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The Ecology and Management of
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Since publication of the Atlantic White-Cedar Best Management Practices Manual (New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection) in 2000, new information has been brought to light, and more experience gained in AWC conservation. Economics and regulations must be taken into account as well as the science. Projects I have done in the past 20 years in New Jersey will illustrate the interaction of science with economics and socio-political constraints in ecological management of white cedar in a variety of initial site conditions and settings including clear-cut of existing stand and subsequent regeneration, conversion to AWC from swamp hardwoods, agriculture conversions, blow-downs, commercial thinning, and harvest of mature stands. Case studies show how these interact with varying landowner objectives and other factors such as threatened and endangered species, disease, local regulations, and economic conditions. To successfully manage AWC on the landscape scale we must first be successful in restoring it on the tens of thousands of acres lost. Given that scale, and the current economic conditions, a practical economic/political management model is needed that uses the science as well as the wisdom gained on a much wider scale and across diverse contexts.
ecological forest management Atlantic white cedar, economics, thinning, case studies, best management practices