Sustainable Forestry in California

After decades, nearly a century, of clear-cutting and eroding the redwood forests of California, there is a movement towards sustainable forestry. National Geographic has an article, The Tallest Trees, about Michael Fay's recent transect of the forests. In a companion article, The Redwoods Point the Way, Michael Fay writes about how this is a model of sustainable forestry for all the forests of the world. From Fay's essay:

All along the transect I met foresters, owners, and loggers who talk as if they've discovered the holy grail of redwood management. People like Jim Able, Jim Greig, and Ed Tunheim who have found a way to bring vigor back to this ecosystem—and stay in business at the same time. What they're learning, and how they're applying that knowledge, can serve as a blue­print for the entire redwood range. Their ability to supply large amounts of lumber for humanity and improve ecosystem function is an approach that should be adopted around the world.

And how it works:

In brief: These veteran foresters are carrying out a form of single-tree selection that is more productive in the long term than clear-cutting. Every 10 to 15 years they take about a third of the timber in a stand, going for the least robust trees—the runts, as Jim Able calls them. This creates more open space, allowing the remain­ing trees to get a greater share of the sunlight, which speeds their growth. Every year the amount and quality of the standing wood increase, and because regeneration happens gradually, the process can proceed for centuries. The advan­tages are twofold: short-term income and a larger payback over the long term.

Overall, he's making the case for avoiding single-age stands of trees and clear-cutting. If this does lead to more productive, healthier forests, then I hope it is used as a model for other forests, and maybe we can have our forests, and our lumber too.