as into other products like furniture.

Looking for the Genuine Incense-cedar markⁱ is one way to make sure that the pencils you buy are comming from well managed sustained-yield forests.

In recent years many environmentalists have claimed that managing for a sustained-yield forest is not enough, but that the forest must also be well managed to assure all the diversity of animals, birds, fish, trees and plants are preserved. These groups also claim social concerns of people who live in and around forests and to a large part make their living from them are also important consideration. SO not just the forest yield, but the habitat, wildlife and way of living should be sustainable as well. Towards these goals there have been new colaborative groups which have formed to establish a system of third party inspection called "Forest Certificationⁱ" to make sure forests are managed to these higher standards.

Click here to learn more about Forest Certification.

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