The intense debates on the appropriate balance between resource utilization and amenity protection prevalent during the Pinchot-Muir era persist today, but with a new and growing issue as well concern that the world environment is deteriorating, and what this may portend for this and future generations. Forests are seen to have a major life-support role is sustaining planetary health and quality of human life. Current debate continues to focus primarily on the management of publicly-owned lands. Now, with current and evolving legislative and regulatory controls on public lands as a backdrop, more attention is turning to the nation's privately-owned lands and resources. The nation is facing highly-complex forestland management issues on public as well as private lands.
Views are diverse and the debate often contentious.
The Society of American Foresters is sensitive to national concerns about the future management of forest resources, and has been reflecting upon the role of the forestry profession in that future. In 1991, SAF's president appointed a Task Force from the Society's diverse membership to evaluate the ways to assure the long-term health and productivity of the nation's forest resources. This report presents the results of Task Force's deliberations. The Task Force proposes an ecosystem approach to forest management and research that would involve all ownerships at the landscape level. The challenge presented by the Task Force is complex, and practical actions that can be taken in response are as uncertain as the consequences are unknown.