Why not let nature grow high-quality wood?

We now know that nature wants to grow high-quality wood - but we won't let it.

Natural-systems forestry is based on a novel idea - forests, if managed properly, can actually be restored and improved. This idea flies in the face of centuries of forest exploitation which has degraded timber supply, forest habitats and ecological processes.

Maximizing productivity, meaning growth in volume, is the summum bonum, the highest good, of conventional forest management. On the assumption that natural forests are the problem, this means removal of all trees, then starting over again. This kind of reasoning justifies the familiar clearcut, burn-and-plant regime. Too bad, because this one-dimensional paradigm of "scientific" forestry is counter productive in many ways.

To the silvicultural forester, good forestry is all about maintaining the right proportion of the forest's growing stock to best achieve the purposes and conditions of management.