Forest Stewardship

This paper examines an emerging perspective that describes ecosystems as natural assests that support human health and well-being. The perspective serves as both a conservation approach and an extension of ecosystem management, involving the connection of ecosystem services to the people who benefit, in some cases with an assigned market value. Forest conservation that considers the supply and delivery of ecosystem services will enhance the health and resiliency of ecosystems, engage and serve a broader public, and attract private investment and leadership in a common effort to safeguard natural systems.

Scientists with the USDA Forest Service estimate that between 2009 and 2014, tree cover in the Nation’s urban/community areas declined by 0.7 percent, which translates to losing an estimated 36 million trees or approximately 175,000 acres of tree cover annually.

This publication will explain many of the forestry alternatives available to you. A forester can help you choose the forestry practices best suited to your timberlands, but you must make the business and financial decisions.

Two PowerPoint presentations talking about Sustainable Forest Management and Private Forest Landowner Objectives

Examines the benefits of conserving forests (such as reduced flood risk and improved water quality) and threats to forest conservation, specifically in the American South.

This publication describes stewardship-related-services offered to private woodland owners by public agencies and private organizations in Pennsylvania.

i-Tree is a state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed software suite from the USDA Forest Service that provides urban forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools. It's an easy-to-use, computer-based program that allows communities to conduct and analyze a street tree inventory and evaluate current benefits, costs, and management needs. Communities can analyze the economic benefits of their urban forests with Streets (formerly STRATUM), a street tree management and analysis tool for urban forest managers, which quantifies the dollar value of the urban forest’s annual environmental and aesthetic benefits: energy conservation, air quality improvement, CO2 reduction, stormwater control, and increased property value.

Forest ecosystems will be affected directly and indirectly by a changing climate over the 21st century. This assessment evaluates the vulnerability of 11 forest ecosystems in the Mid-Atlantic region (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, eastern Maryland, and southern New York) under a range of future climates. The report synthesizes and summarizes information on the contemporary landscape, provides information on past climate trends, and describes a range of projected future climates. This information is used to parameterize and run multiple forest impact models, which provides a range of potential tree responses to climate. Finally, these results were brought before two multidisciplinary panels of scientists and land managers familiar with the forests of this region to assess ecosystem vulnerability through a formal consensus-based expert elicitation process.

Provides a detailed description of forests and their benefits; analysis of threats to forest land; and description of various tools municipalities can use to maintain, protect, and restore forests.